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pico23
Dec 21, 2008, 5:25 AM
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I just read some news that Sakar bought Vivitar and all it's intellectual property (aka. lens designs)
I realize most people on this board have absolutely no clue that Vivitar wasn't always the brand name for cheap knock off digital cameras, but at one time actually produced Series 1 (and non Series 1) lenses that surpassed anything that any of the big brands made. Of course they also made a flash called the 283 that had a 20 year run, and the 285 is still the strobe of choice for many strobist!
Some classics like the 24mm f/2, 28mm f/2 and 28mm 1.9, the 200mm f/3, the "Bokina" 90mm 2.5 macro, the first macro zoom 70-210 3.5 and the 135mm f/1.5.
Vivitar actually never produced a lens, it designed them and contracted out the production to a lot of fancy names (which again most probably have never heard of) like Kino, Komine, Olympus, Tokina, Hoya, Schneider and Cosina (who also makes Zeiss lenses).
Anyway, to the point.
Vivitar lenses were good (great) and tend to fetch a heavy used market value for the best of them. I'm assuming Sakar is intending to begin a line of 3rd party lenses on the old Vivitar designs (or just sell them off to other makers). With a little luck they will all be auto aperture on modern cameras, and sell for 1/3 the cost of OEM glass (which may or may not be as good)!
As for me, I'm pretty excited about some of these lenses being released with updated coatings and electronic contacts. It would really be far reaching to expect AF versions of these classics but it would be a nice surprise.
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Kironkid
Feb 1, 2009, 7:39 AM
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Registered: Oct 17, 2008
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Pico 23
I have the Vivitar production code for the Vivitar lenses. Send me any serial #, and I'll tell you who made it for them, when and if it's a good one.
Kiron Kid (aka, MrVivseries 1)
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pico23
Feb 2, 2009, 8:41 PM
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thanks for the info.
I've actually got the maker of all my Viv 1 and non 1 series lenses. I currently only have 2 Viv lenses and 1 Kiron.
I'm pretty particular before making a buy.
Mainly my interest is if Sakar is going to release updated versions of the old Series 1 and non S1 cult classics. Or are they just going to sell the designs to Tokina, Tamron, and Sigma...or even the OEM camera makers.
Some of those lenses exceeded Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Oly, Minolta top of the line lenses.
Vivitar was actually one of the first companies to use CAD in creating the lens designs.
Anyway, if such lenses could be produced again, with updated digital coatings and at least body aperture couplings it would really be a nice thing. Especially if they could undercut OEM brands by 50%.
Personally, I still enjoy using my manual focus glass, and for most of my photography it's not a big problem, if Sakar added AF to these designs I'm betting they'd sell a ton of lenses! Afterall some of these designs are still coveted today on the used market!
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dlintz
Feb 2, 2009, 9:06 PM
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I'd love to see an auto-focusing 135mm f/1.5 in an EF-S mount! Time will tell.
d.
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pico23
Feb 3, 2009, 7:19 AM
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dlintz wrote: I'd love to see an auto-focusing 135mm f/1.5 in an EF-S mount! Time will tell. d.
I'm not so certain that 1.5 was a great lens, and holy crap it was big...like 4lbs for a 135mm. I don't think it reached optimal sharpness till f/16 believe it or not.
However, the 135mm f/2.3 was a pretty good lens, and still pretty fast for a +100mm length lens (faster than the typical f/2.8s) Kinda like the 200mm f/3 (f/3 WTF?) was a nice lens, but sort of a sleeper because f/2.8 sounds sooooo much faster!
You know who I could see buying those Vivitar designs? Samyang/Phoenix. Samyang/Phoenix actually produced some decent glass themselves, but overall most of there stuff is crap. The AF lenses are actually, the manual stuff I've come across is decently built.
Take a look at the Samyang/Polar 85mm f/1.4. They make an auto aperture one for Pentax and Nikon...thing sells for like $300-400 but in the side by side to a Zeiss, I wasn't really blow away by the $1000 premium on the Zeiss (the Zeiss was definitely better, just not drop dead better) . I mean this $300 f/1.4 looked very decent! Hard to find though, mostly on Ebay Australia!
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