Many thanks for the opportunity to review the Tele-N 3.5 / 200 lens Ivan Kosarekov.
Telear-N 3.5/200 is an amazing Soviet telephoto lens. Tele-N has a 200mm focal length and F3.5 aperture, which is a very good indicator for such a large focal length.
TTX Tele-N 3.5 / 200
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Aperture: F / 3.5-F / 22
- Number of aperture blades: 8 pieces
- Weight: 700g
- Optical design: 5/5
- Front Filter Diameter: 62mm
- MDF: 1.6m
- Bayonet mount: H, similar to Nikon F, AI (sometimes PRE-AI / NON-AI)
The lens sits perfectly on the camera without causing weight imbalance.
Tele-N can very much blur the foreground and foreground. Blurring the background is very important for photographing a portrait. Tele-N can easily compete with such super expensive and high-quality professional lenses as 80-200mm F2.8 and 70-200mm F2.8, since at 200mm focal length there is maximum blurring of the background. The difference in aperture between F2.8 in modern professional zooms and F3.5 in old Tele-N is only 1.56 times. Therefore, if you need exactly a good TV set for wonderful portraits, then it may be the old Soviet Tele-N.
How to use Tele-N with modern cameras?
The Tele-N lens has the same mount as all Nikon cameras. Thus, in order to use the lens on any Nikon CTC, no adapter is needed. Also, Tele-N is an AI lens. How to use Soviet lenses you can find Nikon on any central control center in the pro section Soviet lenses, or, in the section about AI-S.
Indicators
The lens has an aperture control ring with values of F3.5, F5.6, F8.0, F11.0, F16.0, F22.0. Between F3.5 and F5.6, you can set F4.0. The depth of field scale is indicated only for F8, 16, 22.
The weight
The lens is quite weighty. Allows you to avoid shaking when photographing with your hands. Weight is associated with a good manufacturing quality of the lens of iron and glass. My copy is 1996, it is already over 18 years old, and it works just as well.
Focusing
Focus ring rotates 270 degrees. Focusing is very comfortable, smooth with a nice rubberized ring. The lens has MDF of only 1.6 meters, and after 30 meters, “infinity” begins on the focusing distance scale. When focusing from MDF to infinity, the lens trunk extends 4 cm. When focusing, the front lens does not rotate. Finding a 62mm filter will not be a problem.
Lens hood
The lens has a built-in telescopic lens hood.
Image quality
The lens is not sharp enough at F3.5, but this sharpness is quite enough for portrait shooting. Normal sharpness starts at F8.0. At F22.0 on my camera, sharpness deteriorates due to diffraction. At apertures up to F8.0, the lens suffers a lot from chromatic aberrations, which make the picture at F3.5 slightly soft. The lens completely lacks distortion and vignetting on cameras with an APS-C sensor. Tele-N reproduces pleasant bokeh. Unfortunately, the built-in hood does not help the lens in the fight against backlight and side light, the lens easily loses contrast in difficult conditions.
Separately, it is worth noting the lack of multi-enlightenment. In general, image quality has strengths and weaknesses.
Personal experience
Using a manual telephoto lens is quite difficult. It's not the most comfortable lens to use. In general, who does not need exactly 200 mm focal length, it is better to look towards the shorter, but more interesting lens MC Jupiter-37A 3.5 / 135.
Sample Photos
Camera photo examples Nikon D40. Original photo size here.
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Conclusions:
Telear-N is an old Soviet telephoto, it has many shortcomings, but a good ratio of focal length and aperture allows you to use it not only as a short telephoto lens, but also as a portrait and creative lens.
Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram
Hello, I ran into a problem that infinity was shot down, it turns out a flight. Can anyone come across this, there is no information on the Internet at all. Disassembling without any instructions is a little scary
To adjust it, you just need to unscrew the focus ring on three bolts, then you need to play around in what position and how far to turn this unscrewed ring and tighten it. By the way, the bolts come off easily, so don’t overdo it.
My copy has a small problem with attaching to the Nikon D5300 - if you insert it according to the marks, it does not rotate, it does not fix. It was installed and fixed only in such a way that the aperture scale was on the left of the arizu, and not at the top.
The experience is sad. I bought this miracle in a second-hand store in Voronezh and at the first sharpening it fell apart into two halves! Do not buy at Voronezh second-hand stores! A waste of money, and the owner is rude!