Jupiter 11, 135mm f4.0

Jupiter 11 lens

The Jupiter 11 135mm 4.0 is a copy of a Zeiss Sonnar 135mm 4.0 lens and maf=de in the USSR. The lens evolved over the years and I obtained a 1990s version when I bought a Fed-4 from ebay.

To be honest I was not expecting the lens and so it was a bonus. It has a small dent but works fine via an adaptor on my digital micro four-thirds Olympus Pen-f.

Specification

The Jupiter lens that I own is a late lens from 1976. You can find the year of manufacture by looking at the first two digits of the serial number – this is the case form 1970. My 1976 lens has the following specifications:

Diameter: 49.0 mm
Length: 96.0 mm + adapter
Weight: 260 g
Number of Aperture Blades: 15 (rounded)
Elements/Groups: 4/3
Close Focusing Distance: 2.5 m – as indicated on the lens. (That's about 8 feet)
Mount: M39 mount – with my adapter to take it to Micro four-thirds.

What it looks like

Observations

This is a nice small lens to use and I achieved some good results. Indeed most reviews confirm the same. It looks good too. The silver slim lens looks very retro and was particularly hansom on my digital Olympus Pen-F.

The aperture does not have fixed values – it smoothly rotates from f4 to f22. I believe that this feature makes it handy for video as there are no clicks and jolts. The focus is also smooth and my lens worked well. Although the 2.5m minimum focus distance did rather spoil things. I wanted to get some close-ups of plants and flowers in the garden and it was not really suited to this use.

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