Vivitar 28/2.8 - M42 (Komine) - trip to France

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

Picked this up for £10.00 a while back, but never really tested before! Wish I had though, this lens is superb!

I haven't done much in the way of wideangled shots before, so this was new to me...

A super lens, I really enjoyed using it!

casualcollector · Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:23 pm Post subject:

Geez! I think it's the lighting and the photographer more than the lens! Wink

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

As all cheap wide ok for closer distance, long distance shoot not good at all even if your composition, subject is very nice. In my opinion longer distance shoots very hard for all digital cameras even with best performance lenses. Colors, details are weak.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

That's a bit sweeping I think Attila. We've praised this little lens in the past several times. I think it's the best hidden treasure, better even than the I-50. It needs to be stopped down to find its sharpness, but when you do, it's superb.

Great shots from France Shrek, just a hop over the channel for you! Smile

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Interesting point about distance shots with digital.

I find a lack of perfect sharpness with most lenses on things at "infinity" on digital shots, its certainly true that close is not a very good test for these wide angles - though there are differences.

But its very hard to compare pixel by pixel with film if you don't have an excellent scanner.

What camera was that with ?

Nice sunflowers ! good concept.

ManualFocus-G · Expire: 2014-11-24

Thanks for the comments guys! I'm clearly still learning, and composition is a weak point at the moment, as is trying to work out where the horizon is Laughing

I sort of see what Attila is saying, although the colours are a bit weak due to the weather (we barely got any sunshine, and when we did the sky wasn't bright blue). The sunflower shot and the farm shot were both taken as the sun was going down...there was a beautiful golden light! All photos taken on my Sony alpha 100 (using Sandisk film Wink

)

As for sharpness, I performed a basic test yesterday on 8 wide angled M42 lenses and my kit 18-70 lens and returned some interesting results...more to come!

Attila - do you shoot digital at all anymore?

mikenco · Joined: 25 Nov 2010 Posts: 80

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I have one of these Vivitar 28mm F2.8 C/FD fit lens here in it's original box complete with documents etc..

It looks pretty much mint and unused to me, but I'm only into OM and T2 stuff right now. I really need to shoot more pics with the lens I have rather than buy another adapter.

Does anyone want it for the price of the postage? Or swap for anything OM/T2?

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

Nice to see this post revived. ManualFocus-G, did you ever get to posting the results of your test? Nice shots too, by the way.

I use the Close Focus version of the Komine lens and consider it to be superb. In fact, althought it took a while to acknowledge it, I use it more than my Flek 35mm. I get better results overall.

As for the distance shots, I have learned that with this lens and others the infinity focus can be off when using adapters. Most if not all of my adapted lenses are like this and it doesn't have to be off much to make a difference. With this lens I know that I need to back off the infinity by the smallest amount of a turn for better results.