Vivitar S1 70-210 f3.5 (2v Tokina) / A7R II

anktonio · Expire: 2017-02-22

JPGs direct from camera, neutral settings, not editing, only resized.

At 70mm f/8:

100% crop:

At 210mm f/5.6:

100% crop:

Green halo is evident but it is easy to correct editing. In my opinion and requirement, this lens is perfectly valid to use in any mirrorless camera.

Happy shots!

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

What camera did you use?

Of all the S1 70-210's, this one made by Tokina is my favorite.

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

After all the hype about S1 zooms I picked up the same one cheap, but was so disappointed with the results on a film camera.....the shots were the same as other average zooms i.e nothing stood out as outstanding, so I gave it away to a charity shop...OK it could have been a bad copy Sad

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

It may have well been. I've not owned enough S1 70-210s to evaluate them against each other, but I have with name-brand stuff like Canon. And I was surprised at the variance in sharpness between a couple of supposedly identical zooms I owned. I got rid of the duller copy -- I didn't want to be using it by mistake.

In fact, I've become somewhat leery of variance in quality between identical optics by the same maker. I've owned very sharp and not sharp copies of the Sigma 600mm mirror. Another mirror with a good rep -- the Samyang made 800mm f/8 -- the copy I bought was very unsharp -- the only reason why I bought it was because of its reputation, but mine was awful. The old 135mm f/1.8s -- there's a lot of quality difference between the various brands out there -- some good ones and some pretty bad ones.

anktonio · Expire: 2017-02-22

Cooltouch, the camera is a Sony A7R II, I had not tried this lens on a FF so far. Now I know that performs well even in high resolution sensors.

Big Dawg · Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 2530 Location: Thach Alabama

My favorite of the Vivitar series 1 70-210's.

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

PhantomLord · Joined: 08 Apr 2013 Posts: 476 Location: Szczecin, Poland

Well I agree that copy variations within Series 1 70-210 is significant. I think that some of them do not age well.

I had 3 copies of V1 (Kiron) and 1 copy od V2 (Tokina). Comparing them side by side V2 was simply unusable for me with focal lenght above 100mm, and the best out of 3 copies of V1 was the copy that had some fungus and a bit of separation between the elements.

I've done some tests comparing Viv S1 70-210 with a few other 70-210'ish zooms. It's somewhere here, but if I remember correctly:
1. Winner was the Tamron SP 23A 60-300 - sharpest through the range on all apertures with great colour and biggest focal range.
2. Second place was somehow between Viv S1 70-210 (V1) and Kiron 70-150/4 - they're completely different lenses, but Kiron was a bit sharper, more contrasty and of course a lot more compact, however with shorter range.
3. Just a bit behind, but seriously a bit was Pentax-M 80-200/4.5, but my copy was soft at f/4.5 and showed a lot of CA, which disappear after stopping one click (between f/4.5 and f/5.6), it sharpened up very nicely and was sharper than Viv on longer end. Tons of contrast and from some time I really regret selling it.
4. Tamron 46A - nothing fancy to write home about
5. Tamron 103A and Kiron 70-210/4.5 - similar to the above point, but less sharp.

Now I'm looking on some Viv S1 70-210 V2, Pentax-M 80-200/4.5, Pentax-M 75-150/4 and Nikon E 75-150/3.5. Hopefully I'll get at least some of them when they'll be reasonably priced.