Topcon RE Topcor 5.6/200 on NEX-3

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hi folks

This is a beautiful lens, all silver and with fantastic build quality, also quite light and great to handle. Sharp like a laser with great contrast. Was one of the most expensive lenses I've bought, around 50ukp, but I feel it was well worth it. These were all at either f5.6 or f8:


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[Attila]

You had magnificent light today, beautiful series!

[iangreenhalgh1]

Oh yes, today was a very rare day, unusual to have such great light in middle of winter. Atmosphere clear and free of haze as it is in winter so ideal time to try out shooting with long lens.

I think I'm going to have to acquire more of these RE Topcors as I see them at good prices, sadly they are not cheap, especially the sorter ones.

[ManualFocus-G]

Woah the colours are awesome! Particularly no.3 for some reason

[blaahhi]

Nice pictures!

The 200mm f/5.6 is quite portable and light for a 200mm, but also slow... It is ok, but not really a star performer in the generally excellent RE Topcor line.

Personally for the RE Topcors, I'd recommend the 100mm f/2.8, the 58mm f/1.4, the RE GN 50mm f/1.4, the 35mm f/2.8, and the small but nice 28mm f/2.8. Also all the macro lenses are good. (I do not even mention the rare and expensive 85mm f/1.8 and 300mm f/2.8 lenses...)

Unfortunately, due to collectability of the whole line, the prices are really high. But with persistence, there's still good deals to be made!



(some of my Topcors)

sami

[iangreenhalgh1]

Yes, I noticed the colours too, rather different from others and I like them. I missed focus on #1, I intended to focus on the canoes but managed to focus on the trees further away, but it didn't spoil the shot. The other thing that impressed me was the separation of objects, on the full-size version of #8, that bit of land sticking into the lake does pop out from the background.

Also, the one of the bench with the nameplate shows to me, impressive sharpness, it is wide open and I just wanted to see how it resolved the lettering, I wasn't expecting it to resolve the fine scratches in the plate, certainly other 200s I have tried like the Tokina 3.5/200 I tried last week wouldn't have resolved those scratches wide open and probably not at f8-11 either.

Thanks for the info Sami, I'm quite envious of your Topcor collection! I agree, the 5.6/200 is very portable, I could use it handheld with patience although I had it on a tripod for all these samples.

I was lucky to find this lens at a decent price and I got a 3.5/135 Topcor for 24ukp, be a while before I collect anymore as they aren't very common and sadly fetch pretty high prices, but when I do see any at a good price, I'll snap em up for sure.

[jito]

Beautiful series as usual. #1 has a very interesting color scheme. But my favorite is #8.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I shot some more with this lens today, all at f5.6 and I think it produces stunning results, critically sharp with great colours and contrast, some CA but not bad at all. Best of all, it has a good deal of 3D pop, what you focus on tends to pop out of the image.


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[Attila]

Hey this is not cheap Jap Crap excellent sharp images

[iangreenhalgh1]

I forget how much I paid now, 56ukp I think, but to me, worth every penny, it's very light so handles very well with the NEX and the deep sliding hood is very useful, build quality is fantastic.

I tried some shots at f11 and it gets slightly sharper and the CA is reduced:


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[FluffPuppy]

Topcon made some nice lenses, to be sure.

[GrahamNR17]

Damn, I love your landscapes and townscapes

[martyn_bannister]

Nice series(s) Ian and WOW, sharp or what?

[FluffPuppy]

[Attila]

[arhi_tectu1]

nice photos

[FluffPuppy]

[Lloydy]

You're getting the images you desired Ian, now you've sorted your lenses into the good, the bad and the ugly!

That's definitely a good lens.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Yes, I have managed to sort them into three categories now - top ones I'm keeping, average ones I'm selling and crap ones I'm going to torture to death!

This Topcon is one I'm keeping for sure, it's a lot smaller and lighter than my Konica Hexanon 3.5/200 and is sharper and has a different rendering to my other keeper 200 - Pentacon 4/200.

So I have a Panagor 3.5/200 (Kiron) and a Hoya (Tokina) 3.5/200 to sell, I already disposed of some other cheap crappy 200s.

I still have a hankering to try out a 2.8/180 Sonnar though...

[FluffPuppy]

[FluffPuppy]

Why doesn't my post show up?

[Attila]

It had issue with url what did you post, I try to figure out what is that.

URL brackets didn't eat this silly Ebay URL and without that also not works.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I'll consider that Elmar. I rarely shoot 200mm, or even 135mm for that matter, but I'm starting to want to use longer lenses more often for my landscape work, so really what I'm after is the best performance at infinity, this Topcor does that well so I'll definitely be using it for a while, although I remain open to the possibility of finding something better.

[FluffPuppy]

[iangreenhalgh1]

I tried the Topcor 200mm again today, light was not great and it was pretty misty but results were not bad, have to try it again in good light.


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