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This 40 year old lens easily keeps up with today’s crop of 28mm lenses

Jan 25, 2017 by John Aldred 1 Comment

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So, we’ve got another old lens to show you. This one looks rather cool, too. It’s the Vivitar 28mm f/1.9. Back in the 70s, when this was made, it was one of the fastest 28mm out there. Voigtlander did have their Ultron 28mm f/1.9 which costed significantly more, though. More recently, Nikon, Canon, and Sigma have released their own flavours of 28mm f/1.8 lenses, with Zeiss offering a f/1.4.

But this old Vivitar is quite highly sought after. And when you look at the example images, you quickly see why. When it was new, it cost the equivalent of around $1,000 (so you can imagine how much the Voigtlander was). These days, they still command a rather good price (up to around $250). Mathieu Stern managed to pick one up for a mere €20 in a French street market. And in this video, he takes us on a tour of Stockholm, Sweden, through the eye of his Vivitar 28mm f/1.9.

For such an old lens, it’s extremely impressive. It has virtually no distortion and some the shots have an almost cinematic quality to them. That f/1.9 aperture seems to have little problem with the night sky, either.

The Vivitar 28mm f/1.9 seems to be available in both M42 and Pentax K flavours. The lens was actually made by Tokina, so I’m kinda surprised I like it. Nothing personal against Tokina, I just haven’t really gotten along well with many of their recent lenses. This one, though, is definitely one I’ll be putting on my list of lenses to keep an eye out for, though.

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Filed Under: Gear Tagged With: 28mm, Mathieu Stern, Vivitar, Weird Lenses

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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