Jupiter 12 (f/2.8/35) lens 

Serial number 5932xx - Weight: Approx. xxx gms "Made in USSR" Export version.
I had read that the earlier silver barrelled lenses were made to higher quality standards than the later black ones.  I decided to buy this shabby looking silver version as the optics were quite clean.

The amazing thing about this lens is that the rear element protrudes substantially passed the mounting thread.  It is evidentially a copy of a pre war Zeiss lens.
A lens design such as this would not work with an SLR camera as the mirror would hit the rear element.

This is the lens mounted in a FED 1 body shell.  You can see how close that rear element is to the film plane.  Amazing and cool stuff but greater care must be taken so as not to damage the lens.

 
In order to use the Jupiter 12 with any accuracy an accessory 35mm viewer is recommended.

The Results:
I have to confess that the results from this lens were pretty poor.  At f/2.8 it would not focus at infinity on a number of different camera bodies.
The only way to get a sharp image was to use hyperfocal methods.

(Click for a larger image) Tree taken with Jupiter 12 at f/16 1/100 ISO 100
This photo was taken using the "Sunny 16" rule (Set the lens to f/16 and the camera to the same shutter speed as the film speed).
The result are reasonable, but I would like to get a black Jupiter 12 and compare the two at f/2.8 at infinity.

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This page was created 1st October 2004.