Vivitar (Kiron) 70-150/3.8 Close Focusing Auto Zoom M42

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

This little beauty is the less common little brother of the extremely common Kiron-made 85-205/3.8 zoom.

Note that Vivitar called this one "close-focus" while the 85-205 in this case is "macro". Other slightly different versions of the 85-205/3.8 were also referred to as "close focus". While the larger version was sold by almost everyone in the early-mid 1970's, under at least 25 brands, this 70-150 seems to have been sold mainly by Vivitar.

It is a similar lens to the 85-205 in every way, with two-touch operation and a "close-focus" or "macro" setting that is engaged by turning the zoom ring past its minimum focal length. In this case it seems to work like a 70mm in "close focus" mode. Its a true constant-aperture zoom. It seems to hold focus while zooming, but not too precisely as far as I can tell. It also has the manual-auto switch (so useful on M42 lenses) that was beginning to disappear in the 1970's. The sliding hood is just as tiny and useless as the 85-205.

The minimum focus is 5ft/2.5m (when its not in "close focus" mode), which isn't close enough to my taste for a zoom, and the need to switch to "close focus" is inconvenient and one loses the focal length for a "standoff" distance, which is what I like about many zooms. But thats how it was back in those days. It is a rather limited zoom range, but still useful for framing, if you like to do that through zooming. Think of it as a replacement for a 135mm.

Performance is excellent, certainly matching its big brother. It is slightly soft and there is a "bit of a "glow" (spherical abberration?) at f/3.8, but its as sharp as my sensor can distinguish from half a stop under that. There is no problem with contrast and little detectable flare shooting close to the sun, though I would recommend a hood.

The bird -

crop -

Screamin Scott · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:04 am Post subject:

That lens came in two flavors, the 2 touch as you show here & a one touch (which I have)...I'm still looking to get either the 1.5x or the 2x matched multipliers for this lens. I won one on eBay, but it turned out to be the wrong mount (I have since sold the lens to Big Dawg)....I may have a 2x version coming my way soon though...They are nice lenses fop the small amount of money that they sell for. I got mine as "new" old stock from Adorama.........( Kino made lens as per the #22 serial #'s)

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

Great stuff once again! I love the bird shot with the open mouth Laughing

sichko · Joined: 20 Jun 2008 Posts: 2475 Location: South West UK

Nice shots Luis. I've had a copy for about 6 hours !. Initial impressions mirror yours although I've only got a few indoor shots at the moment.

Special thanks for the information on the 85-205. I was thinking of one of the 70-210s but this looks like a nice alternative.

hintheman · Joined: 12 Jan 2009 Posts: 51 Location: Fremont, CA

sichko · Joined: 20 Jun 2008 Posts: 2475 Location: South West UK

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

Great little lens there. Also a close relative to the 75-205 two touch lens. Still need to do some shooting with mine that has some sun in it as mostly cloudy day shots so far. Wish I had your skill to go along with it though. Some very nice photos there. I am looking for an 85-205 to go with my other two touch lenses.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi Dawg,

The 85-205's are all over the place, and not just with the Vivitar brand. Try Shopgoodwill.com, there are usually some there every week.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi Scott,

How do you ID the Vivitar matched multipliers for these ?

Screamin Scott · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:30 pm Post subject:

It says right on the teleconverter itself what it mates with

Screamin Scott · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:32 pm Post subject:

I'm awaiting a Vivitar 2x matched multiplier & when it arrives, I'm going to compare the results with shots using the Vivitar 2x Macro converter....

sichko · Joined: 20 Jun 2008 Posts: 2475 Location: South West UK

Abraxas · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 4 Location: UK

Hi,
I have just aquired one of these but sadly it has some problems...no doubt one of its previous owners has either damaged it or had it apart and put it back together incorrectly.
The first thing that was obvious is that the aperture setting cannot be moved past f11 but moves from f3.8 to f11 as normal.
Secondly the focussing seems to be a long way out...at 150mm setting infinty is at about 40 feet on the barrel....at 70mm setting infinty is at about 12 feet on the barrel and on the close focus setting it focusses throughout the focussing range at about a distance of 1 foot.
Does anyone out there have any information regarding the internal construction of the lens and how to set it up again or repair it as all the elements seem to be in A1 condition.
With fingers crossed,
Mike Sad

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Hi Mike,

I bet the previous owner had the lens mount off and put it back on improperly, that could easily be the reason for both the aperture ring problem and the lack of infinity focus.

I haven't had the mount off on mine, so I can't help there. Pictures of the mount end could help maybe.

casualcollector · Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:33 pm Post subject:

Abraxas · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 4 Location: UK

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Abraxas · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 4 Location: UK

Hi,
I seem to have messed up on attaching the photo ...but the lens was aperture was set between 5.6 and he photo was taken....let me know if other photo's can be of any use....it would certainly be really nice if it was just a case of sorting the fitting out....I have only taken the other end out of lenses before to remove rubbish and the ubiquitous fungus so it could prove enlightening too....
Regards,
Mike

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Well, I can't see much from that.

Are there signs of someone having unscrewed the lens mount ? Scratching around the screws ? Anything loose ?

Does the thing stop down automatically ?

If you set the thing to f/3.8, can you still see the diaphragm blades ?

Abraxas · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 4 Location: UK

...it is as I originally said...moving the setting from 4 ->3.8 causes the blades to just reach max dilation and disappear....if you stand the lens on the front end and look at the 3 screws tha are in the mounts rear slot there are 2 cross head screws that lie flush and one flat slot screw that is raised and looks like it has been 'used'....of the 5 cross heads that hold the mount to the body 2 may have been tampered with.....
Is the matt black block that has the iris actuator lever in it the same design as yours ? (I have seen one looking different on a lens (same) on ebay)........
Mike

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

My mount end is very different because it is M42 and yours is Nikon. My iris actuator is a pin.

It looks like your mount has been tampered with.