Zeiss Jena Sonnar, bubble bursting?

Today, I watched two Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 lenses, sell on ebay for quite a bit less than they have been going for in recent times.
One (minty) went for £48 and another for £33. I have noticed that the price of these lenses has been falling, lately. A year ago, even quite scruffy ones were fetching 60 to 70 pounds. Most were usually bought by Chinese buyers. I guess they've had their fill now.
I'm glad I sold my mint and boxed one, for £90, last year, leaving me with a cosmetically scruffy, but optically perfect one, to keep for myself.
They are very excellent lenses, and now seemingly available at sensible prices again.

I think a lot go to the US. I don't think they had them as retail lenses originally. They are probably spent up after Black Friday

The Russian Jupiters are sharper and cheaper
but don't have the CZ name.

I might keep an eye out for one then, now I have a Spotmatic to use it on.

Which Jupiter would that be? They don't seem common in the UK and I don't fancy importing one and getting the inevitable ransom demand from Parcelfarce.

Any of the 135mm f/3.5's or f/4 I think they are 11A and 37A. I've got both and compared them to the CZ and they were sharper and from f/4 both identical.

I posted some test shots (taken in the rain) in this thread.

Some nice shots on Flickriver

The sharpness and bokeh on these is impressive (Pentax K10D)

I paid about £25 each for mine and ones the Moscow Olympics Special Edition.

Ah! Yes Algi, but the Zeiss Jena focuses to less than 3ft, is multi-coated... And has an Auto/Manual switch!

I am seriously considering a Zenit (to get hold of the Helios 58mm), at this rate I'll end up with a collection of Russian kit as well as my Pentax M42 gear!

Try and get the 44/2 preset lens Matt, it's easier to use on a DSLR.

You should find one attached to the Zenit 11 or early EM. All 12XP models have the 44/4 lens.

When I tried selling my CZJ 135 on ebay no body wanted it, one before mine sold for £10 more and the one after for £25 more. Mine was a BIN as well!

I got a PK mount one from ebay, but cannot lock-up on my K7. I've no idea why. Therefore I have to rotate very carefully when using it.

I would, but my K-m doesn't like M42 lenses at all. When you fit one to it (with genuine Pentax adapter) the results are always horribly underexposed,

I'm now using the Spotmatic and SV to play with weird and wonderful screw mount glass.

Can't you use a manual meter Matt?

The Zenith lenses are cheap even without a camera. They do vary though so you might have to buy several.

I could do, but that seems like a lot of fiddling about. I've got plenty of older K mount lenses so haven't bothered making the effort with M42 glass.

I also fancied one of the Zenit "Olympic" special edition bodies for my collection, hence keeping eyes open for a lens and body.

It also has a slide out lens hood. The screw on/reverse lens hood of the Jupiters can be a bit awkward, but makes a good protector

They are pretty much the same lens, big chunk of glass in the middle link

The 11A focuses to 1M the 37A to 1.2M, but often used as macros with extension tubes. Some are MC.

They don't need an A/M switch they have quite a clever one ring preset so if you set it at f/8 the ring which isn't click stopped goes between wide open and f/8 so you can still stop partway between the two. Normally you would set it to f/4.5 or f/5.6 and just focus at that. Still as much light as most zooms.

The big advantage is the 12 blade iris which is almost a circle and gives good bokeh.

Quite a bit of very unscientific babbling and some pics here

I agree with Algernon on the Jupiters, I have the Olympic version of Jupiter 37A and although it underexposes exactly 2 stops I love its colour rendition and sharpness more than the CZJ Sonnar I was considering.

Tair 11 is also a fine lens, although more rare than the Jupiter.

The guy who's flickr photos I linked to earlier (now left Pentax for Leica) has put some interesting bokeh shots on the other forum link
well worth a look.

I've read a very good review (which I can't find now)comparing various M42 135mm and I was quite surprised when the results shown the Carl Zeiss was not that exceptional and I believe the Pentacon had the edge, which begs the question why they go for so much?