vivitar and tokina lenses for OM

I'm looking to possibly get a 28mm and 100mm lense for my om2.

Any experience with vivitar or tokina lenses for the om cameras?

They are a great deal cheaper than even most of the used zuiko stuff.

28mm 2.8 vivitar is $60 and tokina is $80.

100mm 3.5 macro vivitar is $120.

These are all from B&H by the way.

Thanks for the help.

Generally, from my experience with both those brands and Zuikos- (About 25 years worth) Zuikos are better. No question.

Tokinas are great lenses, very solidly built, generally all-metal, very smooth, will last a lifetime. Great sharpness, but overall, a slightly "cool" (as in temperature) look to the photots. But nothing bad, just a bit cool. Plain Jane Vivitars hold up not too much better than junk. Get the Vivitar "Series 1" lenses, they are very good optically and construction-wise.

1. The Vivitar 28mm 2.8 for $60 and the Tokina 28mm f/2.8 for $80 are good lenses for the money. Understand that back in the day, Tokina made several lenses for Olympus, including the 35-105mm OM zoom. And, of course, Vivitar is a marketing name- Vivitar has never manufactured a single product, so all Vivitar stuff is OEM.

That having been said, if I owned Oly OMs and was looking for a 28mm f/2.8, I'd find a used Oly f/2.8 lens. Oly 28mm f/2.8 lenses are common and can be found on eBay every day of the week for under $100. You can also get the oly lens hoods for that lens for about $10, as well.

2. The Vivitar 100mm 3.5 macro for $120 is one of the best buys in photography. A few years ago, we got that 100mm f/3.5 macro lens in at my store branded as Promaster. The owner asked me to shoot some test shots, which I was disinclined to do with such a cheap macro lens. I was, however, quite surprised with the quality of the results from the lens, which were quite comparable to my 105mm f/2.8 micro-Nikkor.

Unfortunately, there is only one Oly OM macro lens in the 100mm range that can be used without a bellows; and it is rareish and pricey 90mm f/2.0 macro lens. This Oly lens is awsome and gets a high 4.2/5 rating on Photodo, compared to the current 105mm f/2.8 micro-Nikkor, which get's only a 3.9/5. However, the 90mm f/2.0 currently sells used for $800-1,000.

There were other Oly macro lenses made in the 100mmish length, but they were bellows-only lenses:

http://www.alanwood.net/photography/olympus/#lenses