The double essence of Jupiter-9

[LLB!]

My copy of Jupiter consists of two parts. Each of them works in the opposite direction. Apertures 2-2.8 transmit what is visible through the fogged glass, starting from the number 5.6 to 11 you can respect the lens. So, I have two lenses in one case. Or I have a defective copy. The first 3 images are aperture 2, the remaining 8-16 and male face 8 used flash.

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[Ultrapix]

My copy is cleaner and sharper already wide open than yours is at 1:2, so, yes, maybe your copy could be not the best one around

[Alex TG]

[y]

Yea, this is normal behavior of many Jupiter-9s - mainly the black-finish ones.

[LLB!]

[Alex TG]

[LLB!]

[KEO]

Both my silver 1959 KMZ and my silver 1962 LZOS are sharp at f/2.

[LLB!]

[kymarto]

Nothing is fogged, this is the result of residual spherical aberration, which creates blooming around contrast transitions. It could either be the result of variations in the radii of the glass elements, due to poor workmanship and loose tolerances, or perhaps of decentering of elements. It is certainly true that Russian factories often had poor quality control.

[fiftyonepointsix]

[calvin83]

I had two J-9 from 1951. Both of them are as sharp as CZJ Sonnar.



Crop @F2.0, click to enlarge.

[LLB!]

[LLB!]

[LLB!]

[iangreenhalgh1]

There's no mystery here, the Sonnar 2/85 design is soft until closed to f4, it's largely due to spherical aberration and was a deliberate design choice as the main purpose of the lens was portraits.

With the jupiter-9, a good copy is sharp at f4, a lesser copy isn't sharp until f5.6.

[Gerald]

Jupiter 9 uses a classic Sonnar design, whose aberration correction degrades rapidly for close distances and large apertures as used in the first three photos. Obviously, for small apertures (F5.6, F8, etc.), the aberrations are greatly reduced and the image quality improves considerably, but this is normal with almost all old design lenses.

[Ultrapix]

The photo of the bird clearly show the sharpness (in the center, of course), to be expected from a good copy of Jupiter (tipically an old silver one) at 1:2 or so. Mine has a similar quality, but I have seen others just like the first samples of the opener. Same with the 85mm 1:2, I only had soft copies, but I have seen much better samples on line.

The attached pic has been taken with a Leica M8, wide open; no sharpening on PP

[Ultrapix]

...and this is a crop 100% slightly sharpened. Please note the aubergine color on the black hat

[LLB!]

[Ultrapix]

[quote="LLB!"]

[iangreenhalgh1]

That hat clearly isn't black, so the original image is much better.

[Gerald]

[fiftyonepointsix]

I found a used 49mm IR cut filter for $5, back when the M9 was new and people were dumping them. I bought several 52mm Hot Mirror filters for $5 each. I use these for lenses with a lot of CA with the M9 as well.

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Focus on the Leaf- no IR contamination.

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Wide-Open. This J-9 was made with glass from a 1950s KMZ transplanted into a later barrel, where I moved the rear group in to reduce the focal length. This brought it into better agreement with the Rangefinder of the M8.

All wide-open, on the M8 using the IR cut filter.

[fiftyonepointsix]

THESE are with a Canon 85/2 on the M8, to show the effects of shooting without an IR filter.


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SO- the Hat in the image is Black in visible, and bright IR. The M8 has a 5% IR leakage.