[hinman]

I finally figure out the missing piece on the aperture cocking step. Previous owner dismantle the critical cocking piece for the preset ring. After some fixing, the preset knob in red can be used to cock the aperture wide open for focusing. Upon gun trigger, the preset ring will stop down for the shot.

Some more test shots on birds, the lens does have beautiful bokeh and color coming from the perfectly circular diaphragm opening from 16 blades in all f-stops.

circular opening in all f-stops



All test shots wide open hand-held in f/4.5













f/5.6

Thanks,
Hin

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Last edited by hinman; 04-13-2009 at 07:17 PM.

[brkl]

Seems to be a great lens to my eyes. If you could only get the camera to shoot when you pull the trigger... It does look a bit menacing!

[hinman]

Seems to be a great lens to my eyes. If you could only get the camera to shoot when you pull the trigger... It does look a bit menacing!

Thanks for the comment. I have been thinking with the idea of getting the gun stock to work, here are two schemes but all still miss the AF confirmation with 1 click

#1 Use wireless remote trigger

• use adhesive to stick the wireless remote underneath the lens barrel with button facing down towards the original gun pistol pin.
• Adjust the thickness of the adhesive for the gun trigger to work effectively with the wireless remote
• By default, SR is turned off when wireless remote is on, and I look over all custom option and I don't see one to turn it on

#2 Use shutter release cable

• alter the gun pistol pin on gun stock to connect to the push thumb of a cable release that connects with the push pin end screwed in K body

red knob is the preset aperture pin
push up as in cocking for trigger
bar underneath barrel with pistol pin from gun stock below

Both methods still need to move hand from half-press to confirm focus to gun trigger for the final shutter release

• cock the aperture ring to wide open by pushing red knob to top
• select aperture to stop down as in f/8.0
• due to the unique tair3 cocking type of preset ring, blades are wide open
• focus as usual to obtain the confirmation with half press on shutter
• move hand to pull gun trigger -- this is likely to move from original focusing point
• trigger will stop-down to selected aperture f/8.0 -- a loud recoil action with shake
• shutter is release through remote control (SR disable) or cable release (SR can be ON/OFF subject to our own choosing).

Thanks,
Hin

[hinman]

Some hummingbird test shots with Tair-3 Phs 300mm f/4.5.

#1



#2
shadow and too dark to freeze the motion




#3
user focus error
again a bit too dark




#4




#5

The feeder is under a thick oak tree which give a lot of shadow for the shooting, I plan to try it next time in using a filled flash. Suggestions on setting with filled flash are very welcome.

Thanks,
Hin

[hinman]

well I have the Tair 3s and it hurts my wrist every time i use it , I don't know how to make the set to work with Digital SLR i.e. I want to put the fotosnaiper lens +kit + a Digital SLR and pull the trigger .



however , as Geogr told, put it on a Kenko 2x TC and the outcome was good , thanks Geogr

can anybody here explain the firing mechanism of a novoflex on the film SLR and DSLR for me, thanks alot

Very nice shot on the airplane, I wonder if you can do me a favor in measuring the weight of Tair-3S. My copy is Tair-3 Phs and I think Georg and I have similar copies as my weights about 1.6 Kg without the gun stock. I saw somewhere in mflenses that review the Tair-3S as 980g and I hope you can help me to confirm the weight on Tair-3S?

Source of 980g: http://www.mflenses.com/index.php/Tair/Tair-3S-300mm-f/4.5-Foto-Snaiper-Lens-Review.html

Also, is your Kenko 2x the AF one or the non-AF one, what is the exact model and does it have MC7 on the model name. My copy of Tair-3 Phs is an older model than Tair-3S and I wonder if they do differ by weight.

Thanks,
Hin

[hinman]

Gus will love to see this as we met online in getting the similar tripod in probably way back when we started with Pentax K100D.

I used my Dynatran AT CF992 from Amvona today along with my Pentax-F 1.7x AF TC

Photosniper Tair-3 Phs 300mm f/4.5
Dynatran AT CF992 from Amvona




Pentax-F 1.7x AF TC
510mm lens with partial AF



Aluminium Foil is needed
for the AFA to kick in AF
Focus trap also function with the M42

Due to focus trap and inability to confirm focus, all test shots are done wide open, likely in f/4.0 setting in cocking the preset ring to full open. All shots cropped middle and sharpen a bit in iPhoto

#1 on tripod with SR off
my tripod may have shaken this shot
also TC wide open lose some detail
cropped




#2 on tripod
my tripod may have shaken this shot
also TC wide open lose some detail
cropped




#3 hand-held with SR on
cropped, some fringing




#4 hand-held with SR on
cropped, some fringing




#5 hand-held with SR on
cropped
infinity focus with panning in AF.C

I will customize my half-press to be non-AF and use another way to get the stop-down to work to use the lens in smaller aperture next.

