Vivitar 17mm f/3.5

[cooltouch]

Well, the recent thread on the Tokina 17mm f/3.5 has caused me to pull out my Tokina-made Vivitar 17mm f/3.5 and burn through some film with my Canon F-1. I really enjoy having an excuse to burn through film using my F-1 -- I love that camera.

I bought this Vivitar 17mm almost 20 years ago, and gave it to my mother. Back then she was still pretty active in photography, traveling a fair amount and all, but now, well, it's been years since she's pulled out her 35mm SLR gear, so she up and gave it all to me. And so, after an almost 20 year absence, I have the Vivitar 17 back in my collection.



The following shots were taken with a Canon F-1 using Fuji ISO 200 film. Exposure was unrecorded, but I was probably stopping the lens down to the f/8 to F/11 range to achieve maximum sharpness and good depth of field. The negatives were scanned on an Epson 4990 flatbed scanner, and a minimal amount of post processing was done, including a bit of saturation and high-pass sharpening.

This lens does exhibit some barrel distortion, and as the photos show, just a tiny bit of vignetting on the corners. Neither of these issues bothers me really. This will make a great lens for beach and mountain scenics.

[LucisPictor]

That's a very nice lens. Highly recommendable.

[kds315*]

Looks quite good to me. I have two 17mm Tokinas which look alike.

[Nesster]

The lens looks very cool, and I immediately thought of the seashore... It's a good thing to keep glass in the family

[martinsmith99]

These used to go a lot cheaper and I foolishly passed on one about a year ago. A decision I regret looking at those images.

[cooltouch]

[alexandre]

I have an OM mount one so I can use it on Canon EF mount too if I wish.
Paid $140 for it. It's very good considering the price tag, almost as good as Tamrpn SP IMO.

[sichko]

Is this Vivitar equivalent to the Tokina ATX or the RMC ?

[cooltouch]

Most likely the RMC, but I can't say for sure.

[sichko]

[martinsmith99]

I've seen the actual Tokina lens listed and each time it had the RMC badge.

I had a 24mm RMC Tokina and it was not so good.

[cooltouch]

I went to eBay just now and searched for "Tokina 17mm" and got a number of hits, including a few for the RMC 17mm. After closely comparing my Vivitar with the Tokina RMC, I would have to say that they are different lenses. Mine has a 72mm front filter size, whereas th RMC's is 67mm. But I can see how, if the wings on mine were omitted, the filter size could be reduced. However, when comparing the rear element of mine with those shown (Nikon AI and Oly), my conclusion is that they are indeed different. Mine has a larger rear element and a narrower collar surrounding it than the RMC. So, possibly they are not contemporaneous? That is, perhaps the Vivitar is an older design than the RMC? Hard to say, I suppose.

The only AT-X 17s I found were newer AT-X PRO AF lenses. I doubt very much this Vivitar has the same optical formula as those.

[justtorchit]

Some other members were just talking about this lens last week or so. I picked up the spiratone 18mm f/3.5, an identical copy to the vivitar 17mm f/3.5 (both are actually made by tokina). These lenses differ from the RMC model. I have a short blog about what I had previously found on this tokina-made lens. The above image is a shot a I made with the spiratone. I love it!

http://makingnottaking.blogspot.com/search/label/Vivitar%2017mm%20f%2F3.5

[cooltouch]

Hey David,

Thanks for the info and for the link to your blog. I read through it, and now of course I have a question. Being that you have both flavors of the Spiratone 18 -- this one and the Sigma -- which is the better optic in your view, and why?

[krankykraut]

Justtorchit,

That's a superb image. Nicely done!

[DSG]

[justtorchit]

Thank you, krankykraut!

As far as your question (cooltouch) on my preference between the two versions discussed in my post, I actually only have the 18mm f/3.5 (17mm Tokina-made) version. The earlier version, I have only seen images of. So I cannot comment as to the differences between the two in terms of results, but perhaps with some luck and eBay, that could change! haha

[cooltouch]

I've since learned that Sigma also made an 18mm f/2.8. Judging by its looks, it's contemporaneous with the Spiratone Sigma. From what I've read about this f/2.8 version, it's nothing to get worked up about. Perhaps the Spiratone one was similar, quality wise.

[martinsmith99]

I saw one of these (Viv 17mm) on efray yesterday. Seeing that the rear element had debris on it I expected it to go for very little. Unfortunately it didn't put people off.

I've no idea how easy the rear element comes out so I avoided it.

[kuuan]

in M42 mount..I am guilty.
I had contacted the seller asking about these white spots and he said that they should be cleanable from the inside if the lens was opened. I hope he is right as I will have access to cheap lens doctors back in Asia soon. So I put 47 pound as maximum bid, and when I checked an hour after the auction had ended found that I had won..for 47 pounds

[supahmario]

last night i did some first digital shots with my tokina 3,5/17 rmc and i am really impressed about the sharpness. i didn't expect a lot, but @f8 it is much sharper than i would have thought.

[kuuan]