[scratchpaddy]

My Industar 50-2 finally arrived today. Ordered on 2/26/21.

Neat looking little lens. Looking forward to shooting with it soon.

Any pictures yet?

This morning was unusually gloomy, with spits of rain disturbing the dust without really cooling it down or getting anything wet. On my walk with the dogs, I took the Industar-22, the predecessor to the -50. The optics are basically identical, but it has a collapsible body imitating the Leitz Elmar. It's my oldest lens, from 1951.

The vignetting is because of the expanded metal fence I was shooting through, with holes even smaller than the Industar's tiny front element.

[djb47]

Any pictures yet?

I've taken a few. You can see them here: Industar 50-2 ? ImgBB

[MXLX]

Helios 44-2



Olympus Pen-F Processed from RAW. f2.8 @ 1/400

[moggi1964]

Helios 44-2



Olympus Pen-F Processed from RAW. f2.8 @ 1/400

I feel like I can reach out and touch it. Beautiful shot.

[moggi1964]

I just ordered a replacement Helios 44-2 from Helios-Lens.com in Russia.

I packaged my old one with a Spotmatic I just sold as I find it easier to move a camera on eBay if it has a lens attached.

I'll let you know when it arrives, should be in a week or so.

[scratchpaddy]

Zenitar 50mm f/1.7... I'm not sure how I feel about this lens. From a technical perspective, it's much better than the German designs from the '20's and '30's that the Soviets based much of their lenses on. It also lacks those lenses' vintage character.

Introduced in the late-70's with a modern double-gauss design, it falls into a very crowded category of excellent, affordable nifty-fifties with names like Zuiko, Takumar, or Rokkor, with little to distinguish it beyond ineffective coatings and miserable build quality. It's not a bad lens at all. It's just that its competitors are so good.

Still... it's a fun lens to use once in a while.





The lens formula is very similar to the Takumar 55mm f/1.8. Sharpness is about the same (both excellent), but the Zenitar's rendering is a little grittier. Contrast is less, and flare makes colors vary wildly depending on how light is hitting the lens, sometimes red, sometimes blue, sometimes both at once.

[scratchpaddy]

In 1932, Zeiss Ikon (their now-defunct camera-making devision) introduced the Contax, a rangefinder with an odd dual-bayonet mount. Wide-angle and telephoto lenses mounted to the external bayonet and functioned just like lenses on any other camera. Normal lenses, however, did not feature a focusing mechanism in the lens. Instead, they attached to the camera's internal bayonet, which had a helicoid built in to the camera.

In 1947, the Soviets began producing a copy of this camera at their Arsenal plant in Kiev, creatively calling it the "Kiev". They also produced two other rangefinder lines, Zorki and Fed, using the more conventional M39 Leica Thread Mount, or "LTM". But the Kiev cameras, with their odd mount, continued for decades, long after Zeiss gave up on making their own cameras.

Anyone who's searched eBay for Soviet lenses has probably noticed odd-looking, cheaper versions of lenses "for Kiev/Contax". The fact that the focusing is done in the camera makes adapting them to modern cameras difficult, and the dual-bayonet thing is just confusing. Nearly all Soviet rangefinder lenses had both LTM and Kiev-mount versions, so it's easy to just stick to the threaded ones, which will always work fine with a dirt-cheap, simple adapter.

The only exception is the Helios-103 53mm f/1.8, introduced in the late-70's as the new standard lens for the Kiev-4M. There is no LTM version of this lens, and it requires the use of the inner-bayonet focusing mechanism built in to the Kiev camera. Fortunately, some eBay sellers in Ukraine are gutting old, broken-down Kiev cameras and combining the relevant parts to generic adapters for the rangefinder's modern replacement: mirrorless cameras. They sell these crude-but-functional adapters for about $40 shipped, and for $10 or $20 more they will include a lens, such as the Helios 103, as a "free gift".

