A Jupiter-3 Franken-Lens!

I have recently acquired a Jupiter-3 50/1.5 in M39 mount which seems to be a hodge-podge of components from different Soviet factories - or maybe this was common practice:
- The Bakelite case is marked with a KMZ logo.
- The front lens cap is marked with a Zenit logo.
- The rear lens cap is marked with a LZOS logo.
- The aluminum lens body and mount has no maker's logo that I can see.
- The black optical cell in the lens body (s/n 840645) is marked with a Valdai logo.
- A second silver optical cell (s/n 7333629) is marked with a ZOMZ logo.

The lens is in cosmetically fine condition, with very few signs of use. It focuses accurately on my Leica M8.2 and gives respectable IQ, at least with the black optical cell. Performance with the silver optical cell is very poor, but it is probably not shimmed properly.

I suspect that the original lens was built with the silver cell and that the owner subsequently changed this cell out for a later black one because he/she was dissatisfied with its performance. I'm quite happy with the lens as-is, but am curious about the multiple logos on the various components. Does anyone here have any thought to share on this subject?

Regards, Jim


Zorki-4 w/KMZ Jupiter-8 50/2 lens.

Lens caps and cases are often mixed and matched, so there is no reason to analyze their combination. I see this mix and match very often.

As far as optical cells - could you please post images? Use 'Upload Image" feature on the left of the message window.

OK, Yuri, here are three images of my J-3 along with the extra optical cell:


www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/632010_IMIP0565a J-3 front view .jpg


www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/632010_IMIP0568a J-3 side view.jpg



As you can see, the second optical cell is in silver like the lens body, so I suspect that it was the original which was supplied in that lens body. I've no idea were the second came from, but it appears to have been made 11 years later from the serial numbers.

Looking at the factory logo on the cells, the black one appears to be Valdai and the silver one ZOMZ. Does this mean that the lens body was likely made by ZOMZ and not KMZ, as I supposed? Or did ZOMZ supply lens cells to KMZ for assembly into lens bodies? I'd really like to know the probable date that this lens was manufactured, as well.

It's interesting to speculate!

Regards, Jim


Zorki-4 w/KMZ Jupiter-8 50/2 lens.

Several Ebay sellers have new-old-stock Valdai optics cells for $40 or so. A number of people, including myself, buy and use them to replace cells with bad optics in them. This looks like one of them.

Now- if you should get a ZOMZ optics cell made into a Nikon S-Mount using a Contax shell, that was probably me...

Sounds reasonable, Brian. Thanks!

I think that the best use for the ZOMZ cell is as a loupe...

Regards, Jim

FSU gear: Zorki-4 w/KMZ Jupiter-8 50/2 lens, Kiev-4M w/Helios-103 53/1.8