Kiev 4/Jupiter 8 - performance wide open

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Nice shots. That last one doesn't look all that bad to me for a wide open lens. It does seem to show a bit of flare or light leak at the bottom which could be affecting apparent sharpness.

Hello Igor,

a check the rangefinder is out of adjustment is very easy. The KIEV rangefinder cameras included a very presice prism rangefinder. For check taked two needels with colored head in a littel distance behind. When the rangefinder in smallest distance operation can resolution the two needelhead is the rangefinder ok. The rangefinder window in the viewer don't included a vertical or horizontal adjustment that deteminated a shock on the rangefinder and needed a repair.

peter

Another thing to bear in mind is that your depth of focus is very shallow in a 1-meter closeup at f/2. Even with a good rangefinder, it can make a difference whether you are focused on the eyes or the tip of the nose. I suppose a useful test would be to shoot a tabletop with a number of objects at graduated distances.
    I have a Kiev IIa with a Jupiter 8 that has produced some sharp results for me, though I never shoot it wide open. The lens does better indoors or outdoors with a shade as it has a few cleaning marks and not much of a coating. This shot was probably at around f/5.6:

Mike C. : WOW. What a good picture. Exactly what I like.

BTW how did you digitize it ? Very impressive rendition on my screen.

Again, congratulations.

I believe I scanned the diner shot on my Dimage Scan Dual IV. The film was Kodak B&W (C41).

Thanks all for contribution. I indeed will follow advice to "shot tabletop with a number of objects at graduated distances". Another issue with Jupiter 8 is flare - good hood should help. Otherwise I more than happy with camera.

My J8 sample is softish at wider apertures too, and it isn't a focusing problem: at few meters distance the DOF is deep enough to compensate for marginal errors. It takes a huge drop from f/4 to f/2.8; still usable in good lighting, but too low-contrast in dim light (e.g. subways and night street).

Hence I've purchased a Helios-103 1.8/53 from rafcamera.com (1982 vintage, 'new' as in never used before) a few weeks ago and couldn't be happier. At f/2.8 it is as sharp as the J8 at f/4-f/5.6, and wide open it is noticeably better than the J8 at f/2.8. It also has better contrast at all apertures and more natural color rendition, but the J8's bokeh looks smoother.

It could be that your rangefinder or lens is out of allignment. When you focus at infinity (e.g. a tower at 1/2 mile or more away) is the image coincident in the rangefinder? If its out at infinity, it'll be out by the same amount of turn on the focusing mounts close up.

To check lens collimation, I place a microscope slide equipped with scotch tape on the lens side. On the scotch tape is an "X" scribed with a surgical scalpel. Placing a light behind the glass sitting on the inner rails with the lens open on bulb, I sight with my Nikon F3 SLR and 200/4 lens set to infinity through the rangefinder camera's lens. This tells me with a great degree of accuracy whether the lens is properly collimated or not. Rick Oleson describes the procedure in detail on his repair website.

If the lens is out, then it may need to be shimmed to bring it back. Its also possible that somebody messed with the shims on the body's lens mount. The latter is not a fun job to correct and requires some careful measurements to the film plane with a depth micrometer.

Rangefinder is alligned at infinity. And I am not sure whether it misaligned at close distance. I want to find it out in order to understand whetehr I need rangefinder adjustment before I buy Jupiter-9. According to DOF calculator (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html) from minimal focus distance (90cm) 50mm lens should have following DOF @f2 88.2-91.9 total 3.67cm and even more challenging for 85mm f2 Jupiter-9 at minimal focus distance (110cm) @f2 109.1-110.9 total 1.85 Can rangefinder be adjusted by myself or it requires professional work?

You can also shoot some test shots. Tape a piece of newspaper up on the wall, shoot f/2 at close to minimum focus using (a) your rangefinder and (b) accurate newspaper to film plane measurement, and compare.

Take plenty of time to ensure that the camera is square to the wall. I use a drywall square to measure accurately.

(compare on the actual negative/slide to eliminate enlarging mistakes)

Sorry I didn't answer your rangefinder question. Assuming that the lens is properly collimated and your rangefinder aligns perfectly at infinity, SEE HERE for the rangefinder adjustment procedure. Its actually not that involved if the only problem is that the rotating rangefinder isn't travelling far enough. If its travelling through the full range and its still out at 0.9m, then its likely a manufacturing defect. I had a Kiev 4A I serviced that had a poorly-casted rangefinder cam and it was riding-up on a burr, causing misalignment at 0.9m. Once I carefully filed the cam, then the camera was fixed.

Servicing Kievs is really not for the light-hearted. Oleg in Russia services them for extremely reasonable prices, or will sell you a refurbished one.