One of these arrived in my mailbox from Kharkiv on Saturday. I'm not sure anyone ever used this copy of the lens since it was made in 1984. It looks brand-new.



Despite its tiny size, it uses the same "planar" 6-lens-in-4-groups formula as all Helios lenses. Its rendering is very similar to the Helios-44.



A little test indoors the night before showed that the lens is razor-sharp in the center even at f/1.8. Further testing the following morning showed that the lens is sharp nowhere else at this aperture, even when accounting for the strong field curvature, with some of the "glow" you might expect from a lens formula which had changed little since 1896.






The background rendering actually softens at f/2.8, with the highlights losing their bright, hard edges.



It's a cool little lens I just had to try, but for others I'd say it's not really worth the hassle of the weird mount when the Helios-44 already exists, unless you're in the market for a rangefinder Jupiter-9. The price difference between a Kiev and M39 Jupiter 9 is less than the cost of one of these adapters, even with the lens.

[moggi1964]

I just ordered a replacement Helios 44-2 from Helios-Lens.com in Russia.

I packaged my old one with a Spotmatic I just sold as I find it easier to move a camera on eBay if it has a lens attached.

I'll let you know when it arrives, should be in a week or so.

Wow!

This lens looks like it just came off the factory production line on a very good day. Smooth focus and aperture rings and it just doesn't have a mark on it anywhere.

Still need to get out and take some pics but I can tell you this was worth every penny in looks and operation alone.

[Andrew_Oid]

In 1932, Zeiss Ikon (their now-defunct camera-making devision) introduced the Contax, a rangefinder with an odd dual-bayonet mount. Wide-angle and telephoto lenses mounted to the external bayonet and functioned just like lenses on any other camera. Normal lenses, however, did not feature a focusing mechanism in the lens. Instead, they attached to the camera's internal bayonet, which had a helicoid built in to the camera.

In 1947, the Soviets began producing a copy of this camera at their Arsenal plant in Kiev, creatively calling it the "Kiev". They also produced two other rangefinder lines, Zorki and Fed, using the more conventional M39 Leica Thread Mount, or "LTM". But the Kiev cameras, with their odd mount, continued for decades, long after Zeiss gave up on making their own cameras.

Anyone who's searched eBay for Soviet lenses has probably noticed odd-looking, cheaper versions of lenses "for Kiev/Contax". The fact that the focusing is done in the camera makes adapting them to modern cameras difficult, and the dual-bayonet thing is just confusing. Nearly all Soviet rangefinder lenses had both LTM and Kiev-mount versions, so it's easy to just stick to the threaded ones, which will always work fine with a dirt-cheap, simple adapter.

The only exception is the Helios-103 53mm f/1.8, introduced in the late-70's as the new standard lens for the Kiev-4M. There is no LTM version of this lens, and it requires the use of the inner-bayonet focusing mechanism built in to the Kiev camera. Fortunately, some eBay sellers in Ukraine are gutting old, broken-down Kiev cameras and combining the relevant parts to generic adapters for the rangefinder's modern replacement: mirrorless cameras. They sell these crude-but-functional adapters for about $40 shipped, and for $10 or $20 more they will include a lens, such as the Helios 103, as a "free gift".

One of these arrived in my mailbox from Kharkiv on Saturday. I'm not sure anyone ever used this copy of the lens since it was made in 1984. It looks brand-new.



Despite its tiny size, it uses the same "planar" 6-lens-in-4-groups formula as all Helios lenses. Its rendering is very similar to the Helios-44.



A little test indoors the night before showed that the lens is razor-sharp in the center even at f/1.8. Further testing the following morning showed that the lens is sharp nowhere else at this aperture, even when accounting for the strong field curvature, with some of the "glow" you might expect from a lens formula which had changed little since 1896.






The background rendering actually softens at f/2.8, with the highlights losing their bright, hard edges.



