Playing With Lenses: Truely a gem amongst many: Vivitar 28mm 1: 2.5 Auto Wide-Angle

Friday 13 October 2017

Truely a gem amongst many: Vivitar 28mm 1: 2.5 Auto Wide-Angle

Cost: $14 (average market price unknown)

As you can find on the The Great Vivitar 28mm Bestiary, there have been many different 28mm Vivitar's. Over 30 to be specific, made by different manufacturers, with different designs and aperture ranges. Some are true gems, and other are duds. This is a true gem...

Sure looks nice, with a cone at the front. Smooth handling of both the aperture and the focus rings. Reasonable compact and all metal, making the lens a bit heavy for such a small focal length.

But my, o my, what a pleasure to use! Focus is so easy that you hardly even need the peak focus feature. It just falls right into focus. Just click away, and it will all be fine. I had almost no waste due to lack of sharpness. The only mark against this lens is the strong tendency for flares, especially when direct sun light falls on the front element. A hood would likely be no luxury.

This lens will likely take a good, well used, spot in my ever growing lens collection. A keeper for sure, and I can fully recommend this lens to anyone, and again at a super low budget for such a special lens.

Lens Specification:
Focal Length: 28mm
Maximum Aperture: F2.5
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: PK
Optics: ?
Blades: 6
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 20cm
Filter Size: 67mm
Weight: 348g
Length: 60-66mm
Production:
Serial Number: 22805762
Made in: Japan

More information on: Vivitar Corporation
More info on: Kino Precision Industries Limited

Samples:

All pictures taken with the Lens Turbo II adapter