The Jupiter (Russian: Юпитер, "Jupiter") series of lenses are

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

camera lenses made by various manufacturers in the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. They were made to fit many camera types of the time, from pre-

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

rangefinders A rangefinder (also rangefinding telemeter, depending on the context) is a device used to measure distances to remote objects. Originally optical devices used in surveying, they soon found applications in other fields, such as photography, t ...

to almost modern SLRs. They are copied from Zeiss pre-

designs with incremental improvements, such as coatings, introduced during production. The majority of them are based on

Zeiss Sonnar The Zeiss Sonnar is a photographic lens originally designed by Dr. Ludwig Bertele in 1929 and patented by Zeiss Ikon. It was notable for its relatively light weight, simple design and fast aperture. Naming The name "Sonnar" is derived from t ...

optical scheme, but that's not a rule.

Jupiter-3

The Jupiter-3 lens is derived from

optical design. It has seven elements in three groups. This lens is the fastest Jupiter lens, having a maximum aperture of f/1.5. The focal length of this lens is 50mm, sometimes also expressed as 5cm. It was made for two different camera mounts, the Leica thread mount used on

Zorki Zorki (, meaning sharp-sighted) is a series of 35mm format, 35mm Rangefinder camera, rangefinder cameras manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1978. The Zorki was a product of the Krasnogorsky Zavod, Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory ( ...

, FED, and some other Soviet

, and the

Contax Contax (stylised as CONTAX in the Yashica/Kyocera era) began as a German camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Carl Zeis ...

mount used on

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. The latter one can be used on all Contax rangefinders, with the former ''usually'' needing to be adjusted to properly work on non-Soviet rangefinders using Leica thread mount. In recent years, a new version of this lens was manufactured by collaboration of the companies Lomography and Zenit. The lens is named Jupiter-3+ and is meant to be used with

Leica Leica may refer to: Companies * Ernst Leitz GmbH, later divided into: ** Leica Biosystems GmbH, a cancer diagnostics company ** Leica Camera AG, a German camera and optics manufacturer ** Leica Geosystems AG, a Swiss manufacturer of surveying and ...

-style rangefinder cameras (either Leica thread mount or

Leica M mount The Leica M mount is a camera lens mount introduced in 1954 with the Leica M3, and a range of lenses. It has been used on all the Leica M-series cameras and certain accessories (e.g. Visoflex reflex viewing attachment) up to the current film L ...

with an adapter), but can also be used with any digital

mirrorless camera A mirrorless camera (sometimes referred to as a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC) or digital single-lens mirrorless (DSLM)) is a digital camera which, in contrast to DSLRs, does not use a mirror in order to ensure that the image ...

Jupiter-6

The Jupiter-6 lens is derived from

optical design. The focal length of this lens is 180mm and it has a maximum aperture of f/2.8. The lens is thus a telephoto lens, nowadays usually used for portrait photography. It's exclusively made for SLR cameras. There are two versions of this lens, namely Jupiter-6 in M39 mount (not to be confused with LTM, this is the SLR version of the mount for early Zenit cameras) and Jupiter-6-2 in M42 mount. This lens is really big and heavy. It has five elements in three groups. There are rumors that this lens is actually a real Sonnar, even more than the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 2.8 / 180, which is believed to use the redesigned Sonnar optical scheme – Ernostar.

Jupiter-8

The Jupiter-8 lens is derived from the

design. It has six elements in three groups. It has a focal length of 50mm and a maximum aperture of f/2.0. It was made for two different camera mounts, the Leica thread mount used on

, FED, and some other Soviet

, and the

mount used on

. The latter one can be used on all Contax rangefinders, with the former ''usually'' needing to be adjusted to properly work on non-Soviet rangefinders using Leica thread mount. The lens is a standard M39 mount. Additionally, there existed a modified version of this lens, called the Jupiter-8M. The only difference between the two versions is that the modified version had click-stops on the aperture ring. It was available only in Contax mount for

rangefinders. A variation of Jupiter-8 lens was the usual standard lens on many

and

cameras, making it a pretty common lens even today.

Jupiter-9

The Jupiter-9 lens is derived from the

design. It has seven elements in three groups. Its focal length is 85mm, which makes it a short telephoto lens usually used for portrait photography. The maximum aperture of this lens is f/2.0. It was available in multiple camera mounts. It's most commonly found today in the Leica thread mount used on

, FED, and some other Soviet

, and the

mount used on

. The latter one can be used on all

, with the former ''usually'' needing to be adjusted to properly work on non-Soviet

using Leica thread mount. But this lens was also manufactured in M42 mount,

Pentax K-mount The Pentax K-mount, sometimes referred to as the "PK-mount", is a bayonet lens mount standard for mounting interchangeable photographic lenses to 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. It was created by Pentax in 1975, and has since been ...