It's a cool little lens I just had to try, but for others I'd say it's not really worth the hassle of the weird mount when the Helios-44 already exists, unless you're in the market for a rangefinder Jupiter-9. The price difference between a Kiev and M39 Jupiter 9 is less than the cost of one of these adapters, even with the lens.

Two days ago I bought a Kiev 3 camera with light meter and 50mm f2 Sonnar Jupiter 8 (red P) lens manufactured and sold together in 1956 when I was five years old. They came with the leather case, manual, yellow filter, lens cap and cable release, were described as excellent and look hardly used in the photos. One of the first things I did was look for an adapter for Sony e mount, and I found yesterday just what Scratchpaddy found, adapter, lens and lens cap for under $40 with shipping. I've always had an interest in rangefinder cameras, though not the budget for the West German and better Japanese ones. If I can find a good lab to develop the film, it could be the completion of a circle, though I'll never abandon digital.

[djb47]

From the garden with the K30/Industar 50-2

[moggi1964]

A Jupiter 11 dropped into my lap (my second) but this is one of the silver M39 threaded mount ones. My other is the M42 black one that looks quite different.

I have an adapter arriving on Thursday so i will take it out for a spin and decide which of the two to keep. Updates will follow.

[scratchpaddy]

A Jupiter 11 dropped into my lap (my second) but this is one of the silver M39 threaded mount ones. My other is the M42 black one that looks quite different.

I have an adapter arriving on Thursday so i will take it out for a spin and decide which of the two to keep. Updates will follow.

I always go for the silver versions. They just look so cool! The Zenit M39 mount was built 0.2mm closer to the film plane than M42, so the lens will fall very slightly short of infinity focus. Stopping down is enough to make it unnoticeable.


Of course, this is only if you got an SLR version! You probably know what you're doing, but in case someone is reading this who doesn't know, the same M39 thread was more commonly used for rangefinders, where it was known as Leica Thread Mount (LTM) . A handful of lenses (Jupiter 11 is one of them) are available in both the Zenit M39 and LTM versions. The LTM versions are noticeably longer to account for the dramatically shorter mount. They will physically attach to an SLR camera, but will function like they're on an extension tube, with only very close focus possible.

[moggi1964]

I always go for the silver versions. They just look so cool! The Zenit M39 mount was built 0.2mm closer to the film plane than M42, so the lens will fall very slightly short of infinity focus. Stopping down is enough to make it unnoticeable.


Of course, this is only if you got an SLR version! You probably know what you're doing, but in case someone is reading this who doesn't know, the same M39 thread was more commonly used for rangefinders, where it was known as Leica Thread Mount (LTM) . A handful of lenses (Jupiter 11 is one of them) are available in both the Zenit M39 and LTM versions. The LTM versions are noticeably longer to account for the dramatically shorter mount. They will physically attach to an SLR camera, but will function like they're on an extension tube, with only very close focus possible.

Thank you for the extra info.

The latter especially is a very good point to raise and it was only by doing a bit of research when I got it that I discovered that nugget of information. Definitely worth bringing to the fore in this thread.

The adapter doesn't arrive till tomorrow and I'm becoming impatient; Amazon Prime has spoiled me.

here's a few snaps with the phone.

[moggi1964]

Alright, so forgive the choice of subject but I nipped out to the garden to quickly take a couple of snaps as the adapter arrived a day early. It was quite overcast but light enough and I shot at F/3.5.

This is a JPG conversion from RAW with no sharpening or PP of any kind. It was shot on my EM1 MkII and I can tell you that at 220% magnification I am very happy with the level of sharpness retained in the writing on the red underwear.

[scratchpaddy]

Very vivid underwear, too. That logo means your lens was made at KOMZ, in Kazan. Looks like most Jupiter 11's were made there, except for the "automat" version made for the bizarre Kiev-10 camera, assembled at Arsenal in Kiev. The KOMZ factory is still in operation, mostly building scientific and military optics.