Jupiter-21A, a nice gem

Time for some more vintage Russian lenses. The Jupiter-21A from KMZ, a quite rare 200/4 Sonnar design as opposed to the common Jupter 21M version.

Some time ago I acquired a very cheap Jupiter-21M with a tiny bubble in the massive front glass and broken A/M switch. Nothing that affected the IQ at all, but when a Jupiter 21A surfaced for peanuts, I grabbed it and sold the 21M. Why?
The 21M is a quite large and heavy lens. It is nevertheless very beautiful, with perfect proportions and lovely IQ, very sharp and silky smooth OOF rendering with almost gaussian bokeh highlights. The 21A came out in 1968 and the 21M in 1973, but they share the same optical design and the older one is fitted into a smaller and lighter body that also incorporates the preferred pre set aperture operation.

Here you have them side by side before I parted with one of them:

Jupiter-21A and Jupiter 21M

The 21M weighs in at 1 kg and the 21A at 750g. Both has built in retractable lens hoods and are most common with M42 mount. The common 21M version can easily be had in mint condition for less than 40 Euros on the bay and must be one of the absolutely best price/performance vintage bargains one can make. It is still in production and sells as new for 100 Euros or so. As earlier stated, the IQ is very good and it has very good control over CA or PF as compared to the competitors from the same era (Carl Zeiss Jena, Pentacon, Asahi Pentax, etc). The Jupiter is a good alternative to the legendary Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180/2.8 or 200/2.8 due to IQ, weight, MFD, cost and less mechanical iris breakdowns, it is of course slower at wide open though.

Warning: Although multi coated and equipped with a sun hood, the jupiter is not very good against the light in some angles. Especially not the 21M version. This is due to internal reflections inside the lens barrel.

Tweak: The 21M has a large flat piece of metal close to the mount that can reflect light straight onto the sensor, which washes out all contrast in the image. It can be painted matte black, or glue some black velour fabric onto it to improve the performance.

Now some images, as usual wide open or thereabout. First out is a portrait of a dog named Ketchup.

Jupiter-21A, Ketchup.

Then we take a look at the clock.

Jupiter-21A, what time is it?

Beautiful greens and bokeh.

This lens is quite handy for walk around photography when a little bit more reach is wanted.

Jupiter-21A, pavement

Now let's check out the distance capability.

Jupiter-21A with stacked TCs, critically sharp moon shot.

The lens is also critically sharp at infinity. Although used with stacked low budget TCs (tele converters) the dimples of the moon has very good definition, even viewed in original resolution. I have tried to do this again some times. I'm very thorough with using a stable tripod, mirror lock up and remote trigger, but is never seem to get this good again. Perhaps the atmospheric disturbances were very low that lucky night.

Spring flowers with Helios 44-3 MC

Last week there was spring in the air. The earliest flowers to pop up was the Scilla Forbesii. So I grabbed the chance and captured some blue color with the Helios 44-3 MC.

Some images of the lens itself.

Helios 44-3 MC front

Helios 44-3 MC 8-bladed iris

Helios 44-3 with pre set rings

Most of the Helios lenses were made by KMZ (Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory) or JOV (Jupiter Optics Valdai) and had a slightly different naming syntax that can be confusing when shopping for them. The 44-3 from MMZ-BelOMO (Minsk Mechanical Factory-Belorussian Optical Mechanical Association) has a different look and more blades in the iris than the others from the same era. It also kept the pre set operation that is very neat with modern digital cameras.

Pre set lenses have two aperture control rings, one with click stops where you set the wanted aperture first, without stopping down the iris. Then you turn the other ring to smoothly close the iris down to the pre set value just before the exposure. It won't go past the pre set value and lets you keep concentration of the composition in stead of the camera. It also reduces camera shake and you are free to stop the closing down at a wider aperture than the stop value if that suits you better on the fly.

Just remember one thing if you start looking for the Helios 44-3 MC. There can be compatibility issues with your camera adapter. On some lenses, the bottom part of the focusing ring protrudes backwards further than the stop flange of the M42 mounting thread. So when it is screwed on to the M42 adapter, the focusing ring will be the first part to mate and thus be jammed tight. This is easily fixed if you have access to a lathe to machine away a millimeter of the ring. On the image above you can see one of the mounting screws for the focusing ring. Just unscrew these and take it away for modification, it is as simple as that. If you don't have these skills in the workshop, be sure to ask for images of the lens rear from the side to judge if the lens will work on you camera or not. Have a look at this forum thread regarding this issue for a nice illustration http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/77158-caution-helios-44-fans-potential-buyers.html.

