A lot of photographers sure do love their bokeh, and this vintage lens has a unique property that gives it some fantastic bokeh. This great video takes a look at the Tair 11A 135mm f/2.8 lens, its unique design, and the sort of images you can take with it.
Coming to you from Mark Holtze, this excellent video takes a look at the Tair 11A 135mm f/2.8 lens. 135mm lenses often make for great portraits, and this one is no exception, with great sharpness, color, contrast, and bokeh, particularly for a lens that hasn't been manufactured in about 40 years. So, what makes the bokeh so great? The Tair 11A has a whopping 20 aperture blades. This means that the bokeh stays quite circular no matter what aperture you choose to use, making it great for the sort of shots where you have pinpoint sources of light in the frame behind the subject, such as a string of holiday lights or the like. Of course, given its age, the lens uses manual focus, but with the focusing assistance features on modern mirrorless cameras, you shouldn't have as steep a learning curve. Check out the video above to see the lens in action.
When I first heard about this lens I was excited about the possibilities, and wanted to get one. Then I found out that it was manual focus only, and was immediately disheartened.
It would work for subjects that are rather stationary, but for the images of running deer and scurrying squirrels and flying birds that I wanted to take with it, it just won't work. Manual focus sucks for that stuff, especially if one wants long bursts in which every image in the burst has the subject's eye in perfect focus. Bummer.
Focus peaking on modern mirrorless bodies may help to compensate for the lack of autofocus, but for running deer, or birds flying straight at the camera?
EDIT:
All that being said, I find myself wanting to shoot with one anyway. But I would need to find subjects that stay in one place long enough to manually focus, and I'm not sure I'll be able to do that or not. Hmmmmmm. Dilemma.
It is just one of those situations where practice is king. There were plenty of wildlife photographers 30-50 years ago who were able to focus on fast-moving subjects with manual focus. It takes a lot of time and effort to master but if it is something you want to invest in, it can be done.
Years ago I took a wildlife photography course for fun and the teacher was an old-school shooter from the film days. One piece of advice he gave that always stayed with me is that when manual focusing on moving subjects, don't try to nail focus in the moment. That is insanely difficult. Rather, focus on where you expect the subject to be a few seconds from now then just burst as the subject moves through that area. At least one of the images should be in focus. Ultimately, the technique is more about your understanding of the given animal's behaviour so you can predict its movement than it is about your technical mastery of rapid focusing but it can be highly effective.
All that said, I'm not overly impressed by this lens myself. Generally, with old soviet lenses, I'm looking for something unique that gives photos an unusual look. This lens doesn't do that, it just looks like most modern lenses with smoother spherical aberration. Only it's worse at it than modern lenses because it is softer, heavier, slower, and suffers from more CA. It is nothing like some of the legendary Soviet lenses that were flawed in ways that created distinct looks such as the Helios 58, Helios 85, and Jupiter 135, for example.
Unfortunately your whole statement is incorrect and is just your comfort level showing. If you've ever used manual lenses exclusively or even tried to get familiar then you would know that you ABSOLUTELY can use this lens for everything you've mentioned.
I woild love to try this lens just because of the images I've seen produced by this lens though but it would be more for fun than work.
You mean I can take a one second burst of a bird at close frame-filling distance flying right at me, at 10 frames per second, and get all ten of the frames with perfect focus on the bird's eye? WOW! I had no idea that any human had such lightning-fast skill and hand-eye coordination to do anything like that!
I always thought that with manual focus for very fast-moving action subjects, you are just trying to get one great image, and that if you wanted a whole string of images to be in perfect focus, you would need autofocus to do that.
Long before there was IS and auto-focus, film was the sensor. I worked with guys who could track Michael Jordan at 6fps on a Nikon F3 sporting a 300mm f2.0 handheld from the end-zone. Every image of his tongue-dragging, frame-filling face was razor-sharp! You had to earn your images with practice. Separated me from the men back then. What-cha gonna do when the AF or IS goes out? Cry to momma? A real Pro's gotta bring back the images and he'll get them even if he's gotta do it manually like the bad old days. He don't need to chimp either. A real pro knows that he's only as good as his last shoot. Took years of practice back then. Today, who cares, who does? It's not needed for most.
Don't be so grumpy :)
Why would you need a 135mm portrait lens to shoot birds at 10fps?
When a bird is flying straight at the camera, I generally turn and run, as I don't have UV filters on my lenses.
Manual Focusing is a skill that takes practice, even with focus peaking and magnification - if you want fast, accurate, and precise focus you can't just master it within a few weeks. AF has come a long way now that if MF is not an essential skill anymore for most applications - but it does prevent you from enjoying experience of shooting vintage lenses.
Absolutely! I have a massive arsenal of manual Nikkor lenses from my Dark Ages in the early '80s with UPI based in Beirut during their civil strife. I went Digital when the D3 came out. I'm in my mid 60's and have yet to buy or use an auto-focus lens. Don't need them. Besides they're not anywhere as durable, more elements added to compensate for the AF and IS. Too much crap to go wrong in such an environment. I use my D3 cameras in all manual mode. Even got gaffer's tape over the rear screen. Don't need it, it's disabled to extend battery life. Old-school film photography one mastered technique. With Digital one masters the menu, points and hits the button. Most are stuck with what the camera gives them. I give the camera what I want.
Wait till you get your eyes in a 85mm Nikkor non-Ai (chrome barrel) f1.8 or a 105mm 2.5.