The Jupiter 9 gave some of my most beautifull pictures. Particularly portraits. Thanks to it's wide aperture it can be used for shallow depth of field pictures. This fast prime lens is famous for being soft wide opened, which, combined with it's soft bokeh can produce perfect portraits. But sometimes, this softness wide opened can be an issue. When I received the Minolta AF 35-105 f/3.5-4.5 old, I felt that the image quality of these 2 lenses was very close. Now it is time to compare the Jupiter 9 with other Minolta great zoom lenses @85mm
- Minolta AF 28-105 f/3.5-4.5
- Minolta AF 35-105 f/3.5-4.5 old
- Minolta AF 70-210 f/4.0 Beercan (the legend)
- Minolta AF 75-300 f/4.5-5.6 Big Beercan
- Konica Minolta AF 75-300 D f/4.5-5.6 (kit tele-zoom)
The camera used for this match is my Sony Alpha 700 mounted on a tripod. Settings are :
- A mode
- 100 ISO
- cRAW
- Super Steady Shot Off
@200 center crop (100%)
| f/ | M42 Jupiter 9 | Minolta AF 70-210 Beercan |
| 2.8 |  |
|
| 4.0 |  |
 |
| 5.6 |  |
 |
| 8.0 |  |
 |
| f/ | Minolta 75-300 Big Beercan |
Minolta AF 35_105 old |
Minolta AF 28-105 |
Konica Minolta 75-300 D (kit) |
| 4.5 |  |
 |
 |
|
| 5.6 |  |
 |
 |
 |
| 8.0 |  |
 |
 |
 |
@85 corner crop (100%)
| f/ | M42 Jupiter 9 | Minolta AF 70-210 Beercan |
| 2.8 |  |
|
| 4.0 |  |
 |
| 5.6 |  |
 |
| 8.0 |  |
 |
| f/ | Minolta 75-300 Big Beercan |
Minolta AF 35_105 old |
Minolta AF 28-105 |
Konica Minolta 75-300 D (kit) |
| 4.5 |  |
 |
 |
|
| 5.6 |  |
 |
 |
 |
| 8.0 |  |
 |
 |
 |
Conclusion
| f/ | M42 Jupiter 9 |
Minolta AF 70-210 Beercan |
Minolta AF 75-300 Big Beercan |
Minolta AF 35-105 "old" |
Minolta AF 28-105 |
Konica Minolta AF 75-300 D |
| 4.0 center | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 4.0 corner | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 4.5 center | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 4.5 corner | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 5.6 center | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 5.6 corner | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| 8.0 center | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 8.0 corner | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
The Jupiter 9 is soft wide opened. I was aware on that point. It need to be stopped down to f/8.0 to be as sharp as the best lenses.
The Minolta AF 75-300 Big Beercan is the best lens of this match, just followed by the Minolta AF 35-105 old.
The kit zoom (Konica Minolta AF 75-300D) is sharp only on the corner compared to the others but is softer on the center.
On the other side, the Minolta AF 28-105 is sharp only on the center and very soft on the corner.
The Minolta AF 70-210 Beercan still disapoint.