Now some flowers. Scilla Forbesii, earlier categorized as a part of the Chiondoxa family.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC. Swirly bokeh used wide open.

The swirly bokeh (swirly background blur that looks as if was watched through the bottom of a bottle) comes from the old lens design with low correction of spherical aberration. Some people love it and some are not that fond of it. Below is one more sample.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC. Swirly bokeh used wide open.

Now, if you don't fancy the swirly bokeh, it is easy to get rid of with this lens, see below.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC. Swirly bokeh gone by f/2.8.

As you can see, the swirliness is totally gone just by stopping down the aperture from f/2 to f/2.8.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC.

The lens can render a nice amount of 3D-pop with high micro contrast and sharpness. So it is not only a bokeh marvel, rather a versatile walk around lens.

Now I tried some macro extension tubes to get the minimum focusing distance shorter and the result is really good. The pre set operation lets you select DOF and bokeh simply through the viewfinder. Just turn the smooth close down ring and see how the image transforms in front of your eyes. This is of course not possible with small apertures since the image will be very dark but it works great roughly  between f/2 and f/8.

Scilla Forbesii with Helios 44-3 MC on macro tubes.

With a few centimeters of extension tubes the lens has a life size macro capability i.e. 1:1 magnification ratio. 1:1 ratio is had when the image you are capturing is projected on the sensor at the same size as the object itself. So if the flower is 1 cm wide, it would occupy 1 cm of the sensor width. Think about this as the name macro often is misused by the lens manufacturers. A kit zoom or camera that has the name macro printed on it usually has a magnification ratio of only 1:5 to 1:3 somewhere. That is not macro, rather just close up capability. This cropped image is captured at roughly 1:2 magnification.

Vega-11U, enlargement lens for macro

If you want to do cheap macro or close up work you can always reverse mount any normal lens, like a kit zoom, or better a fix focus wide angle lens. But if you want that extra quality there is need for a special macro lens or a substitute with a flat field curvature. This can be had in an enlargement lens. These can be had for pennies since the 70-th boom of home made film development and copying is building a heap of unused stuff in the attics of every second home. Back in the 70-th, all saunas in Sweden suddenly became dark rooms in the evenings for the photo enthusiasts. Those were the days.

Since I like cheap manual lenses and especially the vintage Russian ones, I bought a used Vega-11U (Bera-11Y) enlargement lens the other day for a macro project. It costed me 20 Euros and it was in mint condition with all boxes and paperwork still there. They can surely be had for less, many are traded on the bay for 5 Euros plus P&P.

So, why did I select this lens?
-Very cheap as compared to a dedicated macro lens
-Sharp indeed, 5 elements in 4 groups design that competes with expansive stuff from EL-Nikkor and such.
-Quite fast and a good working distance for macro on a DSLR with its 50mm f/2.8.
-10 blades in the iris for nice and round OOF highlights
-Simple attachment to my DSLR. Using a step up ring from the 39mm to 42mm threads and a M42 lens adapter. I can also add macro tubes after need for higher magnification.

There is no focusing helicoid since the focus was set by the enlargers DON-103 (ДОН-103) and DON-110 (ДОН-110). Is this a problem? Well it depends. For normal photography yes, it is more or less unusable. For close ups and macro no, shooting at high magnification is best done by setting the magnification at the wanted ratio and then move the camera or subject in relation to each other until the correct focus is had. The only thing I can miss with a vintage lens for macro is the auto aperture stopping down of a modern AF lens.


Normally, a 50mm macro lens is giving a very short working distance on a DSLR, but those are normally shifting focal length while doing close focusing, the enlargement lens does not.

So this is what it looks like.

Vega-11U, tiny thing, roughly 45x45mm

The lens has no CA (Chromatic Aberration) or PF (purple fringing) whatsoever due to its classic anastigmatic design. Look at this CA torture test shot I made before buying the lens. This is a very important quality in macro shooting, especially to reproduce shiny metallic objects.

Vega-11U CA torture test shot

And there you see the native magnification ratio without tubes on my M42 adapter. Approximately 10 cm across gives a ratio of roughly 1:3. I think the creamy OOF areas are looking very promising.

Now some real shots in natural light.

Vega-11U f/2.8 close up crop

This is a central crop of the fire fighter without macro tubes, 1:3 magnification ratio. Notice the sharpness straight from full aperture, no CA and lovely transition from focus to OOF.

Some macro tubes were added to eventually reach 1:1 magnification ratio.

