russian lenses and letters

i'm considering to buy one or two russian lenses but can't make up my mind which version to choose: the one with arabic letters or that with kyrillic. what do you guys prefer, if you have the chance to chose?

Russian products with English inscriptions were often export variants. It does not necessarily mean that their quality was different. It might have been better, but there is no general rule about it.

There are many versions of Industar 50, including one for enlargers.
According to the data from the manufacturer here are the specs.
Industar 50-2 was made only in M42 mount with working distance of 45.5 mm.
Industar 50 came in two versions of M39 mount, with working distance of 28.8 mm for rangefinder cameras and 45.2 mm for SLR cameras like Zenit-S. Again, You have to check individual lens as there very many versions with different construction and finish: http://www.photohistory.ru/1207248188712843.html

Alex

tigertimb wrote: It is also possible that the lens doesn't always have the registration distance corresponding to the mount. I have a copy of an 85mm lens with a 39mm thread, that actually is closer to an M42 lens and needs a medium sized extension tube to actually work as an L39 lens. On the flip side, a simple thread adapter means that this will then work as an M42 lens instead.

Tim, if You are talking about Helios-40, than it was originally made for the mentioned above Zenit-S. Several first models of Zenit SLR cameras had M39 mount, and not M42. It had exactly same pitch as LTM, but different registration distance, very close M42 (see my post above) that was later implemented in Zenit cameras.

Alex H wrote: tigertimb wrote: It is also possible that the lens doesn't always have the registration distance corresponding to the mount. I have a copy of an 85mm lens with a 39mm thread, that actually is closer to an M42 lens and needs a medium sized extension tube to actually work as an L39 lens. On the flip side, a simple thread adapter means that this will then work as an M42 lens instead. Tim, if You are talking about Helios-40, than it was originally made for the mentioned above Zenit-S. Several first models of Zenit SLR cameras had M39 mount, and not M42. It had exactly same pitch as LTM, but different registration distance, very close M42 (see my post above) that was later implemented in Zenit cameras.

Hi Alex
That gives an explanation to the variance I was seeing too, although with a different lens; and I agree - it's not quite M42 in my case either; it doesn't focus quite to infinity.
My example is a Jupiter 9 85mm f2 as I wanted a portrait lens for my NEX-5.
The first example was a short fat silver version, which it turned out was L39 thread but close to the M42 registration distance (on my A900 this still gives good portraits, although not quite focussing to infinity). I then found a 2nd taller thinner black copy of the Jupiter 9 which does exactly what I wanted and works nicely on the NEX
Nothing in the names to say which is which, although the length maybe should have been a clue; but both very very cheap for an 85mm f2
Tim

Alex H wrote: Again, You have to check individual lens as there very many versions with different construction and finish: http://www.photohistory.ru/1207248188712843.html Alex

thanks everybody for your input, especially thank you Alex. unfortunately my russian is very bad, in fact i know about 10 words (Lubitel, Industar and Zenit included ). but it was sure nice to have a look at some of these lenses. there is something special about them, that i like.
by the way, i decided to buy the one with the kyrillic letters, can't wait till it's here .