Review Tair-33 4.5 / 300

For the ability to view the lens Tair-33 4.5/300 Many thanks to Igor Tihan.

Review Tair-33 4.5 / 300

Review Tair-33 4.5 / 300

Tair-33 is a medium format lens for B and C mount cameras. Usually Tair-33 with 'B' mount from 'Kiev-88' and 'Salut' cameras go without the letter 'B' in the name, and for 'Kiev-60' cameras with 'B' mount (aka Pentacon Six) in the name lens add the letter 'B'. The lens is available in classic black (as in this review) and zebra frames.

Type of enlightenment Tair-33 4.5 / 300

Type of enlightenment Tair-33 4.5 / 300

My lens has a 'B' mount. How to use Soviet old lenses on modern Nikon cameras read here, and on Canon here. Tair-33 has a narrow-film younger twin brother Tair-3 4.5/300... The main difference between Tair-3 and Tair-33 is that Tair-33 can operate on medium format cameras with a 6X6 frame size, while Tair-3 is designed for narrow format 35mm film. In this regard, the lenses have different resolution, Tair-3 is sharper than its 'older brother' Tair-33. Tair-33 also has a larger front lens diameter and a slightly different optical design of 4 lenses in 3 groups.

Lens aperture Tair-33 4.5 / 300

Lens aperture Tair-33 4.5 / 300

Tair 33 is big and heavyweighs almost 2 kilograms. When I shot at Tair-33, the weight of the lens served as a stabilizer. It's nice that using such a telephoto lens, trembling in the viewfinder is almost not noticeable. Typically, lightweight 300mm lenses make me very nervous about shaking pictures in the optical viewfinder when shooting with my hands, especially on cropped cameras. It’s not worth worrying about the fact that the lens can snatch out the camera mount. There is a tripod socket on the lens, though the old large diameter thread is used for a tripod.

Focus distance scale Tair-33 4.5 / 300

Focus distance scale Tair-33 4.5 / 300

Focusing on the lens is very smooth, the focus ring rotates 360 degrees. The focus ring is wide, metal. When focusing, the trunk lengthens by about 5 cm. When focusing, the front lens does not rotate. The minimum focusing distance is 3 meters. The diameter of the front lens is simply huge, it is already 88mm.

Black Tair-33 at the modern central defense complex

Black Tair-33 at the modern central defense complex

My copy (black, Arsenal factory) has 15 aperture blades (although there is information about 16 petal options). The diaphragm petals are metallic, located immediately behind the first front group of lenses. The lens has an aperture setting and preset ring. The diaphragm control ring is wide and easy to use. On the lens, you can set any F value from F / 4.5 to F / 22.0. The diaphragm preset ring has a small special protrusion for ease of use.

Sample Photos

Despite the single-layer enlightenment, the lens tolerates backlight quite well, even if you shoot against the sun, it’s very difficult to catch glare. But the contrast of the lens suffers a little. Strong at F / 4.5 chromatic aberration, and in the blur zone there is a bright freezing (color of contrasting details in green and purple). Sample photos on Nikon D700 without processing, on this camera I used Tair-33 with an adapter KP-88 / N.

Sample photos on Canon 350D. EGF on cropped Canon 350D is already 480mm. On Canon 350D I used Tair-33 with adapters KP-88 / N + Nikon Canon EOS. Sample photos without processing.

Personal impressions

There are not so many Tair lenses. I have never seen a single medium format lens with a classic lens design longer than 300mm; of such Soviet optics Tair-33 is the longest lens for medium format. The lens has a very interesting design. With a 300mm focal length and aperture of F / 4.5, and even with a 3-meter MDF, the lens blurs the distant plan very much. Tair-33 is interesting for photo experiments.

Catalog modern brand lenses 'Zenitar' и 'Helios' can look at this link.


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Conclusions:

Tair-33 is a unique medium format telephoto lens. Has a nice bokeh pattern. True, Tair-33 weighs over 1700 grams. If there is no fear of the large weight of the lens, then the Tair-33 can be used for leisurely photography of distant objects, especially if you use a tripod.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

Add a comment: B. R. P.

 

 

Comments: 70, on the topic: Overview of Tair-33 4.5 / 300

  • Alexey

    Tair 3 or Mirror, but the latter has a lot worse picture.

  • anonym

    thanks Nikon52

  • Vitaliy Uglov

    I wanted to ask (maybe readers, colleagues) how he compares to Jupiter-36B. The focal length is similar but what is the resolution. Which lens is preferred. Personally, I did not use more than 50 and 80mm on my Kiev-60. Surely people have experience with these "giants". There are also similar lenses from Pentacon and Meyer - optician. The last one I saw and held in my hands. I wanted to buy it (after all, then I was still living in Vladivostok), it would be interesting to look for interesting shots across the sea with such a gun. But the seller asked for a lot, although there was a detachment of the lens, I thought of asking for a discount. Once upon a time I read different opinions, but I don’t remember that long ago. It seems like Jupiter is even heavier because of the luminosity that is brighter in the pattern, the resolution ...

    • B. R. P.

