Vivitar 105mm, f2.8 used as macro lens

ziggy53

Meet my latest lens, the Vivitar 105mm, f2.8, M42 mount.



I'm not actually sure why I bought this lens.

It doesn't really replace anything I have. It's an old manual focus lens, that I have to use via an adapter, so it's not too convenient to use. It was pretty cheap at $41 USD; yeah that's it, it was cheap.

Besides, I just had to find out what the heck it is, because it's another of "those" lenses that just aren't documented anywhere. It's an "underdog" lens.

OK, so I got the thing, now what to do with it?

First, it was dirty. Not too bad, mostly simple dust.

Next, I tried it on the Canon dRebel XT. It was pretty much as expected, nothing spectacular, but a nice, prime lens of medium tele focal length.

What I really did need was a macro lens in the 100-200mm range, so I tried it that way. Close focus is not close at all, and early tests with an extension tube set were dismal, it just didn't work. But then I thought, "y'know, I've got that Minolta close-focus auxilliary lens that works pretty well on the Minolta A2, and it's got the same threads as the front of this lens, do you think maybe ...?"

So here's a test with the close-focus lens attached:




and here it is with a short (22mm) extension tube as well:





Not too shabby! These are resized for the Web, but not cropped in any way.

Here is the lens assemblage,




and here is an exploded view, with the lens alone up top, and then left to right, the EF-M42 adapter, the extension tube and then the Minolta close-focus lens which went up front.



Finally, the lighting used, which was 2-Sunpak 611 flashes, set on manual, 1/128th power, with paper diffusors taped to the front of each flash, and then a paper tube surrounding the subject to further reduce the output from the flashes and give a "light tent" effect.





What do you think?

ziggy53

Awais Yaqub

I loved the closeups and nice setup

ziggy53

Awais Yaqub wrote:

I loved the closeups and nice setup

Thanks Awais. Always nice to hear from you. I hope things are going well.

ziggy53

ziggy53

I should add that both were hand-held shots. I was just too lazy to set up a tripod or copy stand.

ziggy53

USAIR

Nice job and nice shots
Looks like a cool setup

Fred

ziggy53

USAIR wrote:

Nice job and nice shots
Looks like a cool setup

Fred

Thanks Fred. I have some shots planned to test it some more. It looks like it'll be good enough to work until I get a "good" macro lens.

ziggy53

DoctorIt

You sure have a creative eye for a bargain nice work

ziggy53

DoctorIt wrote:

You sure have a creative eye for a bargain nice work

Erik,

"If never you try, then never you will know."

Yep, that's a ziggy original.

canon400d

Great Close Ups
Excellent Ziggy. I am so impressed with everything. What you have achieved with that dime is fantastic and the way you did it. Keep it going.
Bob

Miguel Delinquento

ziggy53 wrote:

What do you think?

ziggy53

Nice setup. And I love the tone and detail of that dime. Some of those older Vivitar lenses were excellent and manufactured by stellar houses in Japan during the mid-70s. I have a fabled 70-210mm push/pull zoom macro Vivitar made by Komine. Pretty heavy, but they'll dig it up in 10,000 years.

Being a Pentax shooter, I have a small stable of M42 lenses I dip into. I like their color renditions and can shoot in full AV mode on my *DS. My favorite is a 40-year old Mamiya/Sekor 60mm, f2.8 1:1 macro, a preset no less. Incredible bokeh and color. I purchased it from an interesting gentleman who runs a quirky camera repair shop. It took me a few months to learn to exploit the frontal preset aperture capability and now I just love it. My faithful Tamron 90mm SP macro is being neglected. Oh well.
I'll post some fun shots with the Mamiya pretty soon.
M

Lord Vetinari

Interesting setup and good shots.
Love the diffusers
Brian V.

frg

nice work, love your light tent

anoni_moose

Re: Vivitar 105mm, f2.8, M42

anoni_moose wrote:

Howdy All!
First post

Nice looking version of what appears to be a Vivitar TX(possibly a T4) lens made by Tokina(ser. #37xxx). This is evident by the tell tale O-L(open-lock) lever.

See this site for some good info on the Vivitar T4 & the later TX lenses;
http://www.vermontel.net/~wsalati/CasualCollector/t4_for_two.htm

Once you have confirmed the type of mount drop me an email at
mefus2000@gmail.com

Regards...

nightowlcat

Ziggy, I got one of these as well, with a Nikon mount to them instead. Only problem is, is that I think it may have fungus infection. Did you wind up keeping this lens or passing it off later on? Debating on whether I want to pursue cleaning up the lens. Mine was made only a few away from yours.

ziggy53 wrote:

Meet my latest lens, the Vivitar 105mm, f2.8, M42 mount.



I'm not actually sure why I bought this lens.

It doesn't really replace anything I have. It's an old manual focus lens, that I have to use via an adapter, so it's not too convenient to use. It was pretty cheap at $41 USD; yeah that's it, it was cheap.

Besides, I just had to find out what the heck it is, because it's another of "those" lenses that just aren't documented anywhere. It's an "underdog" lens.

OK, so I got the thing, now what to do with it?

First, it was dirty. Not too bad, mostly simple dust.

Next, I tried it on the Canon dRebel XT. It was pretty much as expected, nothing spectacular, but a nice, prime lens of medium tele focal length.

What I really did need was a macro lens in the 100-200mm range, so I tried it that way. Close focus is not close at all, and early tests with an extension tube set were dismal, it just didn't work. But then I thought, "y'know, I've got that Minolta close-focus auxilliary lens that works pretty well on the Minolta A2, and it's got the same threads as the front of this lens, do you think maybe ...?"

So here's a test with the close-focus lens attached:




and here it is with a short (22mm) extension tube as well:





Not too shabby! These are resized for the Web, but not cropped in any way.

Here is the lens assemblage,




and here is an exploded view, with the lens alone up top, and then left to right, the EF-M42 adapter, the extension tube and then the Minolta close-focus lens which went up front.



Finally, the lighting used, which was 2-Sunpak 611 flashes, set on manual, 1/128th power, with paper diffusors taped to the front of each flash, and then a paper tube surrounding the subject to further reduce the output from the flashes and give a "light tent" effect.





What do you think?

ziggy53

nightowlcat

Anybody else use this lens?

ziggy53

Nightowlcat,

I kept the lens. It's an inexpensive and high-quality solution. I still have Pentax screw-mount film cameras that can use the lens natively. I am not sure that I would recommend the cost of repairs to remove mildew.

I just recently got the Canon 77mm, 500D and it mounts on the Canon EF 70-200mm, f2.8L USM. I have yet to really test the combination but early snapshots look pretty good. I'll also get the required ring to use the 500D with the EF 70-200mm, f4L IS USM.

nightowlcat

Thanks Ziggy. I'm just leaving it out in the sun for now to see if things clear up any. Just got my power back up after a week without, thanks to Ike.