steppenwolf

<p>Wonderful Photo Zoltan. All these great photos leads me to hold on to Velvia a tad longer, even with all the compelling case against professional use of the medium (and that I whole heartedly agree).<br>

Maybe its just me but I like to take a large LP out of the cover and put it on and feel smell of an old book, the touch of the paper texture rather than reading it on kindle. Sure I can print out a digital file and have the physical realilzation of a photo but somehow it is not the same. As long as slide film is even close to a digital photo, it still has an unique appeal. And for landscapes Velvia is still good enough!</p><div></div>

<p><img src="../photo/6583802" alt="" /><br>

<img src="../photo/6868122" alt="" /><br>

<img src="../photo/6868122" alt="" /> <img src="../photo/6583802" alt="" /><br>

Nice to see good old Velvia in the limelight!<br>

My entire portfolio is shot in Velvia. Those who want to see more Velvia examples may visit my profile. All shot in 35mm. I also shoot MF but don't have a scanner to share online.<br>

It is a joy to get back the box in mail and put the slides on a projector in the night and have that almost 3D experience of a great landscape!<br>

What I struggle with it is scanning to share online. I scan with a lower end Minolta scanner. I can never recreate the analog textures and the colours, and on top of the small Velvia latitude, I lose some dynamic range and sharpness. So if sharing online was the only thing, I would much rather shoot in DSLR.<br>

Indeed, if not for the projector and some local slide competition I participate in I will be compelled to convert!</p><div></div>

Lindy,

Thanks for the information. Do you think the Tokina f/2.8 at 200$ is well worth over the Vivitar at 70$ (both seemed to be in decent condition from the description).

Wayne,

The Vivitar 70-210 I own seems to be built by Tokina :-). I think you have the 1st version of the lens which was built by Kiron. Both are excellent lenses. Not exactly sure the one I was going to buy is Tokina or the Kiron built but I think at at least there is possibility of a good comparison.

I am shooting in film, but is that important?

I think I will go for the vivitar 70-210 f/3.5 macro over the tokina at this point. Its half the weight (probably compensates for the 1 stop slower speed) and 1/3rd the price (around 60-70$ over 200 for the Tokina).. Also I have previous experience with this one.

I had earlier got the vivitar in an impulse buy for just 50$ and was quite surprised with the results. Later I read that it is supposedly a really good lens capable of print quality sharpness. I also like its close focusing capabilities. Great for hikes.

BTW there are some great 3rd party lenses I like. (e.g. I have both used and seen photos with Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 where its indistinguishable from the 3 times more expensive Nikon counterpart even at 100% crop.. Buying nikon/canon is a no brainer if you want to spend.

I really just wanted to know the experiences with the Tokina and how it compares to the Vivitar without really bringing up the "use only nikon issue". I have used the cheap nikons before and they are sometimes really really bad and have to be even more careful when getting them.

Thanks everyone for your inputs.

Yes, it is for a Nikon. Sorry I forgot to add.

Dave could you please let me know which Nikon lens I should consider. I am not exactly sure if Nikon makes a comparable MF fast zoom (if there was, it probably it will be 3 times as expensive).

Hi,

Anybody has any experience with this manual focus lens?

How is the Tokina 80-200mm f/2.8 MF compared to the Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm MF

f/3.5 macro. My experience with the Vivitar has been quite good and though its a

stop slower than 2.8 you can get it very cheap and its very light to carry

around. I am looking to get a second one and want to decide between the vivitar

and the tokina.

Most of the reviews I found got were about the Tokina AF version so any

information about the MF would be helpful.

Also information