dan_states
Member
Over the past month I searched far and wide for web images created by the TVS III. I was interested in the camera, but was concerned by the mixed (some crappy) reviews it received on some threads in this forum.
I ended up buying a TVS III, and have now run about 4 rolls of film through it. I have uploaded some shots to the photo forum off a roll I processed tonight. These are not my best stuff, so my apologies...but you will get some idea of the abilities of the camera.
Frankly, I must say that all the naysayers who griped about this camera for optical reasons need to re-examine their logic. I find this to be an amazing zoom lens. As good as the best primes? No, but certainly better than MANY primes from Nikon, Minolta and other middle of the road makers.
At full aperture at 30mm there is light falloff that would be noticable in most cases. Distortion is the pincushion type, but is actually on par with my Tri-elmar's barrel distortion at the 28mm setting. Flare control is amazing for a zoom lens.
At other settings distortion is not critical, and light falloff is greatly reduced. (see test shots)
The lens has the crisp rendition of detail and excellent control of highlights that I love about Zeiss lenses. Center quality is supurb, and corner image quality ranges from somewhat poor at 30mm at full aperture, to very good at other settings.
Gripes:
Gee that 5 point focus system sucks. Make sure you have it on spot focus if you want it to be predictable. It does not focus as quickly as my T3 at either setting.
Manual focus is great, but a distance readout like the t3's would make it more meaningfull...otherwise it's just a big guess.
All in all a much better camera than I predicted. It's zoom lens makes images that compare very favorably to those from my Vario Elmar F4, and the entire camera is the size of the Elmars lens cap!
Best wishes
Dan States
I ended up buying a TVS III, and have now run about 4 rolls of film through it. I have uploaded some shots to the photo forum off a roll I processed tonight. These are not my best stuff, so my apologies...but you will get some idea of the abilities of the camera.
Frankly, I must say that all the naysayers who griped about this camera for optical reasons need to re-examine their logic. I find this to be an amazing zoom lens. As good as the best primes? No, but certainly better than MANY primes from Nikon, Minolta and other middle of the road makers.
At full aperture at 30mm there is light falloff that would be noticable in most cases. Distortion is the pincushion type, but is actually on par with my Tri-elmar's barrel distortion at the 28mm setting. Flare control is amazing for a zoom lens.
At other settings distortion is not critical, and light falloff is greatly reduced. (see test shots)
The lens has the crisp rendition of detail and excellent control of highlights that I love about Zeiss lenses. Center quality is supurb, and corner image quality ranges from somewhat poor at 30mm at full aperture, to very good at other settings.
Gripes:
Gee that 5 point focus system sucks. Make sure you have it on spot focus if you want it to be predictable. It does not focus as quickly as my T3 at either setting.
Manual focus is great, but a distance readout like the t3's would make it more meaningfull...otherwise it's just a big guess.
All in all a much better camera than I predicted. It's zoom lens makes images that compare very favorably to those from my Vario Elmar F4, and the entire camera is the size of the Elmars lens cap!
Best wishes
Dan States