Author: | | New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 17 | Review Date: February 25, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Sharp, fast, handles well, good bokeh | Cons: | Huge and heavy | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
| | The picture shows the full Photosniper 3 kit, including the trigger mechanism, rifle stock and the bundled Zenit camera; I believe it was sold between 1974 and 1982. The big lens at the heart of it is the TAIR-3. Mine is rather battered, has quite a lot of dust in it, and is missing the trigger mechanism and stock.
The other Photosniper on this site is the later Photosniper 12 based on the TAIR-3S. The maximum aperture is the same, but the lens tube is different.
The focus wheel under the main body of the lens works well. In spite of the 1.6 Kg weight I have no difficulty hand-holding and manually following focus from the touchline of a Rugby match.
The inscriptions on mine are all in Cyrillic; it self-identifies as a TAИP3-ФC 4,5/300 9668.
If 9668 is a serial number either they didn't sell very many, or mine is earlier rather than later.
Although it is an M42 lens, the M42 screw piece is attached in the same way as the outer piece of a T2 adapter is secured to its rotatable core, and it is the same depth. I managed to find a T2 adapter whose rotatable core matches the Tair 3 tube precisely, and so mine now has a PK bayonet.
Wide open the images straight from the camera are somewhat lacking in contrast, although the detail is all there. This lens is sharper than my Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6. However, wide open, pixel peeping fine texture (eg. tree bark) that should be pretty much black reveals itself to be very dark purplish-reddish, whilst highlights acquire a turquoise tinge. Unfortunately, these defects are simply magnified when I attempt to use a 2x or 3x teleconverter; the image looks soft, and the CA becomes intrusive. On most of my lenses, the Kiron 7 element 2x and Kenko 7 element 2x converters clearly outperform the Kenko 4 element 2x teleconverter, but on this lens they are all equally bad.
The 16 aperture blades ensure that the aperture is always round, and the bokeh is excellent.
Because this lens, even with the T2-PK bayonet, lacks the aperture sense lever of a proper PK or PKA lens, the Pentax 1.7x AF adapter doesn't add autofocus. But I find the CA of images taken with this combination (510 mm f7.65) acceptable.
Under challenging shooting conditions (hand-held in a strong wind) I was able to get sharper images with the Samyang 500 mm f6.3 mirror, though the differences aren't great (and neither are the photographs ); the longer exposure time due to f7.65 versus f6.3, or even random variations in 'seeing' (a townscape shot on a misty evening in a strong wind with the clouds changing minute by minute) may explain this.
Stacking the Pentax 1.7x AF adapter with a 1.5X PK Teleconverter (DOI or Kiron Matchmate) (which provides the necessary aperture lever) allows the AF to function, but the images are mushy.
The two 1.5X Teleconverters I have tried by themselves actually work well. The Kiron Matchmate 1.5X gives a sharp image, but Lateral Chromatic Aberration is apparent. The DOI 1.5X doesn't give any lateral Chromatic Aberration, but is less sharp. I prefer the Kiron, but the DOI is perfectly acceptable, and detail is apparent that you cannot see if you simply increase the size of the base digital image by 50 percent.
Overall, I recommend it.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: December 31, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Sharp, Bokeh, Preset possible | Cons: | Somewhat large & heavy, focus wheel ... | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 10
| | Bonjour,
This was be far my best thrift store score to date ... the photos (above) for this review page are mine and got everything in super condition for less than $10.00! My copy is only missing the shoulder stock ... hopefully I will find one someday.
The lens shoots great, just look at the samples already provided ... a really fun lens too use, too.
I will try to add some additional images later ... J
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2012 Location: Melbs Posts: 1,237 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: December 30, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $140.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Cheap | Cons: | Heavy | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 10
| | My version is the Grand Prix Edition (img stolen from mflenses.com) Optically the same, but cosmetically different in that that it behaves like a standard preset lens. Mine is also has a M39 thread (register distance the same) with a m39-m42 adapter.
Now. Its a big lens. So much so I went and bought a monopod just so I could aim and focus it as the same time. Make no mistake, this thing weighs about 3x your camera body.
With a 3rd arm supporting the weight, using it becomes wonderful. Focus is smooth and quick (despite its age) And as below, its very very usable wide open, The example below was shot with an afternoon sun setting, (hello purple) with no post processing. Focus the thing accurately and its fantastic Click for much Bigger
I probably paid to much for it, but i wanted something bigger then 200mm "shrugs" and it matchs the other Soviet lens I've been collecting anyway :P
Oh, It will also focus down to 2.8m approx, and the tripod collar is adjustable, Happy Happy Happy
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,429 6 users found this helpful | Review Date: July 27, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | SHARP, BOKEH, IQ, Preset | Cons: | heavy | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 10
| | I bought this lens last year. It came with the photosniper stock setup, which really works well with my Kx. The lens itself takes a little getting used to because of the focus wheel. It focuses more like a telescope than a camera lens. It is also rather heavy at nearly 4 lbs.
All that aside, it is an EXCELLENT lens. The sharpness is unbelievable, right from wide open. The huge amount of aperture blades makes the bokeh extremely smooth at all apertures. The colors are outstanding. This is my go-to lens for wildlife photography.
This lens also renders very 3D images, thanks to its front aperture. Just a GREAT lens, I can't recommend it enough
Here are a few photos taken with this lens. Mule-Deer-18-Feb-2012-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Elk-18-Feb-2012-4 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Elk-18-Feb-2012-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Mule-Deer-18-Feb-2012-2 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Mule-Deer-18-Feb-2012-6 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr 29-Feb-2012-2 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Airport-14-April-2012-3 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Diamondback-22-April-2012-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Eclipse-at-Sunset-v2 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Great-Blue-Heron-2 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Theodore-Roosevelt-NP-4 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr Indian-Peaks-Wilderness-11 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr
| | |