Vintage Vivitars

John Bragg · Jul 2, 2020

Hi all. I am not in a place where I can spend out on new cameras or equipment, but I can indulge the collecting habit just a little with my passion for vintage lenses. In particular I like those made by Kiron and Komine and sold by Vivitar. There are some great examples out there that more than hold their own. Do any of you collect these or any other independent glass ?

An example of what a simple 135mm f2.8 Komine made Vivitar can do. Shot on Tri-X @ ei200 and souped in HC-110 H.

19133F by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

baachitraka · Jul 2, 2020

I got one in OM mount. Not bad at all

Ian Grant · Jul 2, 2020

I remember borrowing a 135mm f2.8 Meyer Orestor lens while at school and being impressed with the sharpness, later buying a 135mm Soligor lens just as sharp. In general most third party 135mm lenses were good, it was a different case with wide angle lenses though. Your Vivitar is a later design and

I've used Vivitar S1 70-210mm lenses for many years and they are superb lenses, I was often using at f2.8/f4 for rock concerts. Vivitar had some good lenses.

Ian

John Bragg · Jul 2, 2020

Ian Grant said:
I remember borrowing a 135mm f2.8 Meyer Orestor lens while at school and being impressed with the sharpness, later buying a 135mm Soligor lens just as sharp. In general most third party 135mm lenses were good, it was a different case with wide angle lenses though. Your Vivitar is a later design and

I've used Vivitar S1 70-210mm lenses for many years and they are superb lenses, I was often using at f2.8/f4 for rock concerts. Vivitar had some good lenses.

Ian

I had the 75-205 f3.8 one touch (Kiron made) zoom that pre dated Series 1 and it was a belter. I have alway regretted selling it when I moved from Canon FD to Olympus in the mid 80s. The good thing is that there are plenty around and I am hoping to get a mint one someday. I have just bought its baby brother 70-150 f3.8 in OM mount and I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

narsuitus · Jul 2, 2020

Over time, I have owned the following vintage Vivitar lenses:

Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 lens with TX mount
Vivitar 28mm f/2.5 lens with M42 mount (67mm filter)
Vivitar 28mm f/2.5 lens with TX mount (58mm filter)
Vivitar 35mm f/2.8 lens with M42 mount (52mm filter)
Vivitar 200mm f/3.5 lens (Nikon F mount)
Vivitar 35-85mm Series I AI f/2.8 Zoom (Nikon F mount)
Vivitar 70-210mm Series I AI f/3.5 Zoom (67mm filter) (Nikon F mount) (Kiron made)
Vivitar 90-230mm f/4.5 Zoom M42 mount (58mm filter)

With the exception of the 200mm, 35mm, and one of the 28mm, all produced good image quality.

Eventually, I replaced all of them with lenses that were either auto focus, had better ergonomics, let in more light, or produced better image quality. The main problem I had with these lenses was that their focus control rotated in the opposite direction of my other lenses. This became a problem when I was shooting quickly and instinctively.

Today, I primarily use my Vivitars as backups.

Paul Howell · Jul 2, 2020

I have a 200 F4 and 300 5.6 in M42 mount, both are reasonably sharp with good contrast for the day, built in lens hoods. not sure who made them. Also have a 135 2.8 in Miranda EE mount, good performer as well. Never ha a Series 1, the early models are as good or better than the manufacturers lens, the later models not so much.

jim10219 · Jul 2, 2020

I have a Vivitar (Cosina) 24/2.8 that was better in ever regard than a Nikon 28/2.8 I had. It was sharper, handled better, better contrast, better colors, and is even a bit wider (24mm vs 28). To be fair, however, the Nikon I'm referring to was an E-series. I've had a few from the E-series that were good, and a few that weren't. The 28/2.8 falls in the "weren't" category.

Jim Jones · Jul 2, 2020

I tried several telephoto lenses before settling on a Vivitar 300mm f/5.6 in Nikon mount which is far better than any of the others, including Nikon.

John Bragg · Jul 2, 2020

My current lineup of Vivitars includes :-
135mm f2.8 Komine in Nikon Ai mount
135mm f2.8 Komine in OM mount
200mm f3.5 Komine in Nikon Ai mount
70-150 f3.8 Kiron one touch zoom in OM mount.
35-70 f3.5 Komine one touch zoom in Nikon Ai mount
The last one is in need of a CLA but came to me for a mere £4 so will be sorted out when I can one day.

ts1000 · Jul 2, 2020

I am also having trouble getting a sharp landscape image with a vivitar 28mm 2.5 62mm filter thread.
One more thing I plan to try, is adding a good hood, in a couple of weeks, hopefully.
This lens has front glass almost 'sticking out' of the lens enclosure (barely inside), so I am thinking light striking the glass from around it, is causing internal flare that destroys imaging...

Lately any 135mm I pull from my old lenses collection - are excellent.
Vivitar, D-Star, Soligor -- all are really good.

Also I am lucky to have Vivitar 90mm macro (Komine made, I think) -- also an exceptional lens with rich colors. I would like to compare it, one day to 105 2.5 Nikkor to see which one makes better head portraits

jim10219 said:
..The 28/2.8 falls in the "weren't" category.

