Tag Archives: russian

Lens Reviews, Tair-11a

Tair-11a Lens Review

9 Comments

Its about time I went and wrote a proper review for this lens, it is 1 of my favourite lenses to get out and use. I have been a bit slack in the getting out and using it department of late though.

Brenizer Ball
Sculpture shot using the Brenizer Method

The Specs

So the lens, the Tair-11a lens is a 135mm f2.8 – f22.0 aperture prime lens, available in M42 mount (this is the mount you will want if you would like to use it on a DSLR – you can get an M42 adapter for all the major DSLRs). The lens uses the older preset style of aperture control (which is completely manual of course) which is located at the front of the lens, instead of the rear of the lens like a more modern lens. The lens is manual focus, and the focus on my copy is VERY smooth, a real pleasure to use, however different copies will vary with amount of use. Things wear out over time people! It has a small built in sliding hood, but a longer screw in hood would probably help prevent flare and increase contrast a little. The minimum focus distance is a fairly long 1.2m, so you wont be doing any macro work, but as a portrait lens, it works beautifully. There are some more detailed specs on the Zenit website, including this great cut away image of the lens.

The Feel

It is a big heavy lens, feels good in the hand, but you will want to chuck a battery grip on your DSLR if you have one. With the battery grip on the body the lens/body combo is much more balanced, without the battery grip the whole lot wants to tip forwards out of your hand a little, and holding it can become a chore after a while. The metal body has some nice solid grooves machined into it, which make it very easy to hold and focus with.

Queen St Mall Brisbane
Shot showing the colours from the Tair-11a lens

In Use

At 135mm focal length this lens is a 200mm equivalent FOV on a 1.5x crop body (such as my Pentax) so its not something you will want to be using if you are right up close to the action. The lens is ultra sharp, even the pixel peepers will be happy with this one (provided you nail the focus of course ;-) ). The colours are that lovely old single coated type, kind of similar to an old colour film shot (I’m a fan as you can tell). The single coating does however mean it is very prone to lens flare, so always be careful shooting towards a light source and use a hood (as I mentioned a little earlier) if possible. The real winner for this lens, is the bokeh. The Tair-11a boasts 20 aperture blades, giving a nearly perfectly round aperture at all openings, you can get some really great out of focus blur in your shots, and when you are shooting 135mm at f2.8, the DOF can get quite narrow, so there will be plenty of out of focus stuff to see. You can see the rest of my Tair-11a shots here on the blog.

Bird on Stairs
Bird and Stair
Lens Reviews

Jupiter 9 Review – 85mm f2.0

Leave a comment

I received my Jupiter-9 lens in the mail about 1.5 weeks ago, and I finally had a chance to use it yesterday. The Jupiter-9 is a lens made in Russia, available in various mounts (mine is M42, easy to use on most DSLRs), its 85mm focal length, and wide aperture of f2.0 make it a fine lens for portrait photography.

It seems to be selling for around $120USD or so (plus shipping) on Ebay these days. I paid about $140AU total for mine, as I wanted a good condition example, and this particular example included the plastic hard case, both caps, and a lens in reportedly excellent condition. I was not disappointed when it arrived, the condition was like new. For anyone interested the seller was petersburg_deals. Shipment was quite quick considering it was from Russia.

Down to the lens itself. I find it to be very sharp, but I have only tested at f2.8 and f4.0 so far. Most reviews say the lens is a little soft at f2.0, but the kind of softness that works great in portrait photography. I find the colours to be great, let me know what you think. Here are the first lot of test shots. You can check out all the other photos I’ve taken with this lens in my Jupiter-9 Flickr Set

Very first shot with the lens mounted on my K200D. A friends free promotional mug at work. This is at f2.0, but doesn’t give a good indication of sharpness.

This is an f2.8 test shot, unfortunately the light was very uneven, but you can see the lens is sharp.

This is a 100% crop from the previous image, showing how sharp the image is. No post processing sharpening has been applied (click the image to view at original size).
Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a

Leave a comment

Bird and Stair Testing the Tair-11a  

Originally uploaded by jezza323

I have already used this one in my Tair-11a review, but I just have to share again. This shot really works for me.