, Leica M and proprietary

SLR mount (used on Kiev 10 and Kiev 15 cameras).

Jupiter-11

The Jupiter-11 lens is derived from the

design. It has four elements in three groups. Its focal length is 135mm, making it a telephoto lens. The maximum aperture of this lens is f/4.0. It was available in multiple camera mounts. It's most commonly found today in the Leica thread mount used on

, FED, and some other Soviet

, and the

mount used on

. The latter one can be used on all

, with the former ''usually'' needing to be adjusted to properly work on non-Soviet

using Leica thread mount. But this lens was also manufactured in M42 mount, M39 mount (which shouldn't be confused with Leica thread mount, this is an SLR version of the lens for early Zenit SLRs), and proprietary

SLR mount (used on Kiev 10 and Kiev 15 cameras). There also existed a variation of the lens called the Jupiter-11A. All the Soviet lenses with -A suffix had interchangeable lens mounts, so the buyer was able to choose the required mount for their lens.

Jupiter-12

The Jupiter-12 lens is derived from the

Zeiss Biogon Biogon is the brand name of Carl Zeiss for a series of photographic camera lenses, first introduced in 1934. Biogons are typically wide-angle lenses. History ''Biogon'' (I), 1934 File:Bertele-Zeiss Biogon (1934).svg, Zeiss ''Biogon'' by Bertel ...

design. It has six elements in four groups. Its focal length is 35mm and its maximum aperture is f/2.8. It was made for two different camera mounts, the Leica thread mount used on

, FED, and some other Soviet

, and the

mount used on

. The latter one can be used on all

, with the former ''usually'' needing to be adjusted to properly work on non-Soviet

using Leica thread mount.

Jupiter-13

Very little information exists about this lens. It's a large format lens, originally used for aerial photography. It's using the

optical formula. Its focal length is 125mm and its maximum aperture is f/1.5.

Jupiter-17

This is a lens that was meant to be produced in big quantities to replace Jupiter-8 as the new default lens on

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Leica thread mount

. It never actually got to a point where it was produced, but a few prototypes of this lens exist in collections. The lens has five elements in four groups. Its focal length is 50mm and its maximum aperture is f/2.0.

Jupiter-21

Jupiter-21 is a telephoto lens with focal length of 200mm. Its maximum aperture is f/4.0. The lens was made in multiple mounts and is frequently adapted to modern cameras nowadays. There are multiple versions of the lens. The most common one is the Jupiter-21M, which has M42 mount. But there were also versions Jupiter-21A and Jupiter-21T. The Latter has T mount and the former is a lens with -A suffix. This means that lens has multiple mounts available and the user can decide which mount the lens uses.

Jupiter-24

Jupiter-24 is hardwired into Quartz-1 movie camera, a 8 mm

motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

lens with focal length of 12.5 mm and maximum aperture of f/1.9.

Jupiter-36

Jupiter-36 is a medium format lens, produced for

medium format cameras. Two versions of the lens exist. One is named Jupiter-36B and it has Pentacon Six mount - this one was made to be used with Kiev 6C and Kiev 60 medium format cameras. The other version of the lens is Jupiter-36V, which has Hasselblad 1600F mount. The lens has a focal length of 250mm and a maximum aperture of f/3.5. It's based on

optical scheme. It has 4 elements in 3 groups. The lens is very heavy (1500g) and doesn't have a tripod socket.

Jupiter-37

Jupiter-37 is another

Sonnar The Zeiss Sonnar is a photographic lens originally designed by Dr. Ludwig Bertele in 1929 and patented by Zeiss Ikon. It was notable for its relatively light weight, simple design and fast aperture. Naming The name "Sonnar" is derived from the ...

type lens. Its focal length is 135mm and its maximum aperture f/3.5. The lens exists in a few versions, the most common one being Jupiter-37A. A suffix means this lens has an inter changeable mount. There also exists the Jupiter-37K, with

Pentax K mount The Pentax K-mount, sometimes referred to as the "PK-mount", is a Bayonet mount, bayonet lens mount standard for mounting interchangeable photographic lenses to 135 film, 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. It was created by Pentax in 1 ...

Jupiter-38

Jupiter-38 is a unique lens. It was used by the traffic police to shoot traffic and various evidence. Its focal length is 75mm and its maximum aperture is f/4.0. It has

M42 lens mount The M42 lens mount is a screw thread mounting standard for attaching lenses to 35 mm cameras, primarily single-lens reflex models. It is more accurately known as the M42 × 1 mm standard, which means that it is a metric screw thread ...

References

{{photography-stub Soviet photographic lenses