Opinion on V3000S Camera?

[magkelly]

Vivitar, K-mount apparently. I'm doing a swap for one of these and I'm wondering if anyone has shot with one. Looks good to me, but I don't know Vivitar cameras at all. Anyone familar? Any quirks that I should be aware of? I found the manual online already. Thanks!

 

[magkelly]

Oh geeze, 41 people have taken a look and no one's actually got an opinion of or used one? This can't be good, laugh. Ah well, it's not going to cost me anything except time and some digital work so I guess it can't hurt to do it anyway, but I'm not feeling real confident as to the quality of the camera here. Not much online on these. I'm surprised. Vivitar? I would have thought they'd have been popular.

 

[BradS]

They are relatively unknown. They were not widely marketed. Even today, a Vivitar K mount body is available brand new....few people even know about it. There was also never a significant cost advantage between the Vivitar K mount bodies and the Pentax K-1000. There were also far better options - the Ricoh KR bodies come to mind...there were others.

These days, with prices on used K-1000 (and the other Pentax K series bodies) hovering around ridiculous lows...there isn't much reason to buy anything but the real thing.

 

[John Koehrer]

Most likely Cosina made sorta kinda a Nikon FM 10 incognito.

 

[BradS]

Most likely Cosina made sorta kinda a Nikon FM 10 incognito.

yeah...that is my impression too.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, MagKelly;

The Vivitar 3000S. Hmmmm. I am not sure. I do know that there is a Vivitar V3800N available new right now for less than $200. It is a manual camera and the specifications make me think that it is using a Copal Square shutter. It probably is made by Cosina.

I am speaking from the point of view of someone who does have a Cosina made Vivitar 450/SLD 35mm camera which has an M42 lens mount. I accepted the expense of having a CLA done on it because it does have the Copal Square metal vertically moving shutter inside it. So does my Nikon Nikomat FTN. So far, it has been working well for me. I do have a problem to fix with the light meter, but the rest of the camera is working well. This does seem to be a camera that is a reasonable camera for a student or someone who wants a manual backup camera or someone who wants a camera that he can work with, and not something that is designed to do everything for him. There really are people who like doing things for themselves. I think that the Vivitar V3000S is one of those kind of cameras.

 

[magkelly]

I like older mostly manual cameras, yes. It's a K-mount which I don't have as yet and it also came with a couple of K-mount lenses which I am excited about. I've looked them up and it's nothing too outstanding but one of them is a semi-decent 200MM zoom and I don't actually have one yet so that's very nice. If I am thinking right, I also can also use my M42 lenses on this but I'll need an M42 to K-mount lens adapter. Anyone have any suggestions as to which one is worth the buy? I'm seeing a lot of them on Amazon and Ebay, but I'm not really sure which one to spring for. I'm told some of them are crap and I'd like to avoid getting anything that will bend or break easily.

 

[elekm]

I would expect this to be a decent camera. Purely aimed at the amateur, of course. It should have a modern meter -- probably center-weighted averaging type.

I think this comes with a so-called kit lens. I would expect decent performance from the lens, as most of these are within a range that can produce good photos.

Are there other more advanced or more sturdy K-mount cameras available? Probably, as the K-mount was in production for decades by Pentax, Ricoh, Chinon and others.

I have an older Vivitar screw-mount camera that's very reliable and fun to use.

Keep in mind that the Vivitar brand of today doesn't appear to be of the same quality as the Vivitar brand of the yesterday.

 

[magkelly]

Well, ultimately I want a really good professional DSLR/SLR combo, but I'm still learning and any decent camera that I can get my hands on without breaking my budget is definitely a good thing.

This one. NO $$$ involved. It cost me about 9 hours at the computer doing some serious digital imaging work. Likely I'll have to order the batteries for it on Amazon. I can never find camera batteries locally. I won't be able to play with it much till next week but when I do we'll see whether or not it was worth all the work I put into acquiring it.

If not, I guess there's always Ebay....

 

[Jeff L]

Most likely Cosina made sorta kinda a Nikon FM 10 incognito.

and I think Yashica FX3 and an Olympus something aswell.

 

[magkelly]

Well, my bad luck with old lenses holds, shakes head. The camera itself looks to be in good shape and I like it. It's small and light and the perfect camera to take with me all the time. It's fairly clean except for one dark speck inside the view screen. It seems to work just fine though it needs new batteries for the meter and the Vivitar 52 MM lens looks like it's a good one.

The Gemini 200MM zoom though, sigh, as usual, whenever I actually get my hands on any decent 200MM zoom it's in absolutely nasty condition. The aperture ring was frozen. I managed to fix that but the lens itself really isn't worth it. Ah well, I was working for the camera not the zoom. The extra lens, that was just a bonus, so whatever, but it just completely messes with me that it's bad.

I've now gotten THREE 200MM zoom lenses to date with several different old film cameras and not one of them was usable! I'll have to forgive the man the icky 200MM though because he also gave me like 11 rolls of film and a pile of Cokin and other similar filters to play with plus the holder needed to use them. Major plus as I was really wanting a set of these. I still need a few of them but this has to be 2/3 of a really good set at least so that's a major start on me having a set of those.

If it wasn't for the freakin bad zoom karma I'd be in 7th heaven about now....

I think I am going to go spend the afternoon looking at lenses on auction, CL etc. Somewhere out there is a nice, CLEAN 200-300MM M42 or K mount zoom lens with my name written all over it at a price I can actually afford!

 

[samb007]

Vivitar V3000S

I am an owner of one of these cameras. I received it as a gift from my brother who has changed to using a digital camera. Basically it is a purely mechanical camera using batteries only for the light meter, so if you're out of batteries, the camera is still fully functional - ie. the same as the Pentax K1000. This makes it a great camera for backup if your main camera's batteries pack up - presuming you have a lightmeter at hand (I inherited a Weston Master II!) or know the F16 rule. You will be surprised at the quality of the camera: it apparently has an aluminum alloy frame and you should not be fooled by the plastic top and bottom covers. It is of sturdy construction and it will certainly give you many years of great use. My camera is of Japanese manufacture, and I have heard that they now are manufactured in China . I cannot confirm this but if it is, I do not know how the quality of construction would be effected.
One thing that I can assure you is that you have a camera of much greater quality and with greater capabilities than most early photographers had. My Vivitar has seen a great amount of use and do not show any more sign of use than my Canon A1 or Yashica 635, because I treat it with the same respect. I am sure that it would be more badly damaged if dropped, but that would not be so much the fault of the camera as of the user (and I would assume that any camera would not take a drop lightly). I must however mention that the paintwork of the Vivitar is not that great, already showing signs of deterioration.
Because it is such a simple fully manual camera, you do not really need an instruction manual. A good book on photography will be sufficient to get you going for many good years of enjoyable photography. The 28-70mm zoom lens on the camera delivers sharp images. I think that for the price it is a bargain and it will turn out to be a much greater investment to you as you may have thought - especially after the more negative comments that I read in this thread.
Cheese it and enjoy it!