Testing the Vivitar Series 1 VMC 28mm f/1.9 Wide Angle on S5

[BrianSVP]

I've had this lens for a while but never got around to putting it through its paces. This example is in Olympus OM mount, and I adapted it using an inexpensive Fotasy OM to L adapter.

Some observations:
This lens is a tough beast to wrangle, as it flares considerably and has quite a bit of dreaminess wide open. When I buy cheap adapters, I actually paint the interiors, which tend to just be unpainted ridged anodizing, with Stuart Semple Black 2.0, one of the mattest black paints available, which often helps with flare and overall contrast, especially on wide angles. In the case of this lens, doing so results in some improvement, but the lens still flares dramatically, with vivid rainbow ring effects if pointed at the sun. Cyan/red CA, as well as some PF, is apparent in high contrast areas toward the edges (corrected in these images), as is a noticeable amount of barrel distortion/field curvature, unsurprising given the relatively radical focal length/max aperture combination for a lens of its age.

Still, this lens is capable of creating some very fine images when used carefully, with excellent sharpness stopped down, and the rich, contrasty colors that are the hallmark of the VS1 line. At wider apertures, it creates some very dramatic bokeh effects, as can be seen in the pictures of the snowdrops (white flowers). Overall rendering is very pleasant, with good microcontrast, and the saturated clarity that a lot of nature photographers chased in the 1980's.















Gallery w/full size images

[jamaeolus]

nice shots from a very good lens.

[BrianSVP]

Cheers!

Despite having always wanted to try one, since it was one of only a couple VS1s I'd never owned, I had neglected this lens when I had gotten it a few months ago because around the same time, I picked up a Soligor 35/2, which I had intended to compare with this one. I immediately became infatuated with the Soligor, which is a very nice lens in its own right. Then winter, illness, family stuff happened, and this was the first chance I got to take the Viv out on a single lens photo walk.
Using it at more length confirmed my suspicion that it's a somewhat more "unruly" lens than the Soligor, but once I got a handle on its quirks, it really showed me it could deliver when used correctly.

[BrianSVP]

A few more displaying its significant flare:

[Lloydy]

I like this 28 / 1.9 a lot, even though it does have faults Brian lists - which are part of the lens' character and are easy enough to deal with or just leave the flare in the picture. It's a good lens though, it's sharp and compact, the colours and contrast are really good.

This picture of the duck was taken on my Sony A6000 with a crop sensor, as I was walking backwards to keep the duck in frame. He thought I had food. The crop shows just how sharp this lens is, and I'm pretty sure the lens was wide open.