Vivitar Series 1 24-48mm

[Attila]

I did loan this lens from my friend to give it a try. Huge glass Kiron made and perform pretty well , but certainly not same well than a good prime. Any experience ?

My pictures are here.

http://forum.mflenses.com/vivitar-series-1-24-48mm-panasonic-g1-t47458.html

[Lloydy]

This is probably my number 1 walkabout lens, It never disappoints me, I get a very good hit rate from this lens.
It's big, it flares, but I love it. Nice colours and sharp. I use a Cokin P Series hood sometimes and that helps a lot.

And best of all. it's a great length for a zoom on a DSLR. I paid about £40 for mine and I would have paid more if I knew how good it was.

[Kathmandu]

Is this the Macro?

[Lloydy]

Mine isn't, it a constant 3.8 aperture which is good though.

[Attila]

[woodrim]

I made this post in your picture thread, but is probably more appropriate here, so this is a repeat...

It's pretty much understood that a zoom won't be as good as a prime, right? Still, that seems pretty good performance for a zoom of that era. Today is different with some of the high end zooms offering outstanding performance that equals older primes. With that constant aperture, does it hold focus throughout the zoom?

[iangreenhalgh1]

I've tried a lot of zooms, all older ones and I've only found a very few that were even mediocre, the rest were awful. I can name just four that I would rate as good, all Konicas - 28-135, 70-150, 65-135 and UC 80-200.

[Attila]

[Lloydy]

Quick and dirty test, across the room focused on a wall light maybe 20 feet away, lens wide open, it seems to retain focus as I zoom.

I'll bang it on a tripod outside tomorrow and be a bit more scientific.

[iangreenhalgh1]

[Lloydy]

I tried it out today on a tripod to see if the focus stays fixed through the zoom range, and it does. I tried the lens at 7 meters and 0.6 meter. Set at f3.8 - 8 and 22, then zoomed from 48mm to 24 mm. At no time did I alter the focus ring.

The long shots are focused on the reddish stone in the centre.
The close shots were focused on the corner of the stone.

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forum.mflenses.com/userpix/20122/1849_Image00011_1.jpg[/img][/url]


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[woodrim]

I must have been thinking about one of the other Vivitar zooms that required re-focusing with every zoom change. Still, I'm not sure that I'd trust the focus so much that I wouldn't refocus anyway. I might trust going from tele to wide more than the reverse.

[invisible]

[woodrim]

Thank you.

[Lloydy]

I still have this lens, and I guess I always will. It's that good.

[fwcetus]

[fwcetus]

[wildlight images]

Is it still an 'always' for you?

That would be amazing, 6 years for a thread regarding a particular lens like this and people still favoring it enough to call it an "always" lens..

Why?....I finally ran across one of these on flea bay ...I have used this zoom focal range extensively from the Tamron, all 3 Nikkors, Tokina, and more and of them I have always preferred the Tamron Adaptall-2 .... but, the series 1 has eluded me until now and it's been a long time coming ...these lenses have souls ....they were truly a labor of love believed impossible to achieve ....and it was and they are all quite good lenses in this range, even though it required huge struggles to develop and people lost their jobs involving some of them (Nikon)...totally ignored today is their significance and largely their performance because now it's just so standard to have broad range zooms as if it were no feat to create them at all ...

[Oldhand]

I have been very impressed with my copy of this lens - Canon FD mount.
I started a thread on it some time back.
Here:

http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic.php?t=77197

Tom

[Slalom]

I bought one of these with my OM2N and ran off a test film in Manhattan, and in the evening in Connecticut, over 24 keepers out of 36 Kodak slides, I blew up 4 to 8X12 and a manager in the office asked for a 10X14 of Lower Manhattan. The only issue is a slight blue cast, could be the office window glass, film, film to paper. or the lens.

Sadly the webbing that goes through a lightweight slot failed to stop down on a family holiday . I believe this is a common failure.

I still have the lens And would love to have a repair.

[Lloydy]

Still got it, works just fine on my A6000.

[Focusthrow]

Me been trying to get one of these for some time--everyone in here knows why--nice pics everyone. jt

[cooltouch]

I bought one of these S1 24-48s shortly after I started buying back into Canon FD in 2009. Since then I've had to open it up twice to clean oil off the aperture blades, and the reason why I haven't used it again is because it's aperture blades are stuck once again. Sheesh. I must be doing something wrong -- or at least not to completion.

Anyway I've seen enough photos here that indicate to me just how good this lens is, so I have no excuse. I need to open it up again and this time thoroughly clean the aperture blades. About a year or so ago, I bought the Tamron 13A SP 24-48, and thankfully its aperture blades are working fine. I want to get my Vivitar working again so I can compare the two. True, the Vivitar has a constant f/3.8 aperture, and the Tamron's is variable, but it might as well be constant with a f/3.5-3.8 variability.

Anybody else compared these two lenses? Guess I need to get cracking on my Vivitar.

[TrueLoveOne]

Just recently i noticed an ad with a Soligor C/D 24-45 lens, is it the same lens as the Vivitar S1?

(the ad is gone, just checked....)

[Oldhand]