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What year is my Vivitar 135:2.8 from (and my Kiron-lenses)?
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:54 am    Post subject: What year is my Vivitar 135:2.8 from (and my Kiron-lenses)? Reply with quote
Hi,

For Nikkor-lenses there is a great site with a lot of information: http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html
For Vivitar I found: http://www.cameraquest.com/VivLensManuf.htm
According to this the first 2 digits are the manufacturer, the 3rd digit is the year, where 8 can mean 1978 or 1988, 4th/5th weeknumber etc. Well, the 4th and 5th digit of my Vivitar 135:2.8 are 74, so that would be a strange weeknumber. Complete serial is 28774781 28 would mean Komine and 7 mean 1977 or 1987.
My 2 Kironlenses have the following serialno's :
Kiron 70-210:4 zoomlock: 25915349
Kiron 80-200:4.5 : 47037799.
If the same is valid as for the Vivitar-series then here you can find normal weeknumbers.
Anyone a clue about the Vivitar 135:2.8? I was just curious, if it would be over 20 or over 30 years old. Same for the others, which might then be from 1979/80 or 1989/90.


PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I just looked at the Cameraquest link in Dickiedick's post. The article seems to be talking ONLY about Series 1 lenses and I find myself wondering whether the numbering-identity applies to all the other lenses under the Vivitar brand. My own knowledge of 'who made what' is very limited, so I may be ignorant of other confirmed sources of information. However, it would be good to know what those confirmed source/s might be.


PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Maybe it's this way: 28774781: 28-Komine, 77-Year, 47-Week, 81-Manufacturing serial no.

My Vivitar 135mm 2.8 CF reads 28700899: 28 - 70 - 08 - 99 (Assuming, that here year 1970 is possible. It has M/SR mount, which were around those years )
My Vivitar 90mm/2.8 Macro reads 28801014

I agree with scsambrook, that cameraquest is talking about Vivitar Series 1 lenses.

Last edited by hasan on Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:10 pm; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The Vivitar numbering system seems to have been phased in about 1970 to 71 and abandoned in the 90s. The system covers most of the lenses you are likely to encounter, series one and regular Vivitars.


PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
If you post a photo, it might be easier to discern as there were cosmetic changes between lenses from one decade to another...


PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
casualcollector wrote:
The Vivitar numbering system seems to have been phased in about 1970 to 71 and abandoned in the 90s. The system covers most of the lenses you are likely to encounter, series one and regular Vivitars.


+1

The site says: "A former Vivitar executive provided this info. Vivitar used this lens numbering coding system from about 1970 to 1990, for ALL their 35mm lenses."

Rino.


PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
scsambrook wrote:
I just looked at the Cameraquest link in Dickiedick's post. The article seems to be talking ONLY about Series 1 lenses and I find myself wondering whether the numbering-identity applies to all the other lenses under the Vivitar brand.


No, as others before me mentioned, the numbering system appears to apply to Vivitar lenses in general. I own three non-series 1 Vivitars, two made by Komine, and one by Tokina.

Looking at the dating method used, however, one of my Komines appears to be an exception also. Both Komines have the same exterior design and finish (one's a 200mm f/3.5 and the other's a 35mm f/1.9): both have grooved metal focusing rings with aperture rings that have matching grooving. And since they are Canon FD, even the breech lock ring has the same matching grooves as the focusing ring and the aperture ring. But since they have metal focusing rings with no rubberized grip, I peg their production time frame as the early 1970s.

The 200's s/n is 2829650, whereas the 35's s/n is 28406970, one extra digit than the 200. The 35's date coding works fine: year 1974, week 06, 970th lens of the production run that week. If we apply the date coding to the 200 though, it doesn't work. Year 1972, but week 96? It does work, however, if we consider it to be week 9. My Tokina-made lens is much later made, and fits with the recognized coding for dates.

I suspect -- and this suspicion is based on an extremely small sample obviously -- that for the first few years of using this system perhaps Vivitar did not add zeros to the front of the numbers for weeks with a count less than 10. This would mean, however, that for the first few years, the s/n's number of digits would shrink by a column at the start of the next year. This seems unlikely, but it's the only answer I can come up with.

I also own two Vivitar S1 lenses, and they both have s/n's that conform with the accepted methods.

Another explanation is possible -- perhaps for the non S1 lenses, Vivitar kept the manufacturer code only, and just let the s/n fall wherever. Since I and hasan and DikkieDick all own exceptions to this numbering system, this last explanation seems to be probable.
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