Jupiter-12 2,8 / 35 (LZOS, 1973) for Kiev / Contax cameras. Review from reader Radozhiva

Review of the lens Jupiter-12 2,8 / 35 (LZOS, 1973) for Kiev / Contax cameras specially for Radozhiva prepared Rodion Eshmakov (instagram).

Jupiter-12 poses for Radozhiva on the Zenit-12SD camera, which is vaguely similar to modern Sony ILCE 7 cameras :) How and why? - Read this article.

Jupiter-12 poses for Radozhiva on the Zenit-12SD camera, which is vaguely similar to modern Sony ILCE 7 cameras :) How and why? - Read this article.

Jupiter-12 is one of the few wide-angle lenses produced in the USSR for rangefinder cameras with Kiev-Contax and М39 × 28,8 optics mount. Among the rangefinder thirty-five, he was the only one available, since it is interesting and promising Uranium-14 35 / 2.5, alas, was not mass-produced. At the same time, a significant number of different rigidly built-in lenses for scale and rangefinder cameras with a focal length in the range of 32-38 mm were produced in the USSR:

The review presents the Jupiter-12 lens with Kiev bayonet, produced at LZOS in 1973 - the latest version of those produced. The site already has a review of this modification, but I allowed myself to honor the lens with one more note. Of the modifications of Jupiter-12, the following can be noted:

  • Sharp BK 1: 2,8 F = 3,5cm P, there were bayonet and threaded versions. Produced from 1947 to 1950, possibly with the use of German lens blocks. Several labeling options.
  • Jupiter-12 1: 2,8 F = 3,5cm P, KMZ, in a white case, 1950-1952, Most likely uses German lens blocks (source). Differs in case design from the later version.
  • Jupiter-12 1: 2,8 F = 3,5cm P, KMZ, in a white case, after 1952. Made entirely in the USSR.
  • Jupiter-12 1: 2,8 F = 3,5cm P, Arsenal, in a white building, 50-60s;
  • Jupiter-12 1: 2,8 F = 3,5cm P, LZOS, in a white (golden from yellowed varnish) case.
  • Jupiter-12 2,8/35, LZOS, in a black case (this article), the name is often written in Latin.

Among the modifications indicated, a more detailed selection of lenses is also possible by differences in the design of the body and, more importantly, by the type of coating applied - it especially affects the visible result of working with the lens.

Technical specifications (source):
Optical design - 6 lenses in 4 groups, "Biogon" type (more details below);

Optical design of Jupiter-12

Optical design of Jupiter-12

Focal length - 35,75 mm;
Relative aperture - 1: 2,8;
Field of view - 63 °;
The back focal segment is 7,53 mm;
Aperture - 5 blades, without a preset mechanism;
Aperture limits - F / 2.8-F / 22;
Light transmission coefficient - 0.75;
MDF - 1 meter;
Thread for filters - 40.5 mm;
Mount - external bayonet Kiev / Contax RF.

Historical information: from Zonnar to Biogon, from Biogon to Jupiter

Sources: 1, 2, 3.

Jupiter-12 is one of the objectives calculated by M.D. Maltsev (KMZ) based on the German optics Carl Zeiss Jena, the documentation for which was received after the Second World War as reparations from Germany. The progenitor of this lens is the German Carl Zeiss Jena Biogon 35 / 2.8, developed by the great optician Ludwig Jacob Bertele, the story of which was started in this article... Let's now look at the history of the birth of the Biogon 35 / 2.8 from the very beginning.

So, shortly after calculating the famous Sonnar 50 / 1.5 in 1932, Bertele attempted to develop a wide-angle lens for 35mm rangefinder cameras. In those days, the choice of wide-angle lenses was extremely small: it was very "dark" and not associated with a rangefinder Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 28 / 8 and orthoscopic, but also not high aperture Carl Zeiss Jena Orthometar 35 / 4.5.

The tree of development of Bertele's ideas. The lenses are in blue that are commercially available.

The tree of development of Bertele's ideas. The lenses are in blue that are commercially available.

