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Vivitar Series One lenses

G

Guest

Hi Folks, Has anyone had experience of Vivitars Series One lenses. And if so, which ones and what were/are they like?

Many thanks

Paul
 
Hi Paul

I once had a 2.8/28-105 Series one on my 167MT
and it was very bad. In general the mechanical
and optical quality was not bad, but used at 28 mm
it was vignetting very, very bad. Therefore I sold it after just one year and got me the Zeiss
28-85 which is more than superb.

Andy
www.travel-slide.com
 
Last year I tried the 2.8-105 for a few rolls and found it quite satisfactory. It's somewhat bulky and I prefer primes, so I returned it. And of course it can't really compare with the Zeiss 28 mm It is quite a bit cheaper than the Zeiss 28-85 of course! If you're looking for a zoom in that focal (and price) range, it is worth exploring.
 
I have a 28-105 f2.8-3.8 too. I bought while I was small and had no money. It is really bad at 28mm so that I tried to use 28mm at f2.8. Overall, it is not comparable to any Zeiss Lens.

Francis.
 
I have a S1 70-210 f2.8-4. It's has good image quality but the real problem is weight. As a Contax owner I'm used to all metal equipment, but this thing is TOO heavy. If it had it own tripod mount it would be ok, but as it is, it really stresses the mount and tripod attachment. I'd suggest getting a Yashica 75-200 f4.5 if you don't need the speed of the Vivitar.
 
Many, many more thanks, I am still looking for the elusive Yashica 70-210/4.5 ML which is said to be close to the Zeiss in quality. That is until I can afford the Zeiss.

Paul
 
Years ago I had the Series I 2.8-3.8/28-105-Zoom. It's a vario-focus-lens, that means you cannot focus with 105mm and then draw back to 28mm. When changing the zoom you have to focus new.
I compared it with some quite cheap lenses at 28 mm. It's not THAT bad but vignetting is a problem, it's not that sharp as most other lenses are (esp. in the corners) but :
It's build quality is really GOOD !
It's got a min. distace that enables macro-shots (as I remember about 0.19 m) and it gives you a bright viewfinder.
There have been quite different tests of this lens in the german photomagazines (COLOR FOTO and fotomagazin): One found it SUPER and the other quite bad.
So maybe they only got a problem with similar production-quality....

Paul
 
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