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SOLD: Jupiter-3 shimmed for Leica

Brian S

New member
SOLD... :cry: This was a nice one...

For sale is a 1955 KMZ 5cm F1.5 Jupiter-3 with new front-element and mounted in a much later Black Leica Thread Mount, EX condition. Glass is near perfect- inner and rear triplet are original and look like German glass, as used in my other KMZ J-3’s of this period. The black finish was worn on the rim of the outer helical, and I touched it up- see close-ups. Not perfect, not bad. The rear triplet is uncoated, and is an exact match of my pre-war German Sonnars. I disassembled this lens, flood-cleaned the aperture blades, lubed the helical, and custom shimmed it for the Leica. The aperture blades look good, focus is very smooth. I replaced the original front element which was scratched with one from a 1980s “New-Old-stock” lens. I tried out four different front elements to get the lens to be as sharp as it is now across the distance range. It is one of the best J-3’s that I have used. This lens is optimized for wide-open and close-up use on the Leica. I have used this lens on my Leica M8 and M9. It focuses properly to infinity even at F1.5.

Robert Chisholm posted an article on two Jupiter lenses that I worked on here:

JUPI-WHAT? Shooting Jupiter Lenses on the Leica M9 by Robert Chisholm | STEVE HUFF PHOTOS

Price: $325 shipped within the United States Priority Mail, $340 anywhere else via International Priority Mail. Paypal, Personal Check, Money Order. I reserve the right to hold shipment until check/MO clears. Return policy: returns must be made within 10 days, refund for the price of the item will be given after receipt. Postage cost is not refundable. If you need an IR/UV filter, I will sell the B&W 40.5mm filter for an additional $35. Filter only offered with the lens. You will need an LTM to M-Mount adapter to use this with an M-Mount camera, adapter not included.

Not quite as sharp as a C-Sonnar, but also a lot less money. I've done side-by-side comparisons between the two, Zeiss and KMZ did a good job matching my original Sonnars.











At F1.5 on the M9:



100% crop



(Yup… nailed it)



Infinity at F1.5:



and F4:




At F1.5 on the M8



Lens is sold, payment received.

Thankyou.
 
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