Old Vivitar Lens

Tharvin

I recently inherited an old Vivitar 22939020 1:3.8 85-205mm lens. I can find no information about the lens, and the treads dont fit any of the SLR's that I have. I am assuming that the lens is approx 30 yrs old, and looks to be in great condition. Is anyone familiar with this lens? Does anyone know a resource that I could consult to determine the utility of such an old lens (finding a mounting converter, for instance), or am I wasting time? Thanks.

ian408

bump. Anybody?

pathfinder

I think Vivitar made screw in mounts for Mamiya-Sekor SLRs which also happend to fit some Pentax screw in mounts. There are adapters for Pentax screw in mounts to be used on some DSLRs.

I doubt most Vivitar lenses of that era will be worth much more than $20 or $30 dollars. Some of the Vivitar Series 1 lenses were pretty fair in their day, but probably do not compare to modern lenses.

Jane B.

The Vivitar lenses that I have are from the mid 1970's. The mount is the Pentax M42 screw mount. They seem to do fine on a Canon EOS D60 (and earlier on a Canon EOS 620 film camera) if you are willing to use an adapter. That means that you have to do stop down metering (only in A & M mode), and manual focusing.

The ones that I have are not zooms; but a 200mm with a mim. aperature range of f3.5 through f22 and a 55mm with an apperature range of f2.8 through f22. I bought the 55mm with a Vivitar camera that just has a match needle meter (which happens to take the same 675 battery as one of my hearing aids). The 200mm was purchased some time after and wasn't an expensive lens even then — $50.00 - $75.00 from a family friend that owned a camera shop. He ran across it as exceptional for its class and held it for me.

I got my adapter at the same time I got the EOS 620. I think there are some fairly current postings on dpreview where people have gotten them currently. I think I saw one shown on Adorama's site and you could, of course, ask at B & H or any other seller. It is just a metel plate with the EOS mount on one side and the M42 screw mount on the other. NO optics (sp?) so you can focus to infinity.

I am not positive but think this was taken with the 200mm.

saulesberns

Try this one
http://www.cameraquest.com/VivLensManuf.htm

askme2flashu

Wow, so glad you posted.

I have a Vivitar Series 1 60mm Macro. It came with a Nikon FE that was given to me. My first "real" camera.

I use it on my Nikon D-200. Works great. Well, at least the glass is great. Nothing else works of course. I've taken some real nice pictures with it.

Happy shooting.

-M-