>>3937905>>3937901>>3937890I have the Valdai 44M-4 6-blade, standard issue on the Zenit 412LS. Honestly, to quote the Chernobyl HBO series, not great, not horrible. Contrast is a bit down but otherwise a good piece of glass, I'll probably keep mine.
>>3937850>>3937890Not any Russian lens, you want one made before Khrushchev left office. There is a specific reason for this, up until this point the Soviet industry across the board had prioritized quality over quantity. When Leonid Breznev seized power he prioritized production numbers over quality with his Five Year Plan.
As a result, Soviet cameras were designed with ease of production in mind and not quality. Cameras would be shipped non-functioning or missing parts to meet production quotas. This is why you buy export models because they have more stringent quality control measures.
General rule of thumb, buy anything made at KMZ, Belomo in the 1960s, anything made before the early 70s. Once Khrushchev was exiled from the Red Party, Breznev ran the whole thing into the ground and Gorbachev finished it off. That's not to say there aren't diamonds in the rough, my Zenit 412LS and FED-5c were both made post-Communism and they're good shooters. Also the Mir 1b 37mm was made post-Khrushchev in M42 and it remained a good lens.
As for other makes, M42 lenses have gotten cheap now that hipsters have moved to Canon FD/Nikon. My 412LS has its native 44M-4, a Super-Tak 28 3.5 and a 135/4 Isco Gottingen, all decent and sharp lenses. Steinheil Munchen lenses are good too just don't ever pay hipster tax for them.
Fwiw, Industar lenses are basically Soviet kit lenses, find their Jupiter equivalents. Much higher quality. Faster and better optics. Industar are decent but for a few bucks more you can buy a Jupiter lens.
t. have them both in LTM
