Down the Rabbit Hole
In a previous post, I shared a brief history of the Jupiter lenses, a Soviet-made series that have become popular with mirrorless camera enthusiasts. There are several models, with some — notably the Jupiter 8 — often available very inexpensively on eBay. Intrigued by the possibility of expanding my lens arsenal with an inexpensive but useful lens, I did some shopping, and ended up with one of the 50 mm Jupiter 8’s for about $50, including shipping. Not bad.
In a previous post, I mentioned my purchase of an old, Soviet-made Jupiter-8 lens. It wasn’t very expensive, and would expand my mirrorless camera arsenal with a short telephoto prime lens. As I mentioned though, it didn’t focus properly through it’s entire range — more on that later — but had a great story. How did a pre-WWII Zeiss lens design come to be mass produced in the Soviet Union after the War?
A couple of years ago, I purchased an Olympus mirrorless camera as a way of upping my photography game. I had been using a variety of super zoom and point-and-shoot cameras, and wanted to gain the advantage of interchangeable lenses. The micro four-thirds (often called “m43”) platform seemed like a great way to have access to a wide variety of lenses from at least two manufacturers: Olympus and Panasonic. I learned that it was possible to adapt other lenses to the m43 platform, leading to an adventure in classic old lenses.