And now, already in 1934, Ludwig Bertele presented the first version of the lens with a 63 ° field of view with an unprecedented aperture F / 2.8. The new lens was named “Biogon”, which reflects the ability of the lens to capture moments in motion (“live”) at a wide angle due to its high aperture.

Optical design Biogon 35 / 2.8 1934.

Optical design Biogon 35 / 2.8 1934.

This lens, as it is easy to see, is very similar in optical design to Sonnar 50/2, calculated by Bertele two years earlier: the main innovation is the appearance of a massive lens in the rear of the lens, located close to the surface of the photographic film. Otherwise, all the "business cards" of Bertele lenses can be traced here: a glued triplet in the front lens unit, thick lenses with a large curvature in the rear. On this, however, he did not stop, deciding to bring the lens to perfection - because Biogon sample 1934 was never mass-produced.

Only three years later, in 1937, the lens was optimized and prepared for mass production. The new Biogon lost the characteristic glued triplet, but received a glued two-lens rear component - Bertele again fit into 7 lenses in 4 groups, which was important at a time when there was still no optical coating technology.

Optical serial Biogon 35 / 2.8 1937.

Optical serial Biogon 35 / 2.8 1937.

This version of the lens was produced, apparently, right up to 1950, having received coated optics only in the 40s. The massive rear lens group almost rested against the shutter slats of the Contax camera, but in 1947 Bertele calculated three even more advanced Biogon 35 / 2.8 variants that had never been produced. The nine-lens (!) Monsters were too expensive and, most likely, too demanding on the design of the camera, so one can only guess what image quality these prototypes could provide. However, Bertele had many such projects, demonstrating the full power of his ideas, at least on paper.

One of the prototypes of the 35 Biogon 2.8 / 1947 nine-lens.

One of the prototypes of the 35 Biogon 2.8 / 1947 nine-lens.

By 1950, Contax cameras had an improved shutter mechanism with thinner curtains, which reduced the minimum back focal length requirements of lenses used. Bertele immediately took advantage of this (as we remember, he always used the latest advances in technology to simplify his lenses while maintaining their quality), calculating in Zeiss Oberkochen (West Germany) a simpler and more technologically advanced version of the Biogon 35 / 2.8, which used only 6 lenses: the lens got rid of the glued back component, but the thickness of one of the lenses was greatly increased. The diameter of the rear lens group has also been reduced to facilitate camera design.

Optical design of the serial Biogon 35 / 2.8 1950.

Optical design of the serial Biogon 35 / 2.8 1950.

However, even this lens inherits the characteristics of the good old Sonnar 50/2. Note that Biogon 35 / 2.8 does not use any special types of glass that gradually appeared in the second half of the 12th century - Bertele's ideas were born at a time when the glass palette was extremely scarce. Most likely, it was this fact that allowed the Soviet industry to adopt his developments and produce after the war a whole series of their optics "a la Zeiss", among which was Jupiter-XNUMX.

If we turn again to its optical design, we will see that it is an analogue of the Biogon of the 1950 sample. But the whole story told earlier would have been said in vain if attention had not been paid to one nuance: the predecessor of Jupiter-12 - BK-35 - had been produced since 1947, i.e. before the development of the six-lens Biogon 35 / 2.8. Since the BK-35 was assembled from German lens blocks, it, in fact, has nothing to do with Jupiter-12 and, apparently, is an enlightened seven-lens Biogon 35 / 2.8 of the 1937 model!

Comparison of optical schemes Biogon 35 / 2.8 1937 (top) and 1950 (bottom). Jupiter-12 is in the lower pattern, while BK-35 appears to be in the upper.

Comparison of optical schemes Biogon 35 / 2.8 1937 (top) and 1950 (bottom). Jupiter-12 is in the lower pattern, while BK-35 appears to be in the upper.

