[Leica] Russian Elmar copy

[msmall at infionline.net (Marc James Small)]

At 05:06 PM 3/20/06 -0600, Jeffery Smith wrote:
>Where did you get it? I found a 53/2,8 Russian LTM that came on one of my
>FEDs (I have no idea what it is, but the Russian writing doesn't look
>anything like "Jupiter"). It may be an Industar. How many Russian 53/2,8
>lenses could there be?

Soviet/Post-Soviet (SPS) practice is to sometimes state the actual focal
length and not a generalized one.  Most standard lenses are actually 52.5mm
in focal length, so it is not uncommon to have SPS lenses identified as
"52mm" or "53mm" as a reflection of this.

I have always been confused by the Industar series of lenses though
Princelle and Oscar Fricke feel differently.  In short, there are a number
of families of 3.5/50 and 2.8/50 (and 52 and 53) Industars which are all of
a bunch and which are all quite capable clones of the Leitz 5cm and 50mm
Elmars.  

And then there are the "Jupiter" range:

5.6/20 Russaar MR-2     (rare in LTM, quite rare in Contax RF BM)
6/28 Orion-15           (rare in LTM, quite rare in Contax RF BM)
2.8/35 Jupiter-12       (originally, BK)
1.5/50 Jupter-3         (originally ZK, quite rare in Contax RF BM)
2/50 Jupiter-8          (originally ZK)
2/85 Jupiter-9          (originally ZK)
4/135 Jupiter-11        (originally ZK)

There is also a 2.8/180 Jupiter-6 but that was never produced in anything
other than M42 to my knowledge.

Finally, there is a really nifty Prewar clone of the Berg-Elmar.  Mine came
complete with a field-expedient rear lens cap, a cork!  I stupidly sold it
and probably ought to buy another.  It was a neat lens.  And there are some
other nifty Prewar FED lenses though many of these will not mount properly
on a true LTM camera, as the Soviets could not really believe that the
proper dimensions of the LTM is 39mm by 26 turns-per-inch Whitworth, a
mistake made Postwar by Canon as well.

All of these SPS lenses are subject to caveat emptor:  some are grand, some
are average and some are awful, as quality control was replaced by quality
assurance under the Soviet system with less than sterling results.

Marc


Marc

msmall@aya.yale.edu 
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