For people who do old school photography it's right up their alley, and can turn in very good results when stopped down slightly.

Is cheap for what it it is, and they are often sold with carrying cases and filters.

It looks more like a laser cannon than a lens (it's that big) so don't expect to be discreet with it, and use a tripod for best results.

As I'm using it on a Nikon that was never intended for a lens like this the metering is a complete guessing game, although dialing in the settings in the camera's manual lens menu sometimes gives "close enough" results.

If it breaks or needs service you may have trouble, once when taking the adapter off a set screw came loose and the lens assembly unscrewed in the middle. I wanted it fixed rather than use it like that, and eventually found a dealer in Kiev who repaired it for me. Yes, I shipped it there and back.

This lens can be seen as either an Arsat or a Jupiter 36B. I believe the difference is Arsat is the export name and Jupiter (sometimes Yupiter) is the Russian market name. (Mine's is a Jupiter.)

It's a big, heavy lens intended for Russian medium format cameras like the Kiev 88 and Kiev 60. My particular example came with a Pentacon Six mount and I used an adapter to fit it onto my D700 Nikon.

It's full manual and doesn't apologize for it.

As with all Russian lenses/cameras quality control is all over the place. In my case I have a good but not great sample, but beauty is largely in the eye of the beholder.

Customer Service

It was a dealer I found online, not the manufacturer of the lens, but service was timely and good on price, most of the cost was in the shipping.

Similar Products Used:

Tair-33, Arsat 80-200mm, Kalemar(?) 100mm

Cheap and excelent quality.
comes with sunhood and 3 filters in a leather case.

Heavey
no tripod mount on lens

This is the Jupiter 36b renamed Arsat in recent years but otherwise unchanged. It is a superb lens for the price although its weight is crippling if you're lugging a selection of arsenal lenses around for the day.
It is very sharp, with good contrast and I sometimes use it with an adapter on my Zenit TTL, with excellent results.
I have had some badly assembled lenses from Arsenal factory, but this was fine and needed no adjustments. Recomended.
The Kiev 60 & its lenses are an excelent introduction to system medium format photography. I'm no beginner but i use this camera, and the Salyut-S a lot.

Customer Service

Arsenal gives good service and cheap. I don't know about dealers abroad.

Similar Products Used:

All the Kiev 60 and Pentacon 6 lenses

- Sharp lens - With adapters you can mount it on a lot of MF and tons of 35mm cameras - Clever case/hood design making it compact

- Heavy - 82mm filter ring - Hard to find a good one used - NO tripod mount - Aparture blades could be a bit more uniform

Finding a used one in a good shape is hard, but if you find one, get it. Images are sharp and contrasty. A bit on the heavy side with no tripod support, but I managed to hold it and the camera up on a piece of wood attached to my tripod - problem solved! It has a reversing built-in screwmount shade. Not bad, but mounting filters on it is a bit difficult as the aluminum or brass filters don't interact well with the metal hood and sometimes get stuck. I use this lens with an Arsat 2x converter and an adaptor hooked onto my Canon A1 more often than I do my Sigma 400/4.5 APO lens.

Similar Products Used:

Zeiss Jena 180/2.8 MF Sigma APO 400/5.6 35mm format Canon 600/4.0 L 35mm format Hartblei mirror 500/5.6 MF