Jupiter 8M 50mm f2 - Vintage Soviet Lens Test - Retrotech

In this video we're taking a look at a vintage Jupiter-8M 50mm f2 camera lens, made is the USSR in the 1970s. The Jupiter 8 is a Soviet made copy of a German Carl Zeiss "Sonnar" 50mm lens - the Jupiter version being made mostly in the KMZ factory (or Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod - I've seen this spelt in multiple different ways so forgive me if I picked the wrong one!!!). Additional information since the filming of this video, the "8M" version of the lens was made in the Arsenal Factory located in Kiev. The lens came in L39 (also known as M39 or LTM for Leica Thread Mount) and a bayonet version to fit the German Contax rangefinder camera and the Soviet Kiev version of it.

I had intended to get one of the L39 screw mount versions but somehow I ended up with a bayonet version - on the Contax/Kiev camera, the focusing helicoid is part of the camera body so I had to track down an adaptor which had the focusing mount from a Kiev camera grafted onto a Micro Four Thirds mount - it's not a particularly good conversion, and the entire lens can fall off if you try to focus too close!!!

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Intro Music
"As Yet Untitled"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp page)
https://grumpytim.bandcamp.com/

Incidental Music
"Jupiter Moods"
by GrumpyTim

http://www.grumpytim.com