I had really big fight with aperture ring (17:00). It was baked in, I had to gently spray some wd-40 from the front and from the back. Then I was prying it gently around - it seems it had misaligned threads and it clicked back into position eventually. Amazing video, thank you so much!
I'm glad it worked out. It's interesting though that it was cross-threaded... I can't figure how someone could cross-thread something like this. I'd imagine it would have gotten stuck much sooner on the threads (if that makes sense)
Thank you! I do have a couple of Kievs in the "to fix" boxes but I've been avoiding them because I'm a bit scared of what's inside. When I get to them I'll make a series. One is a complete overhaul so quite the challenge.
@@AlinCiortea I have not opened the lens before, bought it through ebay from an Ukraine seller. Shot a couple of rolls of film through a canon model 7 and surprisingly all of the shots were out of focus, even the ones which I focused at infinity and taken with an F16 aperture, this last one was almost focused but still straight out blurry
That might mean the lens was collimated for a different flange-to-film distance. What you could try is taping a piece of magic tape (like a scotch tape but frosty) across the film rails and with the back opened and the camera tripped on B, focus the lens on a very distant object until you get a sharp image on the magic tape. Then you can see what the lens scale indicates. You will either achieve infinity focus with the lens set at at a closer mark like 10m, or you won't achieve focus at all, meaning the lens should sit closer to the film plane. Either way you can't fix it by another helicoid position because in J8 there's pretty much only one correct position (any other will not allow for the full range of focus movement from 1m to infinity). What you need to do is adjust the shim between focusing part and optical part of the lens. If currently the lens overshoots infinity it means you need a thicker shim. If it won't reach infinity it means you need a thinner shim. I hope it makes sense.
is there a way of knowing which ones should have the spacer and which don't? Because in my case, i didn't find it and the camera still needs to be tested
If the lens doesn't focus past infinity it means the spacer wasn't needed. The most accurate way of checking this is placing either a focusing screen or, if you don't have one around, a strip of matte sticky tape (like 3M magic tape) across the film rails, focus the lens at infinity, point the camera to a very distant object and with the shutter open on B check the image at the film plane with a loupe. If you see a clear, focused image it means the lens is fine as it is.
Hi. Did you ever do the other video to get the two bits apart? I have just got one and nothing is moving it. It has the bit at the back that's probably the infinity stop. Many thanks.
I actually thought about it the other day. Maybe I can get around and do it one of these days. I have two methods and I'll describe them both. One is surprisingly accessible and risk free.
@@AlinCiortea I managed to get the back group out to see the threads on the bit I trying to get out. I have used a paint brush to apply some special oil to degrip the threads if they were laquered in. Still no joy so I'll leave it overnight. I do not want to start attacking it with tools.
@@petercooper9054 I hope I get to shoot the video today. It's quite surprising how stubborn some lenses can be. I also tried all sorts of penetrating solutions (alcohol, acetone, even wd40) with no success. In the end brute force was the name of the game.
@@AlinCiortea thanks Alin. I have left it to stand while I get on with a nicca type 5 shutter curtain replacement. I did read a comment in a group that a guy used an car oil filter grip the one that is plastic around the barrel to get more grip. I'll see if my neighbour has one as I don't.
Unfortunately there's not much you can do to shortcut the process. The aperture ring's dampening is solely based on the presence and viscosity of the grease. But this part is actually the easiest one to fix because you don't need to touch the focusing helicoid or the aperture blades.
@@AlinCiortea ok, so i try to dismount and use grease and remount like part 2 video, i've tu use a specifical grease? at home i've white lithium grease or classic yellowish/brown grease for mechanical, or teflon grease that i use for bikechain
@@alexm4104 I used a brown Teflon grease (for telescope mounts) but you could use either one. The idea is that the lighter the grease, the easier it will be to knock the ring out of your desired setting. Since the ring is clickless, the heavier the grease the better in my opinion. I wouldn't stress too much over the type since whatever you'll use is certainly better than what the soviets used, but if you can find something resistant to separation that would be advisable (so no grease vapors are released that could fog the optics and it also doesn't have the tendency to run off and contaminate the aperture blades or other parts of the lens). This is what I used: www.baader-planetarium.com/en/baader-machine-grease-1-teflon-brown-(-15%C2%B0c%E2%80%9355%C2%B0c).html
@@AlinCiortea Yes I did. It's totally disassembled and I even removed the aperture blades (I guess it was not the nicest idea since I cannot put them back for the last 12 hours.) This is the only part that I cannot open.