Thus, Jupiter-12, which is an analogue of the late Biogon 35 / 2.8, outlived its progenitor and was produced in the USSR at least until the end of the 1970s, being, moreover, archaism straight from pre-war Europe - a reflection of the genius of Ludwig Berthele. Acquiring such a lens today is the best way to experience the ultimate perfection of the time.

Design and application features.

Jupiter-12 belongs to the rangefinder lens family and has all their inherent features, such as the lack of aperture presetting mechanism (there is no need for it due to sighting peculiarities) and an inconvenient minimum focusing distance of 1 meter - this is very, very much. For comparison: Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35 / 2.8 for SLR cameras has an MDF of only 24 cm.The native focusing mechanism of the lens does not allow simple ways to get around this drawback, so I came up with the idea of ​​using an additional focusing mechanism with sufficient travel - fortunately, a large flange of the external mount Kiev / Contax allows this, in contrast to the M39 mount.

A ring with an M42 thread was glued to the lens, after which the lens, while maintaining infinity, perfectly fitted onto the Sony A7s camera through a 12-17 mm macrohelicoid and a thin M42-Sony E adapter.

Jupiter-12 with glued threaded ring and macrogelloid and M42-NEX adapter required for use.

Jupiter-12 with glued threaded ring and macrogelloid and M42-NEX adapter required for use.

It is much more convenient to use the lens in this form: in addition to the MDF, such a disadvantage as the rotation of the lens unit when focusing the lens is corrected, which allows the use of polarizing filters.

However, Jupiter-12 has an inconvenient aperture control ring located at the front lens and serving as a thread for filters. In other words, when the aperture is changed, the filter will rotate and vice versa. Moreover, trying to use thick rim filters will blacken the corners of the image. But the entire front part of the lens itself serves as a good hood and protects the lens from damage, so you can do without protective filter, eg.

Jupiter-12's diaphragm has only 5 matte blades, which will inevitably give pentagonal nuts in the bokeh when closed. The minimum settable aperture is F / 22, the control ring moves steplessly.

The aperture control ring is located on the side of the front lens.

The aperture control ring is located on the side of the front lens.

The optics of this version of the lens are coated with yellow and pink shades, due to which the lens has practically unbiased light transmission - in contrast to the versions with violet and blue coating.

View of the Jupiter-12 diaphragm through the rear lens group.

View of the Jupiter-12 diaphragm through the rear lens group.

A very unpleasant nuance when using the lens is associated with the choice of the rear cover for it. The rear lens protrudes beyond the plane of the Sony E mount so much that you cannot put on an ordinary gray bayonet cover without unscrewing the lens onto the MDF macrogelcoid. In this case, there is always a risk of damage to the lens if there is a reverse movement towards focusing at infinity.

The rear lens of Jupiter-12 protrudes beyond the plane of the Sony E mount.

The rear lens of Jupiter-12 protrudes beyond the plane of the Sony E mount.

The objective lens can be “hidden” only by moving the macrohelicoid towards the MDF.

The objective lens can be “hidden” only by moving the macrohelicoid towards the MDF.

Due to the fact that the lens of Jupiter-12 is so close to the matrix and, moreover, it is very massive, it will not be possible to use it on most mirrorless crop-format cameras (the exception is the EOS M system): it will rest against the matrix shaft and focusing at infinity will not will be reached.

Even on SLR cameras, you will need at least an macro ring to install Jupiter-12, while it will work, of course, only at macro distances.

Modified Jupiter-12 can only be attached to the Zenith camera through a macrohelicoid.

Modified Jupiter-12 can only be attached to the Zenith camera through a macrohelicoid.

Despite a number of features, the slightly modified Jupiter-12 turns out to be a fairly convenient lens. At the same time, the black version looks nice on the camera.

Black Jupiter-12 is a black camera.

Black Jupiter-12 is a black camera.

Thus, unlike its threaded counterpart, the bayonet Jupiter-12 is much better suited for working with modern cameras, since it allows easy modifications to make focusing and working with filters easier. However, the lens layout itself is awkward, which makes Jupiter-12 demanding attention from the user, especially its wonderful rear lens.