Vega-11U f/4 1:2 macro

This is the whole frame with 2 cm macro tubes, giving a 1:2 magnification ratio. I tested stopping down somewhat for increased contrast and sharpness. I noticed that if I stopped down past f/5.6 a bright light circle developed in the centre, perhaps a back reflection from the sensor. This was no problem without macro tubes.

By the way, I'm thinking of printing this very big as a wall poster for the kids. Wouldn't it be nice?

Vega-11U f/2.8 1:1 macro

Now I have added 4 cm of macro tubing to reach roughly 1:1 magnification ratio. The working distance was still very good, perhaps 10 cm which opens for some advanced lighting aid from a flash. I will perhaps return to that later on. Then I will show you how to get professional results of your close up and macro shots, using the pop up flash on your camera. This even hand held after one hour of DIY work and 10 minutes of practice. It will cost you perhaps two Euros of material, and you can eat up most of it while working!!!  Did I say that I like cheap stuff with high performance :)

How it all begun

Well, I got a used DSLR a few years ago. A Konica Minolta Dynax 5D. A whopping 6Mpixel sensor with built in image stabilization. I really liked it, but there was the earlier monster version of the same camera the KM Dynax 7D that I switched to after some time. Probably still the best DSLR ever to surface in terms of user interface and ergonomics. It had external buttons, switches and wheels for EVERYTHING. You didn't have to use the display menu for weeks and all buttons were placed so it could be operated without taking it away from eye level. The grip was very comfy and it felt solid, unfortunately there was a quality problem with the shutter. But Konica-Minolta exchanged it free of charge after the warranty period, that is great customer service by the way. The camera was a perfect tool to learn the craftsmanship of photography for a rookie as me. I actually got a little bit scared of all the buttons initially, but learning one at a time really boosted my know-how in photo technique. For it's age the display was awesome, large and with high resolution that could be used for critical evaluation in field, the viewfinder was way better than the CANIKON could offer in the prosumer segment. It was of course very expensive as new, but really ahead of its time. At the time I got it some years later, it could be had for less than 250 Euro on the used market which was a real steal. And the low 6Mpixels was no issue at that time when the new DSLRs only could offer 8-10 Mpixels, which is not a big difference in actual resolution.

A friend of mine had a very nice full frame Canon 5D at the time and he used only fast primes with it. When trying his gear I realized what photography should feel like. No more plastic! So I got instantly bored with my flimsy kit lens and wanted primes also. Luckily I had the extraordinary viewfinder in the KM D7D that made it possible with manual focusing on the smaller APS-C format without the aid of microprisms and split matte screens. KM used a traditional pentaprism where the rest had cheaper and duller pentamirrors, so the VF was large and very bright. This quality has been kept after Sony's takeover and A700, A850 and A900 have all had market leading pentaprism viewfinders for you to enjoy.

Back to the story, My budget didn't allow the expensive fast prime lenses with autofocus and not the high end vintage manual ones either such as Leitz or Carl Zeiss. Also the Minolta AF mount in the camera didn't allow adapters for anything else than M42 lenses without corrective optics. At that time a C/Y Carl Zeiss could be had at a very low price and could easily be used on Canon cameras with an adapter. Unfortunately when I joined the manual lens arena the global interest had already exploded and it was no longer possible to make any bargains.

So I started searching the web for cheap and high performing vintage manual lenses in M42 mount that was simple to adapt to the Minolta AF mount. And after hanging around at forums such as the alternative selection of Fred Miranda, Flickr and MF lenses. I realized that the Russian lenses for the Zenit cameras was exactly what I was looking for. They were common, cheap, sharp, and had a wonderful character, especially in terms of bokeh (background blur rendering) and color reproduction. Most of the lenses were clones on the eastern Carl Zeiss designs that was made possible when USSR took charge over eastern germany after WW2.

The lenses I instantly went after was the Helios 44 (58/2) and Jupiter 9 (85/2). The Helios lens is a Zeiss Biogon clone and the Jupiter is a pre war Zeiss Sonnar clone. The Russian engineers have then let the development continue over the years and released updates and changes to the original concept.
At this time I started remembering my fathers camera gear that he had in the late 70-th. I remembered there were some shiny odd looking lenses and they were from the USSR. So I asked him what it was and I got a pleasant surprise when he went down to the basement and rumbled around in the since long forgotten camera bag. There was a beaten up Helios 44 and a nice looking Jupiter 9. Yeay dad, you have great taste!