@@AlinCiortea Ok so just a quick midnight update I managed to took that part off too. It was really stucked unlike yours so what I did is I just put the entire block inside a cup of IPA and waited for couple of minutes. I couldnt believe how much green the IPA became and I have used an excessive force to open that ring. then I cleaned the entire thing up. About the blades. Like you said the last 3 blades needed to be put underneath the blades and I can get it until the last blade but then they come off. So still trying that. But if I can manage to put the blades back I will be able to reassemble the entire lens again. I am thinking on using a dremmel with some polishing head and polish the entire aluminum body of the j-8 and then using an airbrush paint it to a glossy black and redo the paintings with red marking and white letterings. The dremel also can become handy to get off the micro scratches on the surface of the lens and with a new paint finish it would look beautiful. The Red P J-8's never came in black finish so I think that would look really beautiful. If only there would be a way to modify this lens into a clicking aperture dial (like the contax mount j-8's) I wondered that if the contax frontal group could have been put into the m39 mount lenses but that is not possible because of the block size difference.
@@renguney I almost always use my dremmel to polish the barrel and rings as most of my lenses are heavily pitted. A custom paint would probably look great if it's done properly. Let me know how it works out :)
I had really big fight with aperture ring (17:00). It was baked in, I had to gently spray some wd-40 from the front and from the back. Then I was prying it gently around - it seems it had misaligned threads and it clicked back into position eventually. Amazing video, thank you so much!
I'm glad it worked out. It's interesting though that it was cross-threaded... I can't figure how someone could cross-thread something like this. I'd imagine it would have gotten stuck much sooner on the threads (if that makes sense)
@@AlinCiortea On a second though I think it may be my prying that caused cross-threading, but also unstuck those parts :)
I would love to see a series on the Kiev 4! Great work my friend.
Thank you!
I do have a couple of Kievs in the "to fix" boxes but I've been avoiding them because I'm a bit scared of what's inside. When I get to them I'll make a series. One is a complete overhaul so quite the challenge.
@@AlinCiortea it will be blessing if you did
Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial. This has saved my Jupiter. 👍👏
:) happy to hear that!
hello! great tutorial!! since my jupiter won’t focus at any distance, is there any chance to recalibrate it by taking apart the helicoid ?
Could you please explain the issue more thoroughly? Have you previously opened the lens?
@@AlinCiortea I have not opened the lens before, bought it through ebay from an Ukraine seller. Shot a couple of rolls of film through a canon model 7 and surprisingly all of the shots were out of focus, even the ones which I focused at infinity and taken with an F16 aperture, this last one was almost focused but still straight out blurry
That might mean the lens was collimated for a different flange-to-film distance. What you could try is taping a piece of magic tape (like a scotch tape but frosty) across the film rails and with the back opened and the camera tripped on B, focus the lens on a very distant object until you get a sharp image on the magic tape. Then you can see what the lens scale indicates. You will either achieve infinity focus with the lens set at at a closer mark like 10m, or you won't achieve focus at all, meaning the lens should sit closer to the film plane.
Either way you can't fix it by another helicoid position because in J8 there's pretty much only one correct position (any other will not allow for the full range of focus movement from 1m to infinity). What you need to do is adjust the shim between focusing part and optical part of the lens. If currently the lens overshoots infinity it means you need a thicker shim. If it won't reach infinity it means you need a thinner shim.
I hope it makes sense.
@@AlinCiortea i truly appreciate this response, will sure try it and get back
is there a way of knowing which ones should have the spacer and which don't? Because in my case, i didn't find it and the camera still needs to be tested
If the lens doesn't focus past infinity it means the spacer wasn't needed. The most accurate way of checking this is placing either a focusing screen or, if you don't have one around, a strip of matte sticky tape (like 3M magic tape) across the film rails, focus the lens at infinity, point the camera to a very distant object and with the shutter open on B check the image at the film plane with a loupe. If you see a clear, focused image it means the lens is fine as it is.
