Vivitar (Tokina) 75-260/4.5 - ALMOST the biggest T4

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

This is yet another Tokina-made T4 lens, As usual with this series, it was sold by everybody and his brother throught the mid-1970's, the big distributors like Vivitar and Soligor had it with T4 mounts or with dedicated mounts, and the same variety of others also, Mamiya, Yashica and the minor distributors.

Oddly, this model does not seem to have been sold by Sears.

This is a big, heavy zoom lens, but not the largest lens in this Tokina series (I have the largest one coming, a fairly rare 400/6.3). It is however one of the most popular, and very easy to find on ebay and elsewhere in its many variants, there are always several on ebay.

This one is a T4 version by Vivitar, and has the straight simple knurling that was typical for them in the early 1970's. It focuses down to 2M/6ft, which is pretty good for a 260mm lens of the time, as is the almost 4x zoom ratio. It is a constant aperture to boot, holding f/4.5 through the zoom range, and also apparently accurate focus while zooming. It must have been quite a contender in its day.

This copy is in excellent condition, seems barely used if at all, and had no issues. The image quality is not terribly good, not being sharp at f/4.5 under any circumstances. It also flares considerably if pointed too close to the sun, worse than most I've been testing recently.

Samples -

Flare at f/4.5 at about 30 deg off from the sun at noon - this after Photoshop contrast fix, etc.

Stopped down to f/8-f/11 -

The bird, at f/4.5 -

crop -

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Really nice result!

Helios · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 537 Location: East of France

I own this lens in M42 fixed mount , Tokina branded, with the same huge flare at full aperture , and the same overall good rendition when stopped down ! Nice pics ! I used it for birds photography .

Sid · Joined: 02 Nov 2017 Posts: 5 Location: Potlatch, Idaho

I'm currently bidding on one right now. I thank you all so much for having this forum! I've used it numerous times to check the opinions of specific lenses, like the original post in this thread, and haven't been disappointed yet!

kryss · Expire: 2017-09-18

Welcome Sid,glad to have you aboard.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

You're welcome!
I need to re-shoot this lens, its been a very long time.

guardian · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1749

Thank you, luisalegria.

Just for fun, after reading your post, I decided to pick up one of these lenses:

Click here to see on Ebay

I would point out I am the very last of the big time spenders. Laugh 1

Seriously, I bypassed the lens currently available for a buck and a half, in favor of this more expensive, but nicer looking, copy. So is my lens T4 or TX? I do not know. That remains to be seen. I do not know how to distinguish TX from T4 solely by the serial number. I will have to remove the adapter to know. Speaking of which:

Couple of years ago I bought a LARGE number of T4/TX m42 adapters from a camera shop in Virginia that was selling them out. I converted all my T4/TX lenses to m42, and many adapters remain. So I can shop for T4/TX lenses on eBay without caring about which adapter might be attached, which is a real help.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I hate to see that I've made you drop such a pile of cash on this lens!

Seriously, its worth it just for the self-defense value.

D1N0 · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 2494

Review in Dutch of this lens July 1972 Focus Magazine (The call it compact) but are very positive about IQ.

Auto Vivitar Tele-Zoom 4.5/75-260mm made by Tokina by The lens profile, on Flickr

Alun Thomas · Joined: 20 Aug 2018 Posts: 631 Location: New Zealand

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Thanks for the review!
These were pretty good lenses for the time.

One has to keep in mind that the “sensors” of the day had limitations. Using as a standard what Kodak film was common in the early 1970s (and I was around then), what would normally be used on something like this was Tri-X, ISO 400, often pushed by under exposure to ISO 800. That got you into handhold range in most circumstances at useful apertures. But Tri-X is effectively something like 3-6megapixels in digital terms. Plus-X, ISO 100, would have been more like 10mp, but better dynamic range. And you would need a tripod.

D1N0 · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 2494

Some shots with my Soligor version of this lens (with sharpening to see what I could get out of it):

1

180mm 5.6 by The lens profile, on Flickr

2

180mm 5.6 by The lens profile, on Flickr

3

260mm by The lens profile, on Flickr

4

260mm by The lens profile, on Flickr

5

Moon 260mm 5.6 100% crop by The lens profile, on Flickr
100% crop, scale down here a bit.

GoldMark · Joined: 21 Aug 2012 Posts: 185 Location: Germany