Optical properties

Jupiter-12 is very picky about the properties of the camera matrix: because of the extremely short rear focal segment, the angles of incidence of light rays on the matrix are very large. Such deviations from telecentricity in the image space are not forgiven by most matrices with microlenses, as a result of which the lens does not work well with conventional full-frame and APS-C sensors with a resolution greater than ~ 12 megapixels. Smaller pixels are more demanding for telecentricity, and, for example, on a 24 megapixel Sony A7 matrix, Jupiter-12 demonstrates more noticeable vignetting and a drop in resolution at the edges of the frame than on a 12 megapixel Sony A7s matrix. But, nevertheless, thanks to the large rear lens, this lens does not suffer from color-shift as clearly as, for example, 7artisans 35 / 1.2 with a small exit pupil.

However, it is not only the sensor that determines the behavior of the lens. By itself, Jupiter-12 creates a very sharp image in the center of the frame from an open aperture. On the edge at F / 2.8 there is a strong coma. There is quite an annoying barrel distortion in the full frame, which can be corrected in the editor if desired. Also, due to the large angle of incidence of the rays on the matrix, the so-called. natural vignetting, which is fundamentally incorrigible: the illumination falls in proportion to the fourth power of the cosine of the angle of incidence of the light beam - this is a feature of lenses with a small back section. On an APS-C frame, an image with uniform sharpness across the field can be obtained by aperture down to ~ F / 5.6-F / 8, but a full frame will require aperture no less than F / 11. In this case, the corners of the image, as a rule, are still rather weak.

Jupiter-12 sharpness at open aperture

Jupiter-12 sharpness at open aperture

Jupiter-12 sharpness at f / 8 on a 12MP full frame sensor.

Jupiter-12 sharpness at f / 8 on a 12MP full frame sensor.

Jupiter-12 has good contrast in normal lighting, but does not work well with backlight: the image is obscured by glare and veil. Apparently, the re-reflections of light from the matrix also make a significant contribution. The color rendition of this version is close to natural.

As a descendant of Zonnar, Jupiter-12 has pleasant close-range bokeh. In the center of the frame, the disks of unsharpness are evenly illuminated (the lens has excellently corrected spherical aberration), but closer to the edges they become similar in shape to rounded triangles directed with their vertices towards the center of the frame. At greater distances, the bokeh along the edge of the frame takes on the appearance of pointed triangles or even "birds" at all. Such a distortion of the shape of the disks of confusion is due to the coma and is typical for most lenses based on Bertele's designs.

Optically, Jupiter-12 is very far from ideal and is picky about choosing a camera. But when using it on a not too dense APS-C sensor, you can get rid of field distortion, distortion, vignetting and use only an extremely sharp central part of the image. On the other hand, on full-frame cameras, Jupiter-12 exhibits remarkable bokeh at close focusing distances and, of course, a comfortable field of view. This lens can also be a very good option for macro photography.

Below are sample photos taken with a full-frame Sony A7s camera (shooting in RAW, processing in Imaging Edge).

Conclusions

Jupiter-12 is a lens that will definitely not leave its owner indifferent. This is a whole epoch, which, by a happy coincidence, was preserved and replicated in a small one-hundred-gram lens. Jupiter-12 is not ideal and, perhaps, not universal, it requires increased attention when handling, it does not fit every camera. You can accept its flaws and just enjoy this unusual picture today. I have been using this lens as a standard lens for a long time and am not at all disappointed in it. There are still few good and affordable full-frame 35mm lenses for mirrorless cameras. As in 1934.

You will find more reviews from readers of Radozhiva here.

Add a comment: Sergei

 

 

Comments: 29, on the topic: Jupiter-12 2,8 / 35 (LZOS, 1973) for Kiev / Contax cameras. Review from reader Radozhiva

  • Valery

    There is one, not impressive

  • Eugene o

    Well done Rodion, squeezed out of the old man to the fullest. Thanks for the nice review.

