#VIVITAR 70 210 SERIES 1 PRICE SERIAL NUMBERS#
#VIVITAR 70 210 SERIES 1 PRICE SERIAL#

Call it vintage or a classic, whatever.īuild: Solid, longish, 67mm thread, not as wide or heavy as a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, yrt still weighty and big.

#VIVITAR 70 210 SERIES 1 PRICE SERIAL#

Judging by the serial number, it's likely from the mid 80s. Mine is the first version, made by Kiron optics, which spanned from the 70s to 80s in production. Overall this lens is exciting because when you nail a shot they are outstanding, and frustrating at the same time because the weight complicates taking shots where agility is key.This lens is often described as a gem because people dont know about it & pass it up. This lens had a little bit of PF but it was easily fixed. I have a silver street light pole down the street that reflects sunlight like crazy. There was very little PF except the most extreme contrast conditions. Not sure if this is my copy of the lens front or back focusing or user error. mine has a good caseįor some reason I had issues where I thought I was in focus from the view finder to later find the shot was not focused where IĪnticipated. The flip side of being built like a tank is it is heavy ! Like having a brick on the end of your camera. The lens is built like a tank and is all metal and glass. This lens is very sharp and if you nail the focus you are going to be pleased.Ĭolors are vivid and unlike some of my lenses I did not have to fiddle with color saturation.Įspecially on macro shots the Bokeh is very dreamy. However, I have really mixed feelings about this lens. It is a PK/R so I removed the Ricoh pin as a precaution. It is in mint condition and I saw very little dust in the lens. I bought mine with an old Ricoh camera for $5 so value wise this was a bargain. Sharpness: 9 Aberrations: 8 Bokeh: 10 Handling: 5 Value: 10 Camera Used: K-S2 Balancing it when connect to a Canon 70D with battery grip is difficult, at least for me. It is that the lens is very front heavy, especially when zoomed out to 210mm. Maybe this specific lens was well taken care of. Surprisingly I get zero zoom creep from this lens. The lens body is metal, and the focus and zoom actions are very smooth. Contrast could be better but it is adequate. Image quality is very good with nice color saturation and sharpness, even at F2.8. I don't understand the bashing of this version 4 lens built by Cosina, the same company that makes Zeiss and Voigtlander lenses. I have not tried the first 3 versions before it, which is said to be better (it is not specified what is better about the earlier versions) but this lens is very good. Sharpness: 8 Aberrations: 8 Bokeh: 8 Handling: 5 Value: 8 Camera Used: Canon 70D

The Six Versions of the Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm Line of MF Zooms. Maximum Barrel Diameter = 68.2 mm (2.7 in) Optical Construction = 14 multicoated elements in 11 groups Unfortunately, there has been a tendency in forums and other online references to dismiss the three Cosina versions as inferior to the first three versions, often by those that have never even owned any of them, simply because they were made during a time when Vivitar may have been 'resting on its laurels' a bit by applying the Series 1 label to far too many lenses (which logically does NOT necessarily mean than all of the VS1 lenses of that time were inferior), and/or perhaps because they were built by Cosina (despite the fact that Zeiss has also employed Cosina to manufacture some of its own highly regarded lens designs).

#VIVITAR 70 210 SERIES 1 PRICE SERIAL NUMBERS#

and gave away as gifts to Vivitar distributors in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, and France, a limited run of fifty sets of gold-plated brass versions of this lens and the VS1 28-105/2.8-3.8 lens, marked with serial numbers from 01 to 50, in velvet-lined, wooden display boxes. There is a rare variant of this fourth version - In 1988, to mark Vivitar's 50th Anniversary, Vivitar produced. The most obvious difference between this version (as well as the two that followed) to the previous three versions was in the action of the sliding zoom and focus collar - to zoom closer (toward 210mm) on these Cosina versions, the one-touch zoom ring had to be pushed outward, unlike on the first three versions, where the zoom ring had to be pulled closer to zoom in. The fourth version of the Vivitar Series 1 70-210 MF zoom series was manufactured by Cosina (SN 09nnnnnn), from about 1987 to perhaps 1995.

Vivitar 70 210 series 1 price