Looking for an excellent portrait lens for your rangefinder or SLR camera?  Like to gamble? Look no further.

The Jupiter 9 85mm f2.0 lens is available in a variety of mounts: LTM (Leica Thread Mount), Kiev (Contax), M42, and is a very very nice lens that is also a bit of a gamble. A lot of later versions made in the former Soviet Union were either not well assembled or have been repaired (read ruined) and misassembled.

Earlier date of manufacture (see serial number) is better than later.

Lens mounted on  a Cosina Voigtlander Bessa R (LTM mount):


Two test photos made with the Jupiter 9 on the Bessa R:



Above photo shows good focus at 2-2.5 meters.



The second shot of Sylvester shows that at minimum focus distance, about 1 meter, although the rangefinder/viewfinder of the Bessa R shows focus on the cat's eyes, but the truth is the lens is a little further out.  This is about as good as the Jupiter 9 gets. Some examples are way off and need repair or junking.  But if you get a good one, you have a great lens.

(These photos are stored on my account on flickr, try flickr it is the best photo sharing site on the web)