  • Alex

    impressive stuff, thank you so much!

    but I did not see any particularly unusual picture)

    • Rodion

      By itself, the picture of Jupiter-12 is pretty correct. The differences are recognized in comparison, for example, with the usual retrofocus widths of the 35 / 2.8 class, of which I used the ZOMZ Mir-1 1967 and Mir-1A 1972 for a particularly long time.
      First of all, these are diametrically different types of geometric distortions. This is different work with light: Jupiter-12 and conditional Mir-1 (or any other retrofocus shirik) work differently with back and side light. By the way, Jupiter is more resistant to the latter. Unusually, the almost complete absence of spherical aberration and transverse chromatism, which old retrofocus lenses cannot boast of. And, of course, Jupiter-12 has dimensions much smaller than the classic SLR 35 / 2.8, which gives a different feeling during use.

  • Ivan

    Caption to the first photo: “Jupiter-12 poses for Radozhiva on the Zenit-12SD camera, which is vaguely similar to modern Sony ILCE 7 cameras :) How and why? "Read this article."
    I read the article, but I did not understand the connection between Zenith and Sonya.

    • Rodion

      It is, strictly speaking, not.
      How? - we are talking about the method of lens adaptation. Without adding a threaded flange, the lens cannot be installed on Zenith either.
      What for? - to show what the lens looks like on the camera.

  • Pavel Gorbunov

    Thank you Rodion for a great review of my favorite rangefinder!

  • Pavel Gorbunov

    Jupiter-12 (black LZOS M39 1981) in conjunction with Canon EOS M6.

    • Rodion

      Those. Does it work normally on the APS-C 24 Mp in terms of edges and angles of incidence?

      • Pavel Gorbunov

        There is a great element of luck here.
        Three black Lytkarin Jupiters-3 have already passed through my hands, and only the last of them forms a picture that is sharp at the edges when open.

        • Pavel Gorbunov

          Full size 24 MP, raw-jpeg conversion 350dpi.

          Link

          • Rodion

            Impressive! Is it open?

            • Pavel Gorbunov

              No, what are you! It's at 8.
              When open, the picture is not as ringing, although it is also sharp:

  • Pavel Gorbunov

    Also.

  • Pavel Gorbunov

    Macro (rings). In the upper left corner of the image, the pentagons formed by the diaphragm blades are clearly visible.

  • Sergei

    The paradox is that the 12-17mm macrogelcoid and the M42-SonyE adapter ring are much more expensive than this lens on the secondary.
    But if you are a fan, you can use the expensive ultra-thin Leica M - Sony E macrogelloid plus the Leica M-m12 adapter ring for the Ju-28,8 version with a flange distance of 39 mm (m39).
    This pleasure will cost from 50 USD.
    The main weakness of this lens is the inability to fully fit it on a cropped mirrorless camera (except for Canon EOS M).

    • Rodion

      The essence of the paradox is precisely that it is inconvenient to use the lens without these tricks. Optics without paradoxes have a completely different price level.

  • Olen.

    Class! Interesting and delicious! Thank!

  • Hleb

    I personally searched for your web resource for several days. Friends recommended it to me. And only today I found him. I thank life for this present.

  • Dim

    Thanks for the review, it is easy to read and interesting. I love lenses with interesting distortions and features - the photo archive turns out to be more interesting.

  • Rodion

    I am selling the kit indicated in the review ($ 60) at the present time due to the presence of a second similar one. If you are interested, you can contact me by mail: rudzil@yandex.ru .

    Upd: not relevant.

  • Alex f

    Gorgeous lens. insta: alexf14r

  • Alex f

    Beautiful. insta: alexf14r

  • Alex f

    Yu-12 one love. insta: alexf14r

  • Alex f

    Graceful. insta: alexf14r

  • Alex f

    Photographer's dream. insta: alexf14r

  • Alex f

    Yu-12 thing. insta: alexf14r

  • Alex f

    Yu-12 is a masterpiece of optics. insta: alexf14r

  • Alex f

    The Yu-12 is worth a lot more than its money. insta: alexf14r

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