funda genie Posted March 11, 2005 Share Posted March 11, 2005 Hi Guys i came upon a Vivtar 80-200mm f/4 MC ZOOM LENS for approx 96$ on the net.... They claim it fits and works well with all manual slr Nikon cameras including Fm10(my camera).... So what is your opinion on this lens as well as the price....Do you think this is a good buy???? FundG..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mal_yas Posted March 11, 2005 Share Posted March 11, 2005 I would pay no more than US$40.00. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ_butner___portland__or Posted March 11, 2005 Share Posted March 11, 2005 For that amount of money, you can get the much better and faster, Vivitar Series 1 70-210 f/3.5 lens. That's way too much money for the lens that you are looking at. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted March 11, 2005 Share Posted March 11, 2005 Yup, try to find a Vivitar Series 1 telephoto zoom. There were several variations, made by different manufacterers (Kino, Komine, etc.) but, reportedly, all are good. Russ has the version he mentioned. I have the 70-210mm f/2.8-4 continuous close focusing Series 1, made by Komine according to Russ' extensive research. It's very sharp wide open at the short end but needs to be stopped down beyond 150mm for acceptable sharpness and contrast. I paid something like $50 in a pawn shop for mine, which was in excellent condition with original lens cap and aftermarket rear cap. It's not quite a macro lens - Russ says it goes to 1:2.5 magnification, awfully close to the 1:2 magnification usually regarded as the point at which "true" macro lens territory starts. But the close focusing range is between 100-210mm, making it far more useful than many "macro" zooms with can close focus only at the wide end. A telephoto zoom with macro focusing only at the short end is very limiting because it forces you to get closer to the subject. Macro focusing on a midrange zoom that is confined to the wide angle end will usually suffer from barrel distortion, field curvature and other flaws that are undesirable for most macrophotography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_chananie Posted March 12, 2005 Share Posted March 12, 2005 I think the Vivitar Series 1 70-210 is preferable. I compared it with the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 by photographing the edges of sheets of newspaper with a tripod mounted camera, using a cable release, across a range of apertures. The slides, when viewed with a 4x loupe, showed the Vivitar produced images which were only slightly less sharp and crisp than those gotten with the Nikon. Please remember, though, that the lens was produced before the quality of Vivitar Series 1 lenses declined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ_butner___portland__or Posted May 29, 2005 Share Posted May 29, 2005 The Kiron 70-210 f/4, is also a very good lens. The Kiron 80-200 f/4 and f/4.5, are much smaller than the Vivitar's discussed earlier. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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