Portrait of a Soviet Lens; JUPITER 11 

0 fucking seconds passed, i had ebay open the first goddamn second those images started rolling in, holy shit

Dear god! I have never wanted to pick up photography as much as I do right now. Some of these shots are just amazing!

I recently tried a 1974 Russian Helios 44-2 lens on my DSLR and was amazed at the results. Going full manual is great for learning too

I love old lens's. They all give very unique moods. can't wait for the next reviews. One day I'll have to start investing in some.

There's some beautiful irony in taking stunning photos of a capitalist metropolis with a soviet lens. Love it.

I’m so lucky to own one of these lenses. My dad passed away in 2011 and this was in his camera bag. I use it with my Fuji XT-2. Enjoying learning about the history of this camera and what it can do. My version was the “black belt” I believe and was made in 1971. The images are lovely. It’s easy to focus and I’m desperate for some better weather to see results in better light. Thank you for your review

Some of these old lenses have a beautiful softness to them that modern lenses have eradicated in favour of sharpness. The bokeh here is amazing. These old lenses are great for DSLR video too, where the manual focus really shines.

Nice work Blunty! These photos have so much depth and character to them. Nice composition as well :)

5:21 that image is fucking amazing, you could sell that as a painting.

I'm no photographer but I'm pretty surprised that you can get pictures like that out of such an old lens

Amazing photos :O

Beautiful shots. I love adapting old glass, actual heading o a second hand camera store tomorrow to see if I can grab a ultra wide

It took me a month but I finally succumbed and bought a Jupiter 11 for a camera I don't even own yet! Damn you Blunty!

Lorne, Thanks for posting this. I'm a video guy one year into Micro fourth Thirds with a Panasonic Lumix GH3. I've been buying these legacy lenses on Ebay like crazy! It's gotten rather obsessive. As a video guy, I find the manual functions completely satisfactory. I'm also having great fun learning photography.

I own two soviet lenses and they are both so amazing! They have this very organic quality to them and are very sharp. Their color reproduction is also something I love.

proof that old stuff is awesome

Nice shots Blunty. I've just taken my J11 out of its velvet bag after many years of mothballing. It hadn't occurred to me to use it until recently as I doubt I'll ever put film in my Fed5b again. I've just shot my first few frames on the J11 after all these years, now having an adapter, and am looking forward to more. Thanks for the vid.

I have a very similar lens in M42. Was attached to my late Mothers old Praktica when I found it. That and a similarly aged Pentacon 1.8 50mm *live* on a Pentax DSLR I keep just for those lenses. Have fun with the others!

Went onto ebay about 2 seconds before you mentioned it haha. The images that you produced with this are amazing. I really must pick this up at some point.

Very nice review and beautiful pictures. A little correction on your tutorial. It's not KOMZ but KMZ. Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (Красногорский механический завод) - Krasnogorsk Mechanical Works or KMZ

You Jupiter 11 looks like quite a find. I do have one suggestion. If you are going to polish it up use Simichrome instead of Brasso. Aluminum parts I polished with Simichrome looked a lot better than ones I polished with Brasso. Cheers.

Dude, this is high art. Not only the lens itself. Not only the stunning pictures you took. But also this entire video!

Only just found this channel the other day. I already ordered a Jupiter 8 & bidding on a Jupiter 11! So...blimey! I never knew the lenses existed until I started watching this.

Gorgeous colors!

You just made me spend $50 and I’m not even mad lol. Thank you for bringing this lens to my attention.

Brilliant video and review. i also have a J11, same barrel design, 1973. Portraits are a real forte of this lens.

The color from that lens are so rich and beautiful! It is nothing short of amazing!

I have a jupiter 11 on a lumix s1 and this lens is excellent. The sharpness in the center is just astounding. The built is like a tank. Love this lens

ok check. Got one! Thank you Blunty!

Amazing colour and contrast. What a discovery.

Yessss been waiting for this!

Wow results are beautiful, I wasn't expecting that at all.