And I hope to get inputs from Gus on his ballhead as mine is slipping a bit with the heavy lens set up

Thanks,
Hin

Hi Hin... do we have the exact same ballhead? I don't know if I have every put that kind of weight on mine... Mine is the largest ballhead Amvona had and has two dials (one on each side) to tighten it. Yours looks like it might be the middle sized version with the single tightener. I also have the amvona pistol grip...

[hinman]

Hi Hin... do we have the exact same ballhead? I don't know if I have every put that kind of weight on mine... Mine is the largest ballhead Amvona had and has two dials (one on each side) to tighten it. Yours looks like it might be the middle sized version with the single tightener. I also have the amvona pistol grip...

My Amvona cheapo ballhead looks like this:

Dynatran AT CF992 from Amvona

Maybe about my time to look for something that locks the weight better.

Hin

Mine is a monster from amvona... A 44mm ball with two twist locks. I do remember having used a heavy 400mm vivitar lens that locked fine...

I think I picked it up in an ebay auction for 45 bucks or so... it was a long time and many dollars ago.

But you will need a good sized ball with good locking control for that big old Tair


Here is the link...

Amvona 720 imagine, discover, connect.

[XATN3q]

hi Hinman,

My Tair3s is surely weight more than 1.2kgs (compare to 2x600ml water bottle )

the Kenko is the AF one, with the Pz nozzels inside

the size of the hole on the Tairs 3s is bigger than the size of the screw on the tripod unless
you have some kind of adapter, you can not put the Tair3s on the tripod

I found some info from the offical site of the Zenit 122, indicates that the Tair3s is about 1.5kgs
Zenit / Foto Sniper Camera / Specifications

Cheers,
Xatn3q

[xjjohnno]

$303usd including delivery, almost tempted to buy one new.

[hinman]

$303usd including delivery, almost tempted to buy one new.

I can only comment briefly, more detail to come later. I would give you my price for your reference: I got my 2 copies half of your stated quote and lower in used condition but not as a complete set (without the camera and helios 44-2 on my 2nd copy, and Tair-3 Phs 300mm lens alone in my 1st copy arriving today). But Tair-3S is a newer copy than Tair-3 Phs as far as my research goes. My gray copies are less common than the black one in Tair-3S.

You have to ask if you are okay with heavy lens in ~3.6lb/1.5kg and a big lens about 10" long. Also this is a very difficult M42 lens to use with potential risk in damaging camera if you are not careful. Tripod is needed to get the most out of this lens.

Having said all these negatives, I have to say that I am having a blast on this odd ball. The diaphragm release bar responsible in stop-down and gun trigger is in testing phase with my wireless remote

Thanks,
Hin

[xjjohnno]

The weight factor wouldn't be so much of an issue to me as the size for carrying to shoot locations, my transport being a motorbike and the luggage bag, while having a reasonable capacity would be possibly running out of room. BIN from various Russian and Ukraine vendors for a used copy are about 175 UK Pounds so the direct from supplier would look to being the best option. What's the remote cabling to camera like on the kit? We see the occassional lens on it's own up for auction here less the sniper assembly but if I was to get that lens without the kit extras I'd opt for a version not built for the sniper assembly.

[estudleon]

I'm convinced, the tair 300 will be my long lens. I really like the pics posted here.

Rino.

[hinman]

The weight factor wouldn't be so much of an issue to me as the size for carrying to shoot locations, my transport being a motorbike and the luggage bag, while having a reasonable capacity would be possibly running out of room. BIN from various Russian and Ukraine vendors for a used copy are about 175 UK Pounds so the direct from supplier would look to being the best option. What's the remote cabling to camera like on the kit? We see the occassional lens on it's own up for auction here less the sniper assembly but if I was to get that lens without the kit extras I'd opt for a version not built for the sniper assembly.

I am not aware of a Tair-3S or Tair-3 PhS that does not have the diaphragm release bar, some units come as stand alone without the gun kit and you should check on the presence of preset release red knob as well as the diaphragm release bar underneath the lens barrel.

Be warned with lens missing this release bar
I don't know how you can stop down without this component

The diaphragm release bar does serve a unique way of stopping down in a quick fashion when used with the gun trigger. Without the gun trigger, you need to move your hand to tap on the release bar to do the stop-down. A tripod will definitely help in minimizing movement upon stopping down

Thanks,
Hin