Monday, I received a new MC Jupiter-9 2/85mm lens from Pavel Gubanov. Many of you know him as "ustas" on ebay. He quit listing this lens for awhile on ebay and I emailed him to see if he had any more. He sent me a new one for $45, including shipping. From what I could tell from the Russian manual, it was manufactured in 2001.
I ran a test roll through it today and I am pleasantly surprised. How good can a $45 lens be anyway? I am probably more surprised that my wife sat still long enough without any makeup on for me to see how it works as a portrait lens. I shot five head-and-shoulder shots of my wife @ f:2-f:8. My wife and my two daughters picked the f:2 shot as the most flattering. It's noticably sharper at f:4. I shot a series of brick wall shots and there doesn't appear to be any light falloff at f:2.8. Again it sharpens nicely at f:4. A third series to check the bokeh impressed me as well...very nice and smooth. If my count is right, it has 16 blades and the roundest aperature I have ever seen. On the negative side, it uses stop down metering and is a preset lens. The focusing is certainly not as smooth as we have come to expect from our Takumars. It is going to take a little practice to get used to it, but it may just be worth the trouble. Judging from the results, this could be the best $45 I've spent in a long time. -- Kenneth Archer, San Antonio, Texas [EMAIL PROTECTED] - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
