Vivitar

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.