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The lense is "old school", tough, durable, and feel solid without any sticking on the focus ring or aperature ring. The iris works works well. Manual focus reminds me of the original SLR experience. The lens has no scratches, dust or mold and takes great pictures! I use it on a D7100 in manual mode. Glad I got it. It becomes my backup lens and a prime for fixed focual length opportunities.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I bought several Vivitar 200mm f3.5 manual focus telephoto lenses made by Komine and all are bright, sharp lenses. I use them on Canon EOS 40D and 20D digital cameras and have been pleased with the resolution of the lenses. They are bright and easy to focus and the inexpensive (about $6) M42 to EOS adapters work fine. I've had particularly good luck with luxurylife adapters. I also used a $30 autoconfirm adapter and it often over-exposes the photos so I use that adapter on another M42 lens. I hope to do a detailed comparison between these Komine 200 f3.5 lenses and my Supertakumar 200 f4, SMC Takumar f4, and numerous Tamron adaptall zooms at 200mm. My preliminary tests at f8 at 550 yds show the Vivitar Komines to have resolution that is in the same class as these other fine lenses. More discriminating tests at larger apertures need to be done. I recommend the Vivitar 200 f3.5 as at least a good lens and definitely an excellent bargain. drj3253 7-15-12: I evaluated about a dozen 200 mm MF lenses with my Canon 40D and all were very sharp at f8. Two that were a tad sharper wide open were an old nikkor 200 f4 and a Vivitar Tokina 58 mm objective 200 f3.5. On another occasion, I tested a different copy of the Vivitar Komine 200 f3.5 using my Canon 7D and it was nothing short of fantastic. It equaled my excellent Canon 70-200 f4L at 200mm focal length at f5.6 and f8. I need to compare my various 200mm Komines and see if the later manufactured lenses, which presumably has more advanced coatings, are sharper than the earlier made lenses.Read full review
Hi! A lot of us have a love / hate relationship with Vivitar. They sold a thousand tons of optical glass, and another thousand tons of electronic flashes. In fact, when we think of Vivitar, the first thing that pops into our heads is the 283, and 285 flashes... with their tilt features, and fragile feet. (We used to replace the feet on these with machined aluminum ones by the dozens). But while we might think of their flashes in warm remembrance, when we think of their lenses, most of us have had a mixed experience. The reason for this, is that we all had a pair of zoom lenses tucked away somewhere from Vivitar, that really didn't perform as well as we had hoped. They were not terribly sharp, which would be good for portraiture, but at the same time, they were too contrasty for portraits. Yuch!! Yeah we all took a few outdoor photos with them, weren't thrilled with the results, but loved the convenience of only carrying around a single, big lens..... This, however, is the inherent fault in "cheap zoom" technology (or more appropriately varifocal technology)... How many of us ever really worked with the "prime" lenses from, Vivitar, however?? Most of us bought, as a cheap "second" lens, a 135mm focal length prime lens, and often time, it was from Vivitar. We liked these lenses performance-wise, but a cheap zoom was much more versatile... and so, as soon as we could afford it, we tucked away our 135mm lenses, in favour of zooms, from which we hated the results... A nasty quandry, to be sure..... We did not buy many 200mm, 35mm, 28mm or other length lenses to shoot with... we preferred the poor zoom lens performance over the inconvenience of having to carry around a big bag full of prime lenses. Now, many of us realize (after the fall of 35mm technology), that Vivitar did not make their own lenses. This information was kinda guarded in the 70's and 80's... and the internet wasn't available to spread "secrets" like it is today. We find now, that a host of Vivitar fixed-focal lenses were created by the Kiron company.... One of the world's finest lensmakers. One of the great things about Kiron, is they consistently produced high quality products from Vivitar's somewhat quirky designs. The 200mm f1:3.5 is one such lens from Kiron. At the time it began production, f1:4 was the world standard for 200mm length optics. The extra half-stop was nice, when trying to keep your shutter speeds high enough to hand-hold a 200mm lens. And let's face it... Carl Zeiss discovered in 1932. that 180mm was the longest focal length you could "dependably" hand hold without suffering from loss of sharpness to camera shake. We photographers are a lazy lot, though, and we all think we can hand-hold a 1/15th shutterspeed with absolute perfection at any focal length (WRONG!!!)... So, despite it's advantages for hand-holding, no one really loved the 200mm f1:3.5 hand-held, and we are all lazy, and do not like to carry monopods or tripods.... In the present era, however, with the "instantaneous" nature of digital, we all immediately realize camera-shake, and some of our cameras even have "anti-shake" technology. This allows us to utilize these long, fast lenses (and even longer) for the purpose we all bought them for "back in the day"... 200mm -- hand held snapshots.... Myself, I'm in a "rebel against digital" frame of mind these days... I started shooting Black and White 35mm, and am having a blast doing so!!!Read full review
Replacement of a long lost favorite. Great to take on a hike.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is a kind of lens which have excellent result at every F stop even wide open, sharp and good contrast. Fyi, this Vivitar Tele lens is different with another Vivitar lens with other Focal length like 55mm, 50mm, 28mm, 35mm, that have soft picture if you capture at wide open. GREAT bokeh if you have another Vivitar 200 f3,5 with 18 blades version.
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