Industar 24 vs industar 58

Industar 58 goes with Iskra and Industar 24 goes to Moskva 5.

I d like to know the opinions on the qualities/weakness from these 2 lenses; and which one is

best ?

How do they compare ?

If you don't get a bad apple, both lenses are excellent. Both are four-element Tessar-type lenses which are very sharp and contrasty, even wide open. But both are not very fast with an aperture of f/3.5.

 

It's the cameras that affect performance. The Iskra's viewfinder with the combined rangefinder is large, bright and easy to use, while the Moskva's separate rangefinder window and tiny viewfinder are not so convenient. The minimum focus of the Moskva is only 1.5 meter (5 feet) whereas the Iskra able to focus down to 1 meter (3.3 feet). The Moskva's left hand shutter release and the to-the-side-opening shell makes hand-holding awkward, and the camera is pretty bulky and heavy. While the Iskra is not smaller or lighter, the camera is way easy to handle and ergonomics are better. And last but not least the everready case of the Iskra is better designed.

 

The advantage of the Moskva is the huge negative, of course, but this also means you will get only 8 images on one roll of film. Again, lens-wise the cameras are pretty much equal and real performance differences are due to quality control issues or misalignments.

I own both cameras. The lens in the Moskva has with reputation, but mine is a real dog, VERY soft at any aperture, even in a tripod to avoid shutter shake. It is not a problem of alignment, collimation or rangefinder adjustment: I have carefully checked these points. The lens, on the other hand, is completely mint, not a single speck on it. I use the camera as a paperweight. The lens on my Iskra (by the way full of scratches an a large mark in the front coating), is really excellent, I think it is as good as a tessar clone can be. A question of good or bad luck?. I don't know.

It's not a question of the good luck,

Industar 58 were cut from the last part of the prewar Zeiss glass

 

Russians made a lot of lenses from it short after wwII, the only lens

made later was the industar 58, since iskra and iskra II (with

lightmeter) were the presige cameras, note the high QC for these

cameras.