Hi. Did you ever do the other video to get the two bits apart? I have just got one and nothing is moving it. It has the bit at the back that's probably the infinity stop. Many thanks.
I actually thought about it the other day. Maybe I can get around and do it one of these days. I have two methods and I'll describe them both. One is surprisingly accessible and risk free.
@@AlinCiortea I managed to get the back group out to see the threads on the bit I trying to get out. I have used a paint brush to apply some special oil to degrip the threads if they were laquered in. Still no joy so I'll leave it overnight. I do not want to start attacking it with tools.
@@petercooper9054 I hope I get to shoot the video today. It's quite surprising how stubborn some lenses can be. I also tried all sorts of penetrating solutions (alcohol, acetone, even wd40) with no success. In the end brute force was the name of the game.
@@AlinCiortea thanks Alin. I have left it to stand while I get on with a nicca type 5 shutter curtain replacement. I did read a comment in a group that a guy used an car oil filter grip the one that is plastic around the barrel to get more grip. I'll see if my neighbour has one as I don't.
@@petercooper9054check out my latest video (it should be up in 15 minutes or so).
BTW, lovely cameras the Niccas :)
hello, i've only aperture ring "loose", mean too soft and not stay in position, what i can do for thight it without open all lens? tnx in advance
Unfortunately there's not much you can do to shortcut the process. The aperture ring's dampening is solely based on the presence and viscosity of the grease. But this part is actually the easiest one to fix because you don't need to touch the focusing helicoid or the aperture blades.
@@AlinCiortea ok, so i try to dismount and use grease and remount like part 2 video, i've tu use a specifical grease? at home i've white lithium grease or classic yellowish/brown grease for mechanical, or teflon grease that i use for bikechain
@@alexm4104 I used a brown Teflon grease (for telescope mounts) but you could use either one. The idea is that the lighter the grease, the easier it will be to knock the ring out of your desired setting. Since the ring is clickless, the heavier the grease the better in my opinion. I wouldn't stress too much over the type since whatever you'll use is certainly better than what the soviets used, but if you can find something resistant to separation that would be advisable (so no grease vapors are released that could fog the optics and it also doesn't have the tendency to run off and contaminate the aperture blades or other parts of the lens).
This is what I used: www.baader-planetarium.com/en/baader-machine-grease-1-teflon-brown-(-15%C2%B0c%E2%80%9355%C2%B0c).html
That ring on 21:15 wont come off on mine.
Did you remove the grub screw in the ring?
@@AlinCiortea Yes I did. It's totally disassembled and I even removed the aperture blades (I guess it was not the nicest idea since I cannot put them back for the last 12 hours.) This is the only part that I cannot open.
@@AlinCiortea Ok so just a quick midnight update I managed to took that part off too. It was really stucked unlike yours so what I did is I just put the entire block inside a cup of IPA and waited for couple of minutes. I couldnt believe how much green the IPA became and I have used an excessive force to open that ring. then I cleaned the entire thing up. About the blades. Like you said the last 3 blades needed to be put underneath the blades and I can get it until the last blade but then they come off. So still trying that. But if I can manage to put the blades back I will be able to reassemble the entire lens again. I am thinking on using a dremmel with some polishing head and polish the entire aluminum body of the j-8 and then using an airbrush paint it to a glossy black and redo the paintings with red marking and white letterings. The dremel also can become handy to get off the micro scratches on the surface of the lens and with a new paint finish it would look beautiful. The Red P J-8's never came in black finish so I think that would look really beautiful. If only there would be a way to modify this lens into a clicking aperture dial (like the contax mount j-8's) I wondered that if the contax frontal group could have been put into the m39 mount lenses but that is not possible because of the block size difference.
@@renguney I almost always use my dremmel to polish the barrel and rings as most of my lenses are heavily pitted. A custom paint would probably look great if it's done properly. Let me know how it works out :)