Heh heh, welcome to the fun and inexpensive world of vintage glass. I've got a nice collection of 1950's-60's Pentax Super Takumar M42 lenses ranging from 28mm to 135mm, which all cost me an average of $25USD at local garage sales. 8 lenses total (including an early 60's Zeiss for $28!). On a micro four thirds setup, image quality is as good as anything new out there short of maybe the premium Oly lenses, and the build quality and feel put a smile on my face every time I pick them up. I love shooting manual, and the only frustrating drawback I've encountered is that there's really nothing that translates to a truly wide angle on a micro four thirds sensor. But pick a super takumar up if you ever get a chance, my favorite so far has been a 35mm 3.5.

Awesome! love it when the old stuff kicks butt

Holy Crap Blunty!!!!!!! I've already scrambled over to ebay and ordered one for my E-Pm 1...brilliant shots mate

This lens seems great! You're compositions make it it seem even better!

Awesome photos, was not expecting that at all from such an old lens. Is it possible to get a single raw file of a shot of a fine textured surface, I am really interested in the edge to edge sharpness of that lens.

Excellent results.

Lovely vid. The photos are stunning and way in front of many modern lenses. Thanks.

These Jupiters make great video lenses. I saw a Jupiter 21 200mm lens video and the quality reminded me of those early 1970s French films. Got to watch out for flare though but that ads to the vintage look in videos. I got a Jupiter 8 50mm made in 1956 and it's superb! Definitely going to get a Jupiter 11 for sure.

I one had the soviet copy of Hasselblad. It had no central-shutter only the carpet. And true enough it had low-contrast and I did not have the time to find another develop-index - but it was sharp as hell. Wonderful.

Amazing Lens, nice images.

You are a jelly donut indeed... one that's is very good at photography apparently. Absolutely great photos. Looking forward for more videos of the other russian lenses too

Nice photos indeed. The catch with these old soviet lenses is actually pretty simple: there wasn't stable quality control of production, as a result you may OR may NOT have “good” copy of lens, Blunty just got lucky with his copy. I recommend finding as older lens as possible, look for earlier dates

Just got mine last week. Works great on my Panasonic GX7 with IBIS on and using focus peaking. Love that focus peaking on my G6 and GX7!

great photos! love ure stuff man. cool to see the review of these! i would love to see more old cameras. hopefully someone else sends u some again!

those pictures came out so well. good work

The music is a GREAT touch, Blunty! Gonna try and grab a Jupiter 11 for my a77 :)

Some stunning shots there Blunty!

Wonderful review😊

Wow the images coming out of that is incredible. You must have thought it was Christmas come early 😃

Check out the Industar 22, I don't know why people are so surprised as to the quality of the older lenses, back when these lenses were made (and up until the late 90s) lenses were made properly with actual metal parts (shock horror) rather than the plastic lenses you get today.

I had already looked on ebay before the question was asked near the end of the video. I've just recently picked up a Pentax Q (The magnesium alloy bodied Q that you reviewed years ago) so that I could grab a ton of adapted lenses. I think the Jupiter 11 will be a really fun lens to play with.

very nice images. interesting history on these too

I like your style on youtube Blunty, but you are just great photographer. Great eye and composition.

amazing optics, i would start using them a lot. great video!

Well, 10 seconds here... Ordering now! Thanks mate

wow, looks great

This is a very well reputed lens ,all the jupiter 135 mm lens is made at KOMZ factory ,i have Jupiter 37AM an upgraded copy of this lens,very sharp even wide open!!!

What a treat! I keep meaning to properly roadtest my MF lenses on the EM-5 and G6. Any tips?

I was searching ebay before this vid ended!! :-)

There's something I really love about the scarecrow picture... at 4:01

That's a great example of why you should invest in good glass (and have good glass cleaner as well)

Today I used a 1939 Leica Elmar on a Panasonic GX7 :) With good results. Your images are excellent.

