Latest Review Posted | Jupiter-37A 135mm F3.5 This is a great lens for some purposes, in particular headshots. It is so common, you can probably find it for less than I did, and then, it is great value, too.
Flaring is a bit annoying and, sharpness is ok at the center to poor at the borders and, at least my copy, has ridiculous amounts of coma and astigmatism. This makes this lens, IMO, unsuitable for e.g. wildlife, but at the same time gives it a very nice character for some other uses, like outdoors portraits.
Build quality is a two edged sword with this thing: First, if you drop the camera lens first, you are more likely to break the camera mount than any part of the lens -- it is pure thick (1mm at least) soviet metal. On the other hand, the precision of the focusing helicoid is so-so. Which leads to some handling issues. My copy's focusing ring tightens when focusing away. You may need to clean it if it has been sitting in a shelf for too long.
All in all, I recommend this lens, as long as you know its limitations, and don't expect it to be your all-around tele. |