LZOS Jupiter-9 85mm f/2 (M42)

KMZ had the Sonnar formula in production by 1948, under the plain name ZK-85. Only later did it become the Jupiter-9. The design came straight from the Zeiss 85mm Sonnar, and it began as a rangefinder lens. The black M42 version in this entry was built for another kind of camera entirely: LZOS made it in Lytkarino for screw-mount SLRs, so a Zenit or Praktika owner could have a fast Sonnar-type portrait lens without buying into a rangefinder system.

The optics are classic Sonnar. Seven elements sit in three groups, with big cemented blocks that keep the number of glass-to-air surfaces low, which helps contrast. The diaphragm has fifteen blades, an unusually high count, and the opening stays nearly round at every stop, so out-of-focus highlights stay round at f/2.8 and f/4 instead of turning into polygons. Wide open at f/2 the lens glows. Highlights bloom a little, the centre is usable, the corners are soft, and skin comes out flattering rather than clinical. By f/4 it gets properly sharp. Direct backlight is the weak spot; with the sun in the frame the shadows wash out, so keep a deep hood on it.

Moving the lens to the SLR changed more than the mount. The rangefinder Jupiter-9s stop focusing at 1.15 m. The SLR version gets down to 0.8 m, and on an 85mm that is the difference between a tight head shot and a frame filled with a face. The aperture scale also ends at f/16 rather than the rangefinder versions' f/22, which costs a portrait lens very little, since most sittings happen between f/2 and f/8. A 1986 LZOS copy is documented at about 354 g, small and dense in the hand, and it takes ordinary 49mm filters.

What the SLR version never got was an automatic diaphragm. Nothing in the camera stops this lens down. You set your chosen aperture on the preset ring, focus wide open, and then turn the second ring until it hits the stop before you fire. Forget that last step and the shot goes out at f/2. Turn it early and you are focusing on a dim screen. Any meter in the body has to read at the taking aperture, never through a wide-open lens. A handheld reading avoids most of the hassle: take the reading in Zone Light Meter, set that f-number on the preset ring, and the only thing left to remember is to turn the ring before you press the shutter. Old Soviet glass also varies a lot from copy to copy. Check for haze, and make sure the preset ring actually turns.

Today the Jupiter-9 is one of the more affordable fast 85s you can mount on an M42 body, which explains most of its popularity. People usually weigh it against two others. The Helios-40 is faster and a good deal heavier, with a much stronger swirl in the background. The Super-Takumar 85mm f/1.9 has an automatic diaphragm and usually costs a good deal more. The Jupiter wins if you want that Sonnar softness wide open and smooth, round blur stopped down, and you don't mind twisting a ring before every frame.

Wedding shooters on a deadline will hate it. A slow portrait sitting with a patient subject is where it does its best work, because there the extra ring turn costs you nothing but a second.