Vivitar Series 1 70-210 f 3.5 at Macro

[Doc Sharptail]

At high ISO and f 5.6 here hand-held.
This is the first Kino made variant with the Macro tab ears ahead of the aperture ring.
There are no repro ratio scale markings on the lens body.



Focused on the aperture blades here at f5.6 again.



And focused on the name ring here at 5.6.

With the narrow depth of focus, I'm surprised I can use this hand-held.
All images at the 70mm zoom setting.
I am looking forward to getting outdoors with this lens this spring.

-D.S.

[Lloydy]

The 3.5 Kiron is a superb lens, but it's a big heavy old thing compared to my 2.8 / 4 Komine which is my go to 70-210 lens - along with my Minolta MD 70-210 / 4. I can't say the Vivitar 2.8 / 4 is better or worse, but it is a easier lens to use and I do use the f2.8.

I think the Vivitar 2.8 / 4 is probably as good as the Minolta. Where the 3.5 Komine comes in the league of great 70-210's I don't really know, I don't use mine enough to have a firm opinion. But it has to be up there with the best 70-210's?

I have 11 lenses in that range, Tamrons, Minolta AF, Tokina SD, Soligor CD, Pentax SMC and non Series 1 Vivitars. The Pentax is very good, the Minolta AF is another great lens. But I really do believe that Vivitar made some of the best lenses in that range.

[Doc Sharptail]

It is big and heavy, but I really like the 1:2 macro.



Quick shot of the front showing coatings.

I have the Tamron 103-A, which is quite a good lens, but not quite the MFD ability of this one.
I really should do a rough comparison one of these days~ this range of zooms is starting to pile up around here
I'll see if I can get the fox squirrels to cooperate tomorrow morning.

-D.S.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I'm a bit wary of expressing my opinion lest someone may start a new thread just to tell me how wrong I am...

But in my opinion the first two versions of the Viv S1 70-210 are both superb lenses and among the best in that range produced prior to everything going plastic and AF.

I own one or two each of v1 and v2, had several other copies, over the years, all are good, all are big and heavy, all have excellent build quality. For the price they cost,they area no-brainer - a better lens is going to cost several times more.

[D1N0]

I have both V1 (Kiron) and V3 (Komine) I tend to think the Komine is better. If only it's aperture wasn't so sticky... (on my copy). It is a bit more compact, making it easier to walk around with and it's macro focussing isn't a complicated switch. IQ is nominally better, but I haven't put them head to head.

I do have a time separated test shot though:
Kino v1
Fence Bokeh by The lens profile, on Flickr

Komine v3
Fencekeh by The lens profile, on Flickr

[Doc Sharptail]

The Kino made versions seem to lean towards magenta cast slightly.

A couple of non-MFD shots here:



At 210mm and f5.6.



Hefty crop of near top right corner of the image above.



At 70mm and f5.6



Crop of near top right corner of the image above.
I quickly found that this lens wants at least 1/250 sec at 210mm~ 1/500 sec is actually better in my hands.
My copy seems slightly a bit low in contrast, but nothing un-manageable.
Will try again later this week for wide-open aperture shots.

-D.S.

[Doc Sharptail]

These are all wide-open at f3.5



I don't "bird" very often. Couldn't resist trying on this one though.
ISO 64 f3.5 at 210mm and about 10-12 feet away.
Bird's head still shows motion blur at 1/1000 sec.
Slight contrast boost and slight sharpening in post.



Macro range at roughly 180mm and wide-open at f3.5.
Slight contrast boost here.



At 210mm wide-open here and un-manipulated.



Crop from above.



At 70mm wide-open and un-manipulated.



Crop from above.

Other than a slight tendency towards a magenta color cast, and contrast a shade low, not a lot wrong with this.
Focus throw is a bit longish for near subjects. It's not the sharpest lens around, but is actually quite good at showing detail.
There's a bit of purple/green fringing to it when pixel-peeping, but it has to be searched for.

-D.S.

[marcusBMG]

I included all three (kino v1; tokina Vii; komine Viii) of the original vivitar 70-210's in my test:

http://www.groupoids.org.uk/photography/TamronVSvivitar/70-210mm.html

This was back in 2016 with my 16Mpx K5. I never got round to writing up a results /verdict page, but can suggest that while both the first kino version and second tokina version have their plusses and on most of the test pics were competitive, on the pics that provided the most discrimination (castle turret, castle view at 70mm; macro/close focus) , they were behind the best.
The kino lens is historic as the innovative lens of that moment and I've seen numerous good pics from it.
Kino later produced what to my eyes is a slightly simplified viv V1 - the kiron 70-210mm F4 zoomlock, but which IMO is the better lens overall.

http://forum.mflenses.com/70-210mm-supertest-tamron-sp-vivitar-series-1-t75639.html

ps links now fixed

[Doc Sharptail]