Taken with the Tair-11a at f2.8 (wide open), ISO 100, 1/640.

Post Processing as follows:-

  • Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
  • Imported in Lightroom 2.5
  • Exported to JPG for Web

No editing at all!

If you like this shot, have a read of my Tair-11a Lens Review or have a look at my other Tair-11a shots

Gear

More Russians

Leave a comment

Some more russian lenses I have thought of since my previous post on the subject which are quite well regarded. Also wanted to mention the fact that I have finally ordered a Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0 M42 mount lens. It may take a few weeks to arrive from Russia itself though. Anyway, back to the lenses. This list should get you started on a collection of great fun Russians

  • Zenitar 16mm f2.8 fisheye (still made new in all mounts)
  • Mir-20 20mm f3.5 (quite wide on a film or full frame SLR)
  • Mir-24 35mm f2.0
  • Mir-1 37mm f2.8 (but the later Mir 1-B is reported to be a bit soft)
  • Volna-9 50mm f2.8 Macro around 1:2
  • Industar 50-2 50mm f3.5 pancake (VERY small)
  • Industar 61 LZ 50mm f2.8 also Macro around 1:2
  • Helios 44 series 58mm f2.0 (some discussion about which is best HERE)
  • Jupiter-9 85mm f2.0
  • Helios 40 series 85mm f1.5
  • Tair-11a 135mm f2.8
  • Jupiter 37 135mm f3.5
  • Jupiter-21 200mm f4.0
  • Tair-3 300mm f4.5
Brenizer Panorama, Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

A Backlit Brenizer Angel

Leave a comment

A Backlit Brenizer Angel
Originally uploaded by jezza323

Another Brenizer Panorama from the Toowong Cemetary taken yesterday. This one is again with the Tair-11a on K200D. Its 58 images stitched with Autopano Giga 2 and edited (cropped, curves, colours, exposure brush) in Lightroom 2.5.

Processing :-

  • Shot in Manual Mode, ISO 200, f2.8, 1/320 sec shutter – Pentax RAW (PEF), custom white balance.
  • Imported into Lightroom 2.5
  • All shots in pano exported to subfolder “Pano-5″ as 16 bit TIFFs
  • Stitched using Autopano Giga 2
  • Saved-as 16 bit TIFF
  • Imported result back into Lightroom 2.5 library
  • Edited in Lightroom as show below (click pics for more detail). I did use a preset for most settings. Also cropped but not shown.
Exposure Brush to show more detail in the Angel
Develop settings
Pentax K200D, Tair-11a

Tair-11A 135mm f2.8

Leave a comment

As I mentioned in an earlier post. I bought a Tair-11A M42 mount lens on Ebay. I have seen great shots from this lens on flickr, and read plenty of great reports on it. This lens is 135mm prime, aperture is a preset adjustment and ranges from f2.8 to f22. It focuses from 1.2m to infinity and has a small built in hood.

It truely is an amazing lens. Incredibly sharp, very smooth bokeh (out of focus highlights) and is a joy to use with a lovely smooth focusing ring. Here are some shots I’ve taken with it since it arrived.

First a bokeh test
Then this little bird came along
And to prove how sharp this lens is – this is a 100% crop of the bird from another shot
And a technique tester shot. A panorama to get the narrow DOF effect. I’ll explain this technique in a later post
By Lens, Pentax K200D

Russian lenses

Leave a comment

I believe I may have a problem… I thought I had enough lenses for a while, until I saw a Helios 44-2 M42 lens (58mm f2.0) for a tiny $15, I did a quick search of Flickr and liked the look of the images from it. I bought it and its a great lens, not just great value for $15, but just a generally great lens! This lens led me into researching Russian lenses in general. I then was able to get a Mir-1 (37mm f2.8) M42 from the PentaxForums trading section from an Australian member, it included the lens, original hard plastic case and instruction in russian. I just recently replaced my Hanimar 135mm lens with a Russian Tair-11A 135mm f2.8 M42, and hope to add add the very popular Jupiter 9 (85mm f2.0) M42 lens to my collection. If you don’t know much about these well regarded (and quite cheap) Russian made lenses, I suggest you look into them.