      According to Lens club:

      Tair 33
      Resolution center / edge: at least 25/18 lines / mm.
      Light transmission coefficient - not less than 0.85

      Jupiter 36b
      Resolution (center / edge): at least 45/25 lines / mm.

      • Vitaliy Uglov

        Yeah thanks. It turns out Jupiter 36B abruptly. Strange, the lenses are old and tested, but in the whole huge (former USSR) no one even compared them. Apparently this is not at all relevant. I somehow tried in 2001 to do such a test. I invited friends with wardrobe trunks, poured, talked, and here I was on one tape, pulling out and inserting again, if someone else's system, conducted a test of 8-10 lenses from telly to wide. I wrote down the sequence on paper, and they had to be scanned. And then dragged on with this, I began to move, and there is nothing to it. Then the figure came and said that the old lenses are not at all suitable for the numbers, others are telecentric, well, I abandoned that test. The film is in one place and the paper is marked somewhere in the archive (not scanned). But so I realized something by printing 15 × 21 photos, nor is it all true.
        So: the zoom from Pentax 80-320 hopelessly lost the zoom from Olympus 65-210 (or I don’t remember 200) especially at long focus. Strange, long-focusers are worse at the end, but Zuika doesn’t, and vice versa. Then the Tokina 28-85 RMC f / 4 wagon turned out to be a good one, and the Tokina 20-35 / 3,5-4,5 is mediocre with a kind of simple pattern. Sigma 28mm and 24mm (RF) are different, the latter is very sharp. At what sharpness is needle-like to the smallest detail. The dark zoom from Pentax AF 28-105 / 4-5.6 was very good, I won a bit over my Pentax 35-70 / 4.
        There were more, I don’t remember. Then I got acquainted with the tests of staff members that were already conducted by a professional in this area. Of course, I do not mean photographers, this fraternity of self-taught and amateur in our country. There was a professor in this area from the defense industry (ship equipment). There is a film scanner and everything else. So the undisputed leader was Zuiko 50mm / 1,4, then Pentax AF / 1,4 then zess / 1,4. Canon FD from the very first, followed by m FD more recent releases two copies. for something else Nicon af / 1,4 would be the last. Then I was impressed with this test, seeing how carefully everything was sorted out, not every magazine can do that. In the same year, I bought Olympus with this staffer at a very bargain price. In Vladivostok, then (90s) every miracle could have happened, my friend street photographer (Seryoga Kapchenyi) was brought with a Zuiko 85/2 lens by car dealers, take this crap, they found it useful in the hood.
        It’s not easy for a zoo either, mine had 7 digits in serial. room and 1.4 sharpness is not worse than 4 !!!!
        I then photographed on slides in the Hermitage, music by Pushkin and others for my teaching work (diaphragm 1.4 -2,8). So with the photo from my hand everything turned out very sharply.
        Excuse me saying a lot….

        • B. R. P.

          Yes, an interesting story.

  • Olga

    Hello. I want to ask, Today they brought me such a TAIR3 lens. But it is screwed to some thing. like a long pistol, and there is even a trigger. and this thing has a photo sniper on it. I have a Nikon D 90 camera. I attached it, the photos are obtained, but it is impossible to connect. As far as I understand, an adapter is needed, but are there such, and on the basis of this "pistol" there is a little thing on which, like a tripod, you need to screw the camera, and now it seems to me that the lens almost converges with the camera, but there a lot of cool things, maybe you can raise the lens a little. Tell me what this "pistol" is for. and is it worth bothering with the lens? I like blur very much Thank you.

    • Rodion

      This is a photo sniper kit made for the Zenith camera of a special modification. It can also be adapted to work with modern ones, but the trigger can be remade for communication with the remote shutter release. A mechanical drive, of course, cannot be realized.

      • Olga

        Rodion, thank you very much for the quick reply. I already read something, it unscrewed the gun. So, I can’t adapt it through the adapter to Nikon? And then I already ordered the adapter.

        • Sergei

          The M42 to Nikon adapter will work, but mediocre.
          Since a lens will be added to compensate for the difference in working distance.
          Which will degrade the quality of the picture.
          Therefore, I advise you to find a replacement adapter KP-A / N on the tail of the lens instead of an adapter.
          It does not have a lens, and the quality of the optics will not suffer.

          • Olga

            Sergey, thank you very much, One friend gave a link to Ali Ordered. Written T2 Adapter for Ni con, and so on. Wash it without a lens. Well, let's see.

            • Michael

              Yes, without a lens

            • B. R. P.

              T2 may not fit.

    • Ivan

      It’s immediately obvious, Olga, that you did not see this: https://youtu.be/7tBNb_k4fEE

      • Olga

        Yeah!!!! ;))

  • Egor

    Great lens! I took it as the final one in the collection of glasses for Kyiv-88. In fact, it turned out to be quite a working glass on the FF figure (Nikon D-700) sharp with an open, with beautiful bokeh.

  • Boris Alekseevich

    Grateful, of course.
    Where can I get a manual for this lens.
    Or scan, maybe someone will be honored at the request.
    Thank you.

    • Rodion

      What is the question, exactly?

  • Boris Alekseevich

    It is on this lens, and not on the “zebra”, sorry.

  • Boris Alekseevich

    I just wish I had this guide.

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