Photography
MTO-1000AM 10.5/1100mm
I’ve spent days getting to know the MTO-1000, both its limits and its strengths and have enjoyed using it. The MTO-1000 is by a considerable margin the largest, heaviest, longest, slowest most intimidating and difficult lens I have ever used.…
Tair-11 2.8/133mm
It occurred to me when comparing the Telemar-22 to the Tair-11 that I have not done a write up yet about this lens. I’ve owned it for about 6 months and it’s among my favourites within the M39 SLR family.…
Telemar-22 5.6/200mm
Having exhausted the faster, more desirable primes from the vintage Soviet M39 SLR family of lenses, I’ve set my sights on some of the more obscure offerings just to complete the collection. The Telemar-22 falls firmly in this category. At…
Prototype Industar-22 3.5/50mm
This unusual little Industar-22 has certainly become an intriguing purchase. I believe this was actually a prototype for the first Zenit SLRs...primitive ergonomics, narrow focus range, soft edges, relatively slow aperture of ƒ3.5, heavy vignetting and low contrast - all…
The Legendary Helios-40 1.5/85mm
Although the Helios-40 is sharper even shot wide open, it’s 3 times the size of the Jupiter-9. When it comes to flare, the Helios-44 has it beat hands down (as in producing a prominent flare) - the Helios-40 is rather…
Jupiter-6 2.8/180mm
Ergonomics aside, this is a stunning lens. It feels like it’s built for battle - in outer space. Unsurprisingly, it exhibits the same weaknesses as the Sonnar design it's copied from - green/magenta chromatic aberration, strong vignetting wide open and…
Jupiter-11 4/135mm
This Jupiter-11 was a curiosity purchase. They seem almost as common as the Helios-44 and can be had for almost as cheap even though Russian sellers insist on calling it "rare". This is a decent lens. It’s almost too decent…
Mir-1 2.8/37mm
This has been a good month for finding prime, vintage primes and the latest addition is the finest condition lens so far. This 1964 Mir-1 is perfectly mint and comes straight from Ukraine where it was made. It wears the…
Modifying Infinity Focus on the Jupiter-9 M39
I absolutely love the pristine Jupiter-9 M39 mount I recently acquired and it has become the standard walk around lens on my 5D3. It takes amazing nostalgic photos and once you learn to tame it by stopping down a bit,…
Soviet Jupiter-9 2/85
I’ve been casually looking for a good example of this lens for over a year. I really wanted something longer than the Helios for portrait stills and physically smaller than the Pentagon Six lenses I’ve adapted for cinema work. Jupiter-9…
