LZOS Jupiter-9 85mm f2

So pleased with my first Soviet M42 lens purchase, a 1978 Helios 44M, I decided to take the plunge & buy another piece of Soviet glass.

The Jupiter-9 is an 85mm f2, a focal length classically used for portraiture. After the 1.54x crop factor of an APS-C sensor the effective focal length is 131mm, making it an ideal replacement for the common 135mm f2.8. Designed for portraiture, images are understandably soft wide open, but quickly sharpen as you stop down; the beneath was taken at f4. Really need to take it out & do some actual portraiture mind.

I wasn’t quite so lucky with the serial number this time, getting a 1991 sample. Those who know Soviet history will recall that the USSR collapsed in 1991 & as the rumours of this collapse circulated there was an understandable drop in the quality of output from state-subsidised optical plants like KMZ & its satellite plant LZOS. Still, whilst this particular sample may not be optically as good as some of the earlier, chromed samples, the build quality is still superb & the rings are some of the smoothest I have felt. Incidentally, this is the first pre-set aperture lens I have used; there are two aperture rings, one to set what aperture you want & a second to actually stop down. So you set the aperture you want with the first ring, focus wide open & then stop down with the second ring before taking the shot.