Leica Weirdest coincidence, J3 works on a Zorki1 ??

[helinophoto]

Heh...

Last year, I was struggling to open and adjust my Jupiter-3 lens, so I could adjust it to my Leica's. You can read the story here.
I ended up with some kind of bastardized J3, consisting of parts from two different Jupter-3 lenses.

I never could shorten the focal on that one, to a point where I could confidently use it on my Leica's, so I adjusted it to be spot on for 3 meters, but never really used it, because of lack of confidence in the lens. (like, was I using it to it's fullest potential, would I be better off just using my Leica-lenses? etc).

Anyway, the lens has been gathering dust for a good while and here the other day, I thought I should really use that lens, since I put so much time, effort and money into it.

But not on my Leica.

I have a zorki1 (d?) with an Industar-22 which performs flawlessly and I was thinking that maybe that camera was adjusted closer to the Leica-standard, since it was from the 50's.

So I mounted my leica-so-so adjusted Jupiter-3 and took it for a spin and lo and behold, it's, for some weird reason, spot on on all lengths on my Zorki now, at f1.5????

Weirdest thing I've experienced so far, haha! ^^

Here are some test-shots, first a web-sized full-frame, then a full-pixel crop.

Remember, all of these are wide open at f1.5.
Film is Kodak Vision3 50D, they are not 100% correct concerning color. They are not sharpened, I've adjusted the white-balance so they look normal'ish, and set the black-point to get normal contrast, other than that, nothing.
Scanned on my Nikon coolscan V with ICE enabled.

So weird:

Focusing on the closest bike from 1, around 3 and around 8 meters.

Focusing on the lady with the red and black jacket.

Focusing on the lady in the grey jacket

Focusing on the sitting man with the backpack

Focusing on the yellow route-number on the red bus

Just goes to show, even if you are not able to adjust the Jupiter-3 completely to the Leica-standard, it may indeed work on any of your other cameras from the FSU. ^^

So don't throw it in a drawer and forget about it.

I think it's safe to say I can use this lens with confidence now, performance wide open is pretty damn good if you shoot fairly close up, evening and night-shots at f1.5 are fully possible. I like my zorki and use it often, the cheap *clank* from the shutter and the fact that it's smaller than my Leica IIIf makes it all the more fun to shoot with, it works very well.

Further away, it seems that it shows that the lens isn't resolving tons of details at f1.5, but it's kind of unfair to push the lens and film that hard, it's also hard to tell, because at very close crops from distance subjects, even the Vision3 has grain.

When one look at the full-frame shots, showing the whole photo, it's clear that the lens is fully usable at f1.5 at all distances, as long as one doesn't plan on making extreme enlargements.

The vignetting is ok by be, I often create extra vignetting when I print B&W in the darkroom anyway, I think it helps keeping the focus on the subject and I generally like the subtle effect.

How will the focus behave at f2 and f4? There is a focus shift here, but won't the focus just become deeper, or will it also shift further away (that is, will subjects at focus at f1.5 become out of focus at f4?).

 

[Brian]

The focus shift for a film camera is not noticeable- but will be towards infinity.

The Russian lenses and Russian film cameras are made to the Zeiss standard, nominal 52.4mm +/- 1% allowed for tolerances. I calibrated my Zorki 3M Rangefinder for a Nikkor 5cm F2. The shape of the RF follower on the Zorki is a "Finger", not a wheel. On several RF cams of Leica standard lenses, the RF cam is thin and this can cause problems. The finger will slip under the RF cam of some lenses, such as the 5cm F1.5 Summarit.

Shoot and be Happy!

 

[helinophoto]

Thanks

Hopefully, the depth of field increase will mask the shift concerning things that are already in focus, since the lens improves greatly at f2 - f4.

Well, it seems that my Zorki 1 is closer to Leica than Zeiss, my Zorki 4K (which is a real dog in every sense) seems typical Zeiss, nothing works properly on it, apart from the lens it came with
I just found the whole experience funny, since the Jupiter-3 is already adjusted to be 'fair' on my M6.

I suppose I could try testing the Industar-22 on the Leicas, since it originally sat on my Zorki 1, it should be pretty close to Leica-standard as well it seems.

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

I suppose I could try testing the Industar-22 on the Leicas, since it originally sat on my Zorki 1, it should be pretty close to Leica-standard as well it seems.

I guess you're right, and it's worth a try.
AFAIK, before they've implemented the ZEISS standard in the Soviet Union, they used LEICA standard (for their FED und Zorki); I don't know the exact point of time, when they switched, and there may be probably some overlap when they've used both standards, I presume?

 

[Brian]

I suspect the switch to the Zeiss standard came just after WW-II ended, probably with the "ZK" Sonnars. My 1949 ZK Sonnar 5cm F1.5 has Zeiss SN's internally, but had to be shimmed for my Leica.

Film cameras are more forgiving of focus shift until you really blow things up or use a Loupe, Digital Pixel-Peeping is required to really notice it. After I got the M8: I had to nail the shim within 0.01mm. I will ask people whether they shoot Film, color-digital, or Monochrome with a contrast filter before shimming a lens.