Autonerd · Jul 2, 2020

Back in the '90s I bought a K-mount Vivitar 28/2.8 (Cosina, I believe) because it was all I could afford, but the results looked good enough to me. I still use it. I want a 28 for one of my Minolta SLRs cameras and have thought about buying the same Vivitar lens in an MD mount.

Aaron

Dan Fromm · Jul 2, 2020

mflenses.com has many participants who accumulate rebadged lenses, primarily made in Japan. Look there.

tokam · Jul 2, 2020

I have the Vivitar, (Komine made), 28mm f2.8 in FD mount and have always been happy with it. I also have the Canon nFD 28mm f2.8. Will have to do a side by side comparison shoot one of these days.

John Bragg · Jul 3, 2020

According to this, I bought two lenses this week that together came to £241.90 at 1982 prices. I paid a sum total of £39.99 !
75-205 f3.8 Zoom for £25
70-150 f3.8 Zoom for £14.99

Vivitar ad June 1982 by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

Frank53 · Jul 3, 2020

I’ve been using a Tokina 3.5 17mm with OM mount for many years and always been very happy with it. Recently bought one in Nikon af mount and it’s just as good. Afaik this lens was also sold with other brand names, sigma and vivitar if I remember well.
Regards,
Frank

John Bragg · Jul 3, 2020

Frank53 said:
I’ve been using a Tokina 3.5 17mm with OM mount for many years and always been very happy with it. Recently bought one in Nikon af mount and it’s just as good. Afaik this lens was also sold with other brand names, sigma and vivitar if I remember well.
Regards,
Frank

I owned a 75-205 f3.8 in Canon FD mount in the early 80s. Only lens I regretted selling, but as of last night I have a replacement on its way in Nikon Ai mount. Some lenses are so good you buy them twice !

MattKing · Jul 3, 2020

At the risk of being a curmudgeon, the very worst lens I ever purchased was a 24mm f/2 Vivitar lens in OM mount.
Its optical quality was mediocre at best, and it kept falling apart!
I bought it new in Canada, at about the price shown in that ad (IIRC).

Ian Grant · Jul 3, 2020

MattKing said:
At the risk of being a curmudgeon, the very worst lens I ever purchased was a 24mm f/2 Vivitar lens in OM mount.
Its optical quality was mediocre at best, and it kept falling apart!
I bought it new in Canada, at about the price shown in that ad (IIRC).

There were a lot of poor quality 28mm lenses, in my case I'd had an excellent Pentacon 29mm f2.8 lens, my mother had taht off me when I switched to Pentax K mount and I boughta Sigma 24mm not very sharp & I found it too wide, I sold it and bought a Hoya 28mm f2.8 lens they had superb reviews, it was very sharp no distortion but it flared badly. Hoya hadn't coated all internal elements after a time they scrapped the whole range, the redesigned lenses where sold under their Tokina brand name.

I have a couple of 28mm lenses that came with Spotmatics, a Chinon and Auto Travenar, booth have barrel distortion, I have an excellent Tamron 28mm Adaptal 2 lens and I can use it on my K mount cameras as well as my Spotmatics, I have other Adaptal lenses so this makes sense..

Ian

Paul Howell · Jul 3, 2020

I have a Chinon, 28 2.8 in Konica Mount that is pretty good, not as good as the Konica 28 3.5, barrel distortion wide open but ok once stopped down to 5.6. The best wide I have in MF focus mounts is a Miranda 25mm 2,8. Never had a Vivitar wide, almost got a 28mm 1.8 S1, the extra stop in speed was a draw, pulled back as it was just too much money. As I recall the 28mm 1.9 was made by Tonkia but designed for Vivitar and was sold under Tonkia or other brands.

AgX · Jul 3, 2020

Ian Grant said:
In my case I'd had an excellent Pentacon 29mm f2.8 lens.

Made by Meyer. Its predecessor was the 29mm 2.9 Orestegon. The renaming was also due to Meyer having become a subsidiary of the Pentacon combine.

ciniframe · Jul 4, 2020

The only Vivitar I have is a 55 f2.8 macro (infinity to 1:1) in a M42 mount. I have no M42 mount body but it fits my Pen F half frame with a Olympus Pen F to M42 adapter. Found it in a pawn shop for $20 which I think is a bargain.
It also fits cameras that will Not be mentioned.

HeikoW · Jul 4, 2020

I still use a almost 30 years old Vivitar Macro-Converter (2x) on my Nikons. It creates a pretty good image quality in connection with my AI/S lenses.

jimjm · Jul 4, 2020

I had a Vivitar Series 1 90mm/2.5 Macro VMC lens w/ 1:1 Macro adapter, in OM mount that I was selling for a friend. I had sold all my OM gear a few years earlier, otherwise I would have kept it.
Incredibly good build quality and I've heard this lens is an excellent performer as well.

Martin Rickards · Jul 4, 2020

I have often wondered whether there is any relationship between the Vivitar Komine produced 35-70 f2.8-3.5 Zoom and my Hanimex lens despite the latter's max aperture stated to be f2.5. The latter seems at least to be the same as the Soligor version

johnha · Jul 5, 2020

I've got a Sirius 135/2.8 in KA mount (it was KR but I removed the 'Ricoh Pin'). It's really well made compared to most modern lenses and does the 135/2.8 thing as well as you really need with film.

Vintage Vivitars

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