Jupiter 9 85mm F2 LTM/M39

mdecorte · June 28, 2015

I recently purchased a Jupiter 9 85mm F2 in an LTM/M39 mount for my X-T1 with Firmware 3.1 from KEH. It was in excellent condition. I've read of issues with quality of the Jupiter's with focusing to infinity, mount, etc and found no issues. A few observations:

- As soon as I unpacked it I was sure that I would love this lens. It's a beautiful lens that is well made. It has nicely marked focus and aperture rings as well as clear DOF markings. It was very compact. The weight was heavy enough to have some heft but not so much to be heavy.

- The handling was excellent. The large focus ring was well dampened in just the right way. Focus has infinity on the right like Leica lenses, but opposite from Fuji. The aperture ring is click-less and also nicely dampened. Close focus was about 1m which is ok.

- By F4.0 the lens was sharp with good contrast. At F2.0 it was a little soft in the center and the edges were rather soft. Contrast was OK. When in focus the images were very nice. I loved how the background just went all buttery. The bokeh was pretty good, not great but not distracting either.

- I hadn't considered it before, but Focus Peaking works well with some lenses but less so with others. With this lens, I found that the Focus Peaking doesn't pick up the edges very well and it's very hard to focus well. This is true even with Focus Peaking set to Red (High). I'm not sure if it was due to the softness or limited contrast, but it was hard when wide open.

I wanted to love this lens, but it went back. The ergonomics were great. The look was great. When in focus I was very happy with the images. But without Focus Peaking working well, it just wasn't going to work.

Here are some photos of lens and brick walls. I didn't keep the others.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdecorte/sets/72157652853936094