Opinions on the TVS III

[awilder]

Anyone ever use this baby? I use to own a TVS years ago and found the optical performance pretty good but could have been better for a 2X zoom. My understanding is that the optical design is improved on the TVS III but is it anywhere as sharp and contrasty as the T3?

 

[mbisc]

Wow -- you're setting your standards a bit high by asking for a comparison against the T-3 -- nothing is as sharp or contrasty as the Sonnar on the T-3 😀

 

[Rico]

The T3 S35 has a crazy level of sharpness and saturation - I wish that CZ had dialed it down! The TVSIII may be similar: my Yashica T4 Zoom with CZ Vario-Tessar is very close in character. Amazing how one can have too much of a good thing, optically. My fleet of C/Y primes are more to my taste (call it that '70s look).

 

[Monte920]

I have T3, TVS, TVS III. I also used to have T2 but sold it. In terms of sharpness, it is T3>T2>TVS III>TVS. In terms of contrast, it is T3>TVS III>T2>TVS. Even though TVS is the most inferior among the four, their performances are actually pretty close. You will probably need to use a slide projector to tell the difference. So is TVS III optically sharper and more contrasty than TVS? Yes, it is. But the margin will probably not big enough to have a "Wow" factor if you move up from TVS.

 

[awilder]

Thanks Monte920. I use to own the T3, T2 and TVS at various times and would rank overall optical performance in that order. The contrast on the TVS seemed a tad muddier than the rest affecting the impression of sharpness. It didn't help for slide work that the camera overexposed slightly to balance the light falloff in the corners but resulted in some blown highlights in the center. Dialing in -1/3 EV compensation helped but this made falloff with flash really noticable.

 

[Monte920]

TVS & TVS III are very different cameras. So you may still keep TVS while getting a TVS III. Fortunately, both of them are not over-valued on the market, just like the T3 does. You should be able to get a mint-conditioned TVS III, even black version, for low-mid $300's. Just try yourself to see if you like it. I use TVS III much more than TVS. I once wanted to sell the TVS, but its current low market value (low $200's) lets me keeping it still.

 

[awilder]

I no longer have any Contax P&S cameras but saw a TVS III for sale at KEH and decided to order it so I'd have a decent film camera for light travel or to keep in the glove box.

 

[awilder]

I just got some test shots back from the photolab and the results really blew me away! Sharpness wide open at 30mm leaves very little to be desired and results are in the same league as the T3. At 60mm wide open performance is quite good as well, trailing 30mm sharpness by just a hair but overall more usealbe wide open due to significantly less light falloff. A comparison test of the TVS III at 50mm shot wide open on a distant target against my ZM 50/1.5 C Sonnar revealed sharpness similar to the Sonnar stopped down to about f/3.6. Very impressive for such a small package and I expect it's performance to rival the 35-70 f/3.5-5.6 Vario Sonnar for the Contax G series and given the minimal focus of the TVS III being 0.5 m vs 1 m for the 35-70, it's seems like a better value.

 

[awilder]

Doing a little web research, I was able to find of the optical diagram of the TVS III. Compared to the TVS/TVS II, the new design is significant in that it uses 2 aspheric elements and one extra low dispersion element with groupings and shapes that are different than the TVS/TVS II which used 3 aspheric elements. Interestingly, the optical changes appear limited to the elements in front of the aperture while the two air spaced elements behind the aperture appear very similar with all three cameras. I would expect based on the optical diagrams, that light falloff especially at 30mm will be quite similar to the previous model at 28mm, so stopping down to at least f/5.6-8 is still needed for optimal illumination across the frame.