Russian lenses for Nikon?

Erik Petersson · Sep 6, 2013

There is something special with Russian lenses that is very attractive to me. Maybe it is the contrast, the quality of the areas out of focus, or the slight vignetting. Or maybe just something in my head. Anyway, I'll give you a couple of examples.

Industar 61 on a FED II, Arista Premium, shot at 400 ISO

Smena 8N, Fuji NPH, shot at 400 ISO

Industar 61 on a FED III, Neopan 1600 if I remember correctly

I love these lenses, but the cameras are a pain. Do anyone of you know of similar lenses that fit on a Nikon-F mount? Do they give the same results?

thanks in ahead
/Erik

E. von Hoegh · Sep 6, 2013

Better yet, you can get a Kiev 17 and put Nikon lenses on it!

http://www.sovietcams.com/index.php?-1686813924

edit - I'm intrigued by the FSU lenses as well, and I have 42mm screwmount bodies as well as Nikon.
There are Russian lenses available in both mounts.

erikg · Sep 6, 2013

M42 to Nikon mount adapter and go to town.

JLP · Sep 6, 2013

As far as I know it is difficult to find lenses that will work at least at infinity on Nikon cameras. The distance from the mount to the film plane is to long.
I have a couple of FSU lenses (J-3 and J-8) but they will not work on a Nikon due to the spacing.

E. von Hoegh · Sep 6, 2013

erikg said:
M42 to Nikon mount adapter and go to town.

Nope. You lose infinity focus due to the difference in flange focus distance. And the adapters with optics which do give infinity focus aren't very good.

E. von Hoegh · Sep 6, 2013

JLP said:
As far as I know it is difficult to find lenses that will work at least at infinity on Nikon cameras. The distance from the mount to the film plane is to long.
I have a couple of FSU lenses (J-3 and J-8) but they will not work on a Nikon due to the spacing.

As I pointed out in my first post, FSU did make lenses in Nikon F mount.

Erik Petersson · Sep 6, 2013

Thanks for all the replies. So there are both adapters and lenses originally made for the F-mount. Actually I have googled a bit found an Industar 61 for Nikon. Could it be the same as for my FED?

Mike051 · Sep 6, 2013

Or Kiev 19.

gone · Sep 7, 2013

There are Russian lenses that have Nikon F mounts. They can be found for sale on the web by doing a little searching. People in the old Soviet Union states often convert them and sell them on fleabay too, but I wouldn't go that route. Too many issues, especially if you have to send something back, which is pretty likely in my experience. I used to have a J-11 135mm and it imaged quite nicely for portraits, but was a pig to use. The hacked Nikon mount meant that the aperture readings were on the bottom rather than the top, and the thing was full of thick grease on the focusing threads. It was not fun to focus. Stick to buying from a dealer. These folk sell them, but the prices are crazy in my opinion.
http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/nikon_cameras_lenses.htm

thundertwin72 · Sep 7, 2013

Erik Petersson said:
Thanks for all the replies. So there are both adapters and lenses originally made for the F-mount. Actually I have googled a bit found an Industar 61 for Nikon. Could it be the same as for my FED?

There are two versions of the lens Industar-61:

- Industar-61LD: m39 screw mount, or LTM (Leica Thread Mount) for FED or Zorki cameras.

- Industar-61LZ: m42 screw mount for Zenit cameras.

Do not know any Industar-61 lens with Nikon-F mount. If there is because there was some modification.

On this website and in the manual of the camera Kiev-19 you will find different mount lenses Nikon-F that were built in the FSU.

Erik Petersson · Sep 7, 2013

Thanks, especially momus and thundertwin. This seems to be an exhaustive lists of FSU lenses made for Nikon mount.

Do anyone know if they can be compared to the lovely imperfections of the Industar?

Mark Feldstein · Sep 7, 2013

Try this: Drop 24 bucks on a Holga and spend another 12 bucks for a 35mm insert and then go back to town and shoot up a storm without exposing your Nikkor lenses to the shame and humiliation of attachment to a Russian rig.
Dosvadanya
Mark

resummerfield · Sep 7, 2013

The Zenit KMZ factory recently started selling new 85mm f1.5 Helios model 40-2 pre-set lenses in Nikon F, Canon EOS, and the M42 mounts. I just bought the Nikon F mount on Ebay (from a USA dealer), and Im very pleased with it.

f/16 · Sep 7, 2013

I have a Jupiter 37a 135 3.5. It has M42 and Nikon mounts(yes it does focus to inf on a Nikon). It is sharp even wide open and has better bokeh than most Soviet lenses. It has 12 aperture blades that give nice round out of focus highlights stopped down. But very flare prone. There's no meter coupling or connection between camera and aperture. Stop down metering only. And the f stops are not very accurate. So if you're NOT using the camera's TTL meter or TTL flash, bracket or run a test roll first to get correct exposure.

Erik Petersson · Sep 8, 2013

Thanks Eric and Bill. I have looked for out of focus properties on flickr, and found nasty stuff on the normal lenses, which are my favourites. Maybe I should take a chance on the modified Industar 61...

Russian lenses for Nikon?

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