Jupiter 11 arrived yesterday..!! Just awaiting my M39 to M43 adaptor then will try it out on my E-M1. As this is my first non-MFT lens, could I ask which adaptor you use.? Thanks

Appreciate the music, it adds a lot to the video.

omg the Jupiter 11 has perfectly circular aperture rings

There's something almost motion like with these images. It's like the image...I dunno, not glowing, but it has an almost otherworldly depth to it that I've not seen with other images. It's sort of a...a richness, soft, though not fuzzy, rich depth.

Looks lovely

Now your using a crop sensor correct. I wonder how these lenses would perform on a full frame sensor. Probably superb. I love vintage lenses, starting to rack up a collection of my own. Purchased a couple of months ago a 50mm F1.4 Super Tak (8 element version) really is a joy to use. One thing to look out for is radioactive coatings put on some of the lens elements. I tend to avoid these lenses.

WOW....great vid Blunty. I couldn't wait to see when you would start testing and reviewing these lenses. This one seems amazing. Would this lens work well on a digital Canon EOS? If so, it seems like the limits are endless concerning old-school lenses and picture quality... Thanks for the vid, can't wait for the next few....

I'll be using mine on my new Zorki 4

Fantastic performance from a 50 years old glass! There are some modern manufactures that should be put to shame by this. There are a lot of expensive modern crap out there that just won't compare to this lens.

I'm looking for one with the M42 mounting. That would look fantastic on my Pentax.

Old is gold

Call me crazy, but I feel like a lens that provides low contrast is a lens that increased your overall possibilities of capturing higher dynamic range on a sensor that chokes for dynamic range. Awesome video.

Hi, are you planning a similar review of the other 3 lenses? rather curious now, thanks

Sweet lens!

wow, those are awesome images

About 4 seconds, I was hitting e-bay in Jupiter 11 search...LOL

I'd love to get this for my Zorki-6 camera.

Beautiful pictures! But I think it says a lot about the skills of the photographer. I would not touch that barrel with anything. Looks great as it is.

also you should get Mir 1b 37/2.8 lense :)

Good review. Enjoyed and thanks.

Blunty what adapter did you use? That lens is a BEAUTY!!

Amazing lens indeed. I love mine.

I did check out JUPITER 11 on local ebay-like website. As ex-commie state there were many JUPITER lenses and even several ones with number 11 on them. :/ One of the guys told me that quality of those was pretty much random, some worked very well others didn't. Who knows how quality control worked in Soviet Union :D

What lens mount would I need to put it on my Pentax Q7?

I have some old Pentacon lenses, but the cheap chinese M42 to Nikon F mount makes it not focus properly :(

if I was the e-bay type, I'd have been buying a Jupiter-11 before the blue VW Beetle was off the screen :P

If you are able to try out a minolta 70-210 f4, also known as beercan, do it. Another incredibly good lens with a very specific look to it. minolta colors. ;-)

Hey there blunty when are you gonna review the other Soviet lenses

It's a pity I can't used this on a Nikon. I can use it for macro shots though....

Im intruiged to see what the other lenses are like now!

Proving a point that plays out over and over again. People over complicate things, good photography is 98% physical position and setting. If you dont position yourself in the right place and in the right setting your not going to achieve great photos regardless of your equipment.

I told you that is amazing lens. Now I'm curious how good is your copy of Jupiter 3. Could be brilliant if it does not have production flaws.

amazing

beautiful!

Hi Blunty great video series can't wait for the next one. Actually after watching this I did go on ebay and buy one. Just a question for anyone with experience of this lens in m39 mount. What kind of adapters do u guys use and do you have any problems focusing to infinity? After reading a little on forums some people were talking about using the Leica mounts being different for the Russian m39. And possibly not being able to focus to infinity. Any help would be appreciated before I go and buy something that maybe doesn't work. This is for a m43 samsung camera

i was thinking ebay 10 sec before you mentioned it :D but old Fed and Jupiter lenses are quite fun. It's the Russian Leica