Ab,
I haven't used the 17-28 Vivitar, but just took the Phoenix version of the
19-35 on a trip. Won't have slides back for a few days, but...
There is a test of this lens in Popular Photography, don't remember the
exact date. Lens actually looked pretty good.
Depending on your expected use of the lens, it might meet your needs quite
well, or not at all.
Prime lenses will almost always perform better than zooms, but for travel
and amateur work, zooms are hard to beat. I hate to think what the weight
would have been if I had been carrying equivalent focal lengths of the
Phoenix19-35 and Tamron 28-200 lenses I took on the trip. I had to do some
hard thinking about carrying the extra weight for the 19mm compared to a
21, but since I haven't been able to afford an OM 21mm, it was a moot
point. The 19mm length quite often made a huge difference over the 28 and
made some photos look a lot better (at least in the viewfinder).
However, if I had been shooting for $, that would have been a different
story and I would have carried whatever was necessary. As it was, my 50
1.8, the 2 zooms and a 28 2.0 Vivitar (for indoors) were the lenses I
carried.
Will I be disappointed if the results aren't good? Sure, but based on the
tests I have seen and the results I have been able to see on my own, I'm
convinced that if I'm going to use the OM system, these were some of the
best choices available on the market today.
In a nutshell, the Phoenix doesn't do its best wide open, hardly any lens
does. But, I think it worked well for me and was convenient. Phoenix,
Samyang and Vivitar are all part of the same group. I looked for the
Vivitar (resale would be better), but it was not available. Various
dealers told me the Phoenix was a decent lens with same warranty as Vivitar
(6 years). Price was ~$135. My first thought was to go with the 17-28
Samyang, but every dealer told me to avoid it because of optical quality
and to go with the 19-35.
Brian Huber
-----Original Message-----
From: Abbinga [SMTP:abbinga@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 1999 3:34 PM
To: Olympus Discussiegroep
Subject: [OM] Vivitar wide-angle zoom
<< File: ATT00008.html >> Has anybody any experience with the Vivitar :
17-28mm (4.0-4.5)
19-35mm (3.5-4.5) series 1
Thanks
Ab Abbinga
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