Jupiter 21M 200mm f4 - vintage lens review

-

 When it comes to vintage soviet lenses many will tell you that you must get the Mir 1B, the Helios 44 and the Jupiter 9 to have the perfect kit; some would add the Tair 11 to the list.

Yet, there are many more interesting lenses that end up being left out of the conversation and the Jupiter 21 is one of them.

Not long ago I found this beast of a lens at a local flea market, and I was surprised to find out that the owner manual and warranty is still mostly intact.

I asked my Russian friend Masha to help me out translating part of it and we discovered that this lens came out of the Vologda Optical and Mechanical Plant, or VOMZ, in June 1993.

VOMZ was founded in the city of Vologda in 1971 and between 1977 and 1986 was part of LOMO. The factory is still active to this day, producing thermal imaging cameras.

Coincidentally, my Mir 1B comes from the same factory.

Jupiter 21M
Jupiter 21M 200mm f4

 The Jupiter is big. It weighs 980g, it is 15,5cm long when focused to infinity and 18cm when extended. The build-in sun hood takes it to almost 20cm. The front thread measures 58mm.

The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4 to f22. Below the aperture control there’s one more ring to switch between auto and manual aperture, that could be used as a stepless iris control.

The focusing ring is, once more, big, but also smooth, and it turns more or less 300 degrees. Minimum focusing distance is 1.8m

The “M” in the name stands for M42 (affiliate link) but there are two more versions, the 21T has a T mount and the 21A has a few different mounts like Pentax K and Nikon F

In terms of sharpness the Jupiter surpasses my expectations. There is not much difference at all between f4 and f8, so much so that I had to double check the metadata of the pictures.

Background blur is soft and boke balls are quite big but not the cleanest. Also, at 200mm a maximum aperture of f4 is plenty enough for a shallow depth of field, especially up close.

Chromatic aberration is present wide open and can be distracting on high contrast areas, but it almost completely disappears by f8

Flaring doesn’t seem to be a problem, even shooting towards the sun, but ghosting can be seen here and there with closer sources of light

At the end of the day, the Jupiter 21 is better than what I expected and, even if we are all guilty of saying this way too often, it is built like a tank.

Which is also the main con of this lens: it is heavy and unwieldy. So for people like me, doing mostly run and gun stuff, it’s useless, taking too much space and adding too much weight to the bag, but if you can deal with that, it’s actually good.

And that brings us full circle: the Jupiter 21 is a good lens but it is hard to find the right use for it.

So, if you own one, let me know in the comments below what you use it for, if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments and don't forget to check the video for all the sample images!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yashica 135mm f2.8 ML - Lens review

-
Image
  Last winter I bought three Yashica lenses and a camera body fo quite cheap, because they were not in the best conditions, especially the 135mm.  The optical elements were dirty, the aperture had been poorly de-clicked and, worst of all, the focusing helicoid was completely off and needed to be recalibrated and lubricated, so I gave it to a lab to be fixed and cleaned and now it works perfectly.  Yashica is one of those well know names in the industry, with a history dating back to the late '40s and in 1975 they introduced the Contax Yashica bayonet mount in collaboration with Carl Zeiss. They had three ranges of lenses: the basic one was the DSB, which had single coatings, above that was the ML, with multi coatings, and the top of the line was the Zeiss AE series.  Now, back to this lens.  The body is made of metal and weights 410 grams; it is 76mm long when focused to infinity and 90mm when fully extended, with a 52mm front thread and, my favorite feature, a built in sun hood.  
Read more

Soligor 28mm f2.8 C/D - vintage lens review

-
Image
Soligor was a supplier of photographic equipment based in the United States and Germany, active mostly between the ‘60s and the early ‘90s. They had a very comprehensive catalog of lenses, made in Japan by manufacturers like Tokina and Tamron, covering a wide array of focal lengths and they were available for all major camera brands. Soligor lenses were also sold under alternative brand names like Hanimar, Porst or Super Carener, in different geographical areas. From my research, the 28mm 2.8 alone has at least 21 different versions, so chances are that yours looks different than mine. Specifically, the one I own is part of the C/D line released in the mid-1970s as a premium line of lenses. The Soligor 28mm is made out of metal, it weights 200g, it is 33mm long when focused to infinity and 37mm when extended, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has six blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22 The focusing ring is rubberized and it turns 180 degrees and mi
Read more

Canon FD 100mm f2.8 - Lens review

-
Image
 Canon FD lenses have grown in popularity in the last few years because they're cheap, easy to find, reliable and with cheap adapters you can mount them to modern digital cameras. Mirrorless like Sony's or Canon's EOS R and RF will work best and will be easier to adapt, but you can use Canon FD lenses on your DSLRs too, although you might need a different adapter with a focal reducer, due to the incompatible flange distance. Personally, I'm not a fan of focal reducers, as they cad degrade or alter the quality of the image produced by the lens.  Anyway, these Canon FD lenses are completely manual and have no electronic, and this one specifically is part of the so-called nFD, or new FD, series, introduced in 1979.  Everyone seems to love them so, back in 2017 when I was getting into vintage lenses, I was eager to try them. Luckily, a friend of mine owned two of them and he was kind enough to let me borrow them for a few weeks.  Right off the bat this lens sounds promising
Read more