[stevebrot]

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It was a few days ago I was looking on eBay, but I'll probably look again in the next day or two and I'll happily post the links then - hope that's OK

EDIT: Actually, here's one to be getting on with: Rare Silver HELIOS 44 KMZ 2/58 mm M39 M42 USSR lens 13 blades | eBay

Ha! That one is really polished up! I don't think it looked like that new. The lens finish was probably more similar to that of the mid-1960s Zenit E body it was originally sold with. Here is one in more typical condition showing original finish.


Image lifted from the manual focus forum (mflenses.com)

One of the better sites for sampling the variety of FSU cameras and lenses used to be Soviet Cams. The site owner has lost interest and is no longer maintaining the content and the server is often down.

http://www.sovietcams.com

As you may have guessed, it is difficult to find reliable information about the wide variation of former Soviet cameras and lenses. I have dabbled for several years in that space and have yet to find a Web site that is authoritative and complete. Jean Loup Princelle's "Russian and Soviet Cameras" is the recognized print authority, but the book is hard to find.


Steve

[D1N0]

shiny aluminum lenses won't stay shiny long as the top layer will oxidize. So if you keep polishing in the end there is no lens tube left.

[rjm007]

Here are a couple I bought recently.


An early Jupiter 8 not sold as CLAed but it does look remarkably clean for it's age - mid 50's model. If it has been cleaned they could have done a better job of it. The aperture ring is skittesh and the focus ring is a bit "lumpy". Optically - looks pretty sound so I'm not complaining - it was cheap :-)



This Jupiter 11 looks surprisingly clean as it wasn't listed as CLAed. Normally you'd expect either a little or lot of yellow laquer peel and some are positively pitted now. Much better aperture and focus movement. I'm sure (given comparison with others) that this has been cleaned and polished to within an inch of it's life. I'm pretty sure the laquer has been removed

[D1N0]

My non polished jupiter 11 looks like this

[BigMackCam]

Here is one in more typical condition showing original finish....
...

As you may have guessed, it is difficult to find reliable information about the wide variation of former Soviet cameras and lenses. I have dabbled for several years in that space and have yet to find a Web site that is authoritative and complete. Jean Loup Princelle's "Russian and Soviet Cameras" is the recognized print authority, but the book is hard to find.

Here are a couple I bought recently.

An early Jupiter 8 not sold as CLAed but it does look remarkably clean for it's age - mid 50's model.

...

This Jupiter 11 looks surprisingly clean as it wasn't listed as CLAed. Normally you'd expect either a little or lot of yellow laquer peel and some are positively pitted now. Much better aperture and focus movement. I'm sure (given comparison with others) that this has been cleaned and polished to within an inch of it's life. I'm pretty sure the laquer has been removed

My non polished jupiter 11 looks like this

These are great examples... so, to me three of those look exactly as I'd hope them to look; at most, they look like they've been cleaned occasionally and have varying degrees of honest pitting / corrosion from years of normal use. The second lens (Jupiter 11) from @rjm007 looks, as described, like it has been heavily cleaned and polished - that said, it's one of the most thorough jobs I've seen, and I like it

[Na Horuk]

Ha! That one is really polished up! I don't think it looked like that new. The lens finish was probably more similar to that of the mid-1960s Zenit E body it was originally sold with. Here is one in more typical condition showing original finish.

I have one of those m39 silver Helios 44 lenses, and it looks just like in the photo you provided. It is far from the polished ones you can see on ebays. Some of those look almost chrome plated.
A giveaway of too much polishing is that the number engravings become thinner/disappear (or have to be re-painted), as does the texture on the focusing and aperture ring.