<<< Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 19:16:20 -0500
From: "Michael Stephens" <mike1964@xxxxxxxxx>Subject: RE: [OM] Cheap
The Vivitar 28-210 that Oly Guy sells is a nice lens,
although it is a tad slow, and the one that I had really
suffered from zoom creep. It also was a bit too cheap
in construction for my purposes. Big glass on the front,
and the photos were OK, but I opted to sell it and
stick with Zuikos and Tamron. The lens did seem to
vignette a bit, particularly at the wide angle end of the
range. You may want to consider a used Tamron or Tokina,
which should sell for less than the new Vivitar, and
are typically better (particularly the SP and ATX models)
than the Vivitar standard models. Or, you could opt
for a pre-owned Vivitar Series 1 zoom - they are nice.
The advantage of the new Vivitar is that it has a 5-yrwarranty.>>>
RE: this discussion- one lense I have in the same range that I bought a few
years back in the Kiron 28-210 (3.8-5.6 I think)and this is a really nice
lense, a bit heavy, but well made, and takes really nice photos. With the
new high contrast, very fine grain 400 speed color print films this is a
really super print taking lense, and extremely handy for a variety of uses.
In fact I think sometimes with all the contrast and punch in the new films,
it is NICE to have a non MC or lower contrast lense around to use (though
this is MC)!
As with most lenses in this range, they tend to be a little week at the far
end (200 or so) and wide open (edge sharpness) but when you shoot around f8
the results are quite good - the newer films give great grain at that
400ASA, up to 11x14 this lense is fine. Even the newest expensive super
zooms show performance compromises at these ends of their zoom ranges-
physics is physics, the more things change the more they stay the same. :)
If you find a good used Kiron 28-210 out there grab it- they are very
reasonable used these days, and extremely well made, old world built to last
(and too expensive to make in this bean counter/ make it as cheap as
possible- to keep the stock price up days...).
A fun site which covers this and other lenses is:
http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/third/cult.html#kiron
Kiron, Kino precision optical, has a fine reputation, and makes many fine
lenses, probably as good as some of the primes from that MF era we all know
and love.
My two other favorite non-OM lenses in OM mount that I own are the
ViV series 1 135f2.3 (wonderful bokeh, great to use for portraits etc.),
and the massive 80-200 f2.8 TAMRON LD "green circle" zoom, definately
serious heavy metal, and a work of art unto itself- beautiful to look at and
use. I picked this up used mint two years ago (ouch-wasn't cheap) and it
takes pretty incredible B+W enlarged prints (wow)- it is a rather amazing
lense indeed.
BTW, Wall Street Camera in NYC claims to have several NEW old stock OM mount
lenses in stock - the 28f2.0 KIRON among them- NEW, and this is no doubt an
outstanding lense, probably far less than the OM version (true not a zuiko,
but, anyway...)if anyone is interested.
Cheers
Dave G
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