Anecdote:
By accident, dad had backed over his camera with the car !!! So the focusing ring on the Helios was a little bit loose, but fully functional. Optically still perfect. The Zenit camera got some scratches on the body, but other than that it didn't bother over the deep tissue massage and worked flawlessly. Solid stuff indeed.

Unfortunately the lenses had M39 mounts for SLR, so I had to find a thread insert that converted the M42 adapter to allow 39mm threads without changing the infinity focusing ability. That took some months, but finally I found what I was after on the Bay for a few cents. The Jupiter lens had an iris fault and dad inserted a fixed aperture around f/4. Other that that is is almost in mint condition despite its age.

So here they are accompanied with the modern Helios-44M-4 that I no longer have in my possession.

Russian trio

The old lenses have really low serial numbers and there is a small chance that they are manufactured by Carl Zeiss staff in the German production line under Russian control. I have yet not checked the exact year of manufacture, but I think they are from the late 50-th or perhaps early 60-th. The odd looking symbol on the Helios says that they are from the KMZ factory. Several other factories have made the Helios lenses such as BelOMO, Valdai and MMZ see this link for logos. The Jupiter is made by LZOS.

Russian trio

The old Helios has a 13-blade iris and has a wonderful bokeh. Edge sharpness is perhaps its greatest weakness. Against the sun performance is also not of highest standard due to the simple coating techniques that time could offer. Center sharpness is very high and the out of focus highlights are buttery smooth. Ok, some image samples with the old lenses.

Tulips with Helios-44

Click on it and see how the flowers appears almost like in 3D due to the rendering style with sharp focus and the transition to the nice background blur

Rusty pipes with Jupiter-9

Click on it and experience the IQ of 50 years old lens.

I was now on the track of real photography. As you can see, the fast vintage lenses could easily offer a shallow depth of field with nice and creamy background blur rendering, even on the smaller APS-C sensor size. Something a slow kit zoom has very difficult to offer no matter how sharp it is.
So thanks to dad, I got a new hobby.

I just had to show the Vega-12b lens and try the iPhone blog app. Quite small for being a medium format lens. I'm glad that I got it for free due to the sticky aperture, which I have mended to a usable, but not perfect state. Although it is a very cheap lens on the used market. Being a medium format lens, it could be useful as a cheap way into DIY tilt-shift assemblies on APS-C and full format DSLRs.

Vega-12b

Photo nerd facts:

In a tilt shift assembly one can play with perspective corrections, by shifting the lens position by radial translation, and also putting the focal plane in any direction by angular rotation of the optical axle.

By shifting the lens, the perspective distortion is corrected to have straight vertical lines of the buildings.

Photo by smaedli available under a Creative Commons Attribution license

By tilting the lens, the focal plane is put vertically along the stone wall instead of the normal horizontal plane that is always had with a standard mounted lens.

Photo by madamarv00, available under a Creative Commons Attribution license

There is also a fake way of producing images that looks like shifted photos by applying gradual blur in different steps along with high color saturation and contrast. This is my first try I made several years ago, it is not perfect but at least gives some illusion of being a miniature world. Fake focal plane following the road diagonally across the image.

Fake tilt shift image of Gamla stan in Stockholm

Yesterday morning when going to work I stopped at this sight and waited a few minutes for the sunrise.

Cranes Vega-12b

On the camera sat a Vega-12b 2.8/90 that I got for free by a nice Russian fellow since the aperture had stuck wide open. I succeeded to mend it to some degree without having to perform deep lens surgery to clean the blades from oil. Now it is working but tends to stick if it is left wide open for some time.

Lens nerd facts:

The mechanism of this lens can always open the iris by turning the aperture ring. So a good recommendation is to store the lens stopped down since most Vega-12b lenses will develop sticky aperture sooner or later due to internal grease migration.
Normally they can be had for less than 30 Euro on the Bay.
The lens is actually a medium format lens for the Kiev-60 cameras that has the same mount as Pentacon six. This mount is easily adapted for any modern SLR or DSLR since the register distance (distance between film plane and lens mount) is longer on a medium format camera. Thus the ability to focus to infinity shall be kept if the adapter has the right thickness. for more information regarding Pentacon Six and Kiev-60 have a look at http://www.pentaconsix.com/RussUkrdata.htm

Hello world

This blog will focus on really low budget retro camera lenses with high IQ used with modern digital cameras.
Perhaps there will be some lenses with retrofocus design also as the blog name may suggest.

Other that that general tips and tricks and hands on DIY projects will be presented for you that also like to keep the camera budget at a nano level but still eager for high quality results. The topics will not only be related to photography although it is the main topic.

I hope you'll stay tuned for more.