I picked up this Soviet-era Contax rangefinder clone with a Jupiter 8 50mm f/2. Both were in good condition, until the people at FedEx managed to impact the box they were shipped in and flattened one side of the lens filter ring. Pliers straightened things out, but the ring had been hit so hard that the metal split during the attempted fix. Everything is still in place, but I won’t be able to add a filter to the lens.
The body has a nice weight to it, and using the focus wheel on the right side of the body is a novel experience. The shutter of the Kiev 4 goes up to 1/1250, but on the body I picked up it drags at that highest speed, based on the photos on this roll of Ilford HP 5 Plus 400.
The bokeh on the Jupiter 8 has a nice rendering. I’ve shot the lens in an LTM mount, so I was expecting good things from it. You can see the out of focus quality in the shots of the bridge and the figural sculptures.
See the set on Flickr for shutter speed and aperture of each shot.
