It occurred to me when comparing the Telemar-22 to the Tair-11 that I have not done a write up yet about this lens. I’ve owned it for about 6 months and it’s among my favourites within the M39 SLR family. I like it so much, I actually have two of them! The Tair-11 along with the Helios-44 and Mir-1 would be on my short list for someone wanting to start their own vintage collection…

Having exhausted the faster, more desirable primes from the vintage Soviet M39 SLR family of lenses, I’ve set my sights on some of the more obscure offerings just to complete the collection. The Telemar-22 falls firmly in this category. At ƒ5.6, it’s the slowest of the early primes and for some reason, incredibly hard to find in decent condition. My expectations were quite low but this is a shy lens and slowly reveals an ability to capture images with a low contrast charm.