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Vivitar 28mm f/2 - Kiron made lens
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PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 10:22 pm    Post subject: Vivitar 28mm f/2 - Kiron made lens Reply with quote
I won this for just £15.00 on ebay as it is in Minolta MD mount. Just a quick test tonight whilst having a stroll along the beach. It's not bad!

#1 @ f/2 - crazy bokeh



#2 @ f/4



#3 @ f/5.6



#4 @ f/5.6



#5 @ f/5.6



#6 @ f/5.6



This lens isn't perfect, and displays some fringing and poor edges. It's low on contrast wide open too, but for £15.00 I am happy with this purchase Wink


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 10:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow! Great series.


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 10:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
At its time the corner performance was quite remarkable, and we are talking about FF Very Happy


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 10:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ultrapix wrote:
At its time the corner performance was quite remarkable, and we are talking about FF Very Happy


Very true! Laughing

Thanks for the comments Smile


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well I have this lens and agree with your results on film in that the lens is not very sharp wide open but stopped down it's quite good, not up to Canon 28mm but then it's a lot cheaper.

Last edited by Excalibur on Sat May 26, 2012 12:04 pm; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yep, I tested it up against the Voigtlander Ultron today and the Vivitar was beaten. BUT...it's sharper wide open than many other 3rd party fast wides I've tried. It suffers a lack of contrast wide open which is a bit of a pain, but there's no horrible ghosting thankfully Smile


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow that's quite a bargain you found, congrats. It seems much better wide open than its wider brother the 24/2. Nice shots too.


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Congrats, very nice shot, with beautiful colors and "atmosphere" Wink


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Impressive....that's a good lens.


PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2012 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have the Nikon version, and subsequently bought the Nikon 28/2. The Nikon is a much better lens, but by the time you get to 5.6 or so, all lenses are about the same, and comparisons are silly. I would have stuck by the Kiron, but it focuses backwards by Nikon standards, and that's a real problem for me, thus the subsequent Nikkor purchase.


PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2012 12:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
It looks good to me, at least on the NEX's sensor that is. I wonder how if would perform on FF.


PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2012 3:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
ManualFocus-G wrote:
Yep, I tested it up against the Voigtlander Ultron today and the Vivitar was beaten. BUT...it's sharper wide open than many other 3rd party fast wides I've tried. It suffers a lack of contrast wide open which is a bit of a pain, but there's no horrible ghosting thankfully Smile


The 2/35 version is the same. I've owned a few Kiron lenses and they are better than most other 3rd party lenses but not as good as good ones from the major makers.


PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2012 5:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow! Very nice results!


PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2012 6:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
ChromaticAberration wrote:
It looks good to me, at least on the NEX's sensor that is. I wonder how if would perform on FF.



erm a film camera is full frame Laughing


PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2012 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Is this serie taken with the Sony NEX-5N or with a film camera ?

Great serie.
I like the shells shots very much.


PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2012 8:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks for all the kind comments everyone Smile I think the lens is pretty decent on crop, but having owned the Nikkor 28/2 previously, I would agree that the Nikkor is better. The Nikon lens is very decent wide open with excellent contrast throughout the aperture range. I had the pre-ai version though which was too big and bulky on a Nex, and wouldn't mount on my 5D Sad Anyway, I will try to use the Vivitar as a street lens next time...


PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 11:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I bought this lens on ebay today as an alternative to my Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8. I use these and other lenses with my Fujifilm X-T20, with APSC sensor. I read online that at 2.8 this lens is already sharp in the center, I would like to use this feature in low light situations. Usually, however, I shoot with small apertures, at least 8. In this case, how do you think the qualitative comparison is with the Pentax?
One last curiosity, in which years was this lens produced?


PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I can take sharp close ups with it wide open. For infinity it needs stopping down. Period is late seventies to early eighties I would say. There may be different versions of the lens the back of my head says. I like it's bokeh a lot.

Close focussing 30cm bokeh by The lens profile, on Flickr


PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
D1N0 wrote:
I can take sharp close ups with it wide open.

Wow! I had read different opinions and so I thought to use it starting from 2.8. But if these are the results I will be able to take some shots even at full aperture. I read that it is recommended to use the lens hood but this is not a problem for me because I use it all the time.

- edit -

Now I read on Wikipedia:

Quote:
Kiron soon became known as one of the very few after-market lens manufacturers that could supply products equal to or even exceeding the optical and mechanical quality of the original manufacturer. In particular, the Kiron 28mm/2.0, the 105mm/2.8 1:1 macro,[2] the 28-210mm/4.0-5.6 and the 3.8-5.6 varifocal zoom, and the 28-85mm/2.8-3.8 varifocal macro zoom lenses were praised in contemporary reviews of the day for their superb optical resolution and clarity, as well as mechanical quality.


Are Vivitar 28/2 and Kiron 28/2 the same or are there differences?


PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
The Great Vivitar 28mm Bestiary : http://photografica.robinparmar.com/vivitar.html

What I bought is the K13 : Vivitar | 28MM 1:2 | MC | WIDE-ANGLE | NO. 22xxxxxx | Ø55MM | green meter scale

Last edited by TurtleSkinny on Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:24 pm; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
TurtleSkinny wrote:
Are Vivitar 28/2 and Kiron 28/2 the same or are there differences?


Ahahaha, welcome to the Vivitar bestiary!

There are at least three different Vivitar 28mm f2.0 made by Cosina, Komine and Kiron. Probably there´s a Samyang version, too. However, the 28mm f2.0 sold by Kiron is said to have half-click aperture. I have the 24mm f2.0 Kiron which is very similar to its 28mm sister, but doesn´t have this feature, so that´s probably a difference between the 28mm versions of Vivitar and Kiron as well. Otherwise they should be identical, since many of them (regardless if Kiron or Vivitar) suffer from the same design flaws, like oily or stuck aperture and deteriorated last optical element. "Identical" is a bold statement in relation to Vivitar, anyway. They had so many manufacturers over time, and some of the good selling lenses were certainly improved during their life cycle. Determining the history of a certain Vivitar lens, even counting in the real classics, is a job for Indiana Jones supported by Albert Einstein in the backoffice.

As for the production year, here is a list of manufacturers and a speculation about how the numbering logics can give you a clue about the production date.

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Vivitar_serial_numbers

However, I doubt that numbering convention. Wouldn´t be Vivitar it that´s a consequent rule. It might be true only for some of their manufacturers. Intriguingly the last two digits of both teles say "79" (sorry for the highlight on the 135mm, the number reads 2824179). And the flat field zoom 76, eh? Finally, the 24mm f2.0 might fit the assumption from camera-wiki.org. Though I´m sceptical they bunged out more than 211 pieces of that baby in week 04, 1980.


#1


PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
ZuikosHexanonsandVivitars wrote:
As for the production year, here is a list of manufacturers and a speculation about how the numbering logics can give you a clue about the production date.
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Vivitar_serial_numbers

If this speculation is correct the lens I bought was manufactured in 1980
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