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RE: [OM] Vivitar Series 1 19-35: a good buy?

Subject: RE: [OM] Vivitar Series 1 19-35: a good buy?
From: "Brian P. Huber" <bphuber@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 20:57:10 -0400
Bernd,
This lens is not made by Vivitar, but Samyang, I believe.  I owned it for a
while in the Phoenix version, Tokina also sells the same lens.
There was a report of this lens in the Phoenix version in Popular
Photography a few years ago.  In short, some degree of barrel distortion,
but nothing that isn't tolerable unless you are taking photos of buildings
for a living.  Lens has good sharpness and contrast.  Build quality is OK,
not great.  Hood is round, not the tulip-type, but seemed to function well
for me.

I purchased mine for a trip and used it a lot, loved it actually.  Makes a
great travel lens.  I'm pretty sure Warren Kato has one of these also.  Sold
mine when I bought a 21 Zuiko from a list member.

Vivitar lenses no longer have the quality nor uniqueness they had in the
70's and 80's.  Vivitar fell on hard times in the late 70's and lost a lot
of good people (hopefully, one of them was me!).

Brian P. Huber


> Recently I saw a Vivitar Series 1 19-35mm with OM mount for
> sale at a shop around here. It is new, and after visiting the
> Vivitar website I found that it is still being produced.
>
> Does anybody want to share their experiences with this lens?
> I was able to try it on a camera and was surprised by the low
> distortion even at 19mm. It feels much plastic-like, and in
> fact the barrels seems to be made entirely of plastic. Are
> the Series 1 lenses not regarded as top-line products?
> Photographyreview.com has some good reviews on the AF version
> of that lens.
>
> What would a good price be for this lens?
>
> thanks in advance, best regards
>
> Bernd Möller


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