I have a new vintage lens. A Jupiter 8 f2, a beautiful little lens, manufactured in 1976 at the KMZ factory in Russia.
There is quite a story to the lens too. The manager of one of my regular charity shops I visit told me they were having a camera sale "Items in the windows Sunday 27th, Monday 28th shop opens 10.00am Tuesday 29th June"
So on the Monday I had a look in the shop window and saw a Zorki 4 Rangefinder camera with the said lens attached (a Leica clone in an L39 mount priced at £35-00)
So on Wednesday I went to the said shop and waited in the queue for it to open. When I say queue, it was just me stood outside the shop 20 minutes before it opened. The manager saw me outside and I pointed at the Zorki and she smiled and removed it from the window. There was also an Olympus Trip at £20-00 and I pointed at that too !
Anway I take the lens and camera home and it won't focus on my Sony A6000 with a L39 / Sony E-Mount adapter !!!
Oh no ! I search various internet forums for a solution and end up posting a question on Manual Focus Lenses
forum.mflenses.com/manual-focus-lenses-f3.html
The problem was the distance from the lens to sensor was wrong. So I dismantled the lens (separated the glass from the focus helicoid) and saw a little spacer on the thread (like a really thin metal washer). I concluded I needed to buy some of these to take the glass further from the sensor. So on Saturday I went to a couple of hardware shops to see if they could supply something similar (hardware shops are quite hard to find). Unfortunately nothing would fit. The owner of the second shop suggested I go to a little engineering firm as they might be able to supply one.
I then asked my neighbour (a retired engineer) if he could recommend someone. "I could make you one on my lathe" said Dave" ! So I gave the little spacer to Dave.
About 15 minutes later Dave returned. He had 3D printed one !!! It didn't quite fit, so he emery papered the rough edge and returned with 2 others.
I put two of the said spacers in the lens and hey presto it focussed !!! Result
So here I am shot through the said Jupiter 8 lens on my Sony A6000. Pretty cool isn't it
Sorry you have to put up with a photo of me, but I did get a stranger with the lens this afternoon , which I will post as my next photo, but I thought the story of the lens was pretty cool , as too is the Russian glass, not too sure about the guy in the photo though !
I gave Dave a bottle of wine for his help !
Thanks for your visit