Push/Pull zoom & focus ring not ideal for Follow Focus use.Low contrast look might not be to everyone’s taste.Version 3 has great sharpness (1 and 2 not far behind).Good focal range as reasonably fast F-stops.Like most vintage lenses, this lens seems to have plenty of cons and pros, so let’s round them up: Mounts: I believe that these lenses were produced in Nikon F, Canon FD, Minilta MD, Pentax K and Olympus OM mounts, so no matter what camera you’re using, you will probably find a right lens/adapter combination for your camera (Canon EF users should avoid FD and MD mount due to poor compatibility) Pretty Milti-Coating does very little to keep the contrast high! Push/pull zoom ring is very smooth and nicely dampened allowing for a very gentle zoom action, actually making it usable in real life shooting situations while recording. I don’t have to take my hand of the lens to change on or another. I love using such setup for video as I can zoom while focusing at the same time. Usability: If there is something that these lenses share apart for their name is their pull/push focus & zoom ring, which you either love or hate. It has that vintage feel that a lot of people like and it will match certain prime lenses (like Russian M42 primes) better than other zooms, so it’s all depend on what your other lenses are and what look you are trying to achieve though the use of lenses. Macro: As mentioned above, all versions feature a MACRO ability, which varies from one lens to another, but all are quite impressive and in the case of 4 th version it’s 1:2.5 which is quite impressive for such lens, especially considering it that it becomes enabled at 210mm maximising the potential of how close you can get.Ĭharacter: I actually really like the low contrast look it produces. Bokeh is super smooth and that appears to be carried through into all the versions. Below are the reasons why:īokeh: Vintage lenses often suffer from busy, unflattering bokeh, but 70-210mm is certainly not one of them. So it might not be the sharpest telephoto zoom out there but even the 4 th version is worth considering. Vivitar 70-210mm 70mm, 100% crop from a 16mp photo. Stepping down a by a stop or two improves the performance considerably. I however have the forth version and even though I like it a lot, this lens is not exactly sharp wide open with quite a bit of blooming and general softness clearly visible, especially at the wider end (see examples below). Expect a superior optical performance for these, with much better sharpens on the third version in particular.
Vivitar 70 210 series 1 serial number#
The first 3 versions are generally considered to be the best, so if you find one with a serial number starting with 22, 28 or 37, then you are in luck. Sharpness: So as you can see these lenses are quite different and most importantly they appear to have slightly different optics designs too, which makes this review even more complicated. The focus ring is certainly not as nice and grippy as on the older versions. My guess it that built quality was sacrificed as a result. The close up capability remained at 1:2.5 but it became a bit lighter. This is the version I shot my test video above. The forth and the last common version (below) was made by Cosina (serial starts with 09). The close focusing capability was improved again to 1:2.5, almost as good as the first version, but it’s also because the second heaviest version. This was the version where they introduced the variable aperture of F2.8-F4.0. The third version was made by Komine (serial starts with 28), another underrated manufacturer, producing a number of amazing lens for other brands. This version was much smaller and lighter, sacrificing the 1:2.2 macro ability along the way, which was reduced to 1:4. The second version was made by Tokina (serial starts with 37), which we all know made and continues to make some very nice lenses. It’s the heaviest out of 4 main versions, which could be a downside because these lenses weren’t really designed to be supported by any form of lens support, so it might be on a heavy side for some smaller cameras. This version also had the most impressive close focusing capability of 1:2.2. Unlike the lens I shot my test footage above, 1 st version featured the constant F-stop of F3.5 across the range, which I’d actually prefer for video use. The first Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm was introduced in mid 70s and was built by legendary Kiron (serial starts with 22).
Vivitar 70 210 series 1 serial numbers#
Versions: The only quick and sure way to distinguish between the versions is to look at the first 2 digits of the serial numbers (see below) Want to know why? There are at least 5 versions of this lens, so chances are that next time you’ll find one, it might be different from mine, but let’s try to figure this out anyway ? Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm is one of the most difficult lenses to review.