[Leica] Jupiter 9

[Franck Maubuisson <fmaubuis@club-internet.fr>]

Mine is an old one (58), polished aluminium finish.
The rangefinder coupling was not perfect, but I could solved the problem with a little adhesive tape on the coupling part of the jupiter.
Very sharp, and surprisingly enough for a russian lens, high contrast even by strong backlighting..The inside of the lens has a high quality, very flat
black paint. Convenient and easy to use on my M2.
But the blue (really blue) treatment of the lenses gives yellowish colors, it's impossible to shoot color film with it and leica lenses if you intend to
show them together.
So it's a good complement to my elmar when it's too dark, but I continue to use the elmar most of the time, and the jupiter only when necessary.

I once had a more recent jupiter 9 (late 70's) in 42mm screwmount but broke it. It was sharp but  not as good as this old one, especially for contrast and
was no good in case of backlighting.

So I believe the old ones can be really good for B&W - only.
Newer ones are not as good but can be used for color.

All of them are likely to have mechanical or optical problems and their full aluminium built is obviously more fragile than leica or canon lenses.On the
other hand, it's not too heavy.

What I always wondered about these lens is...how could they focus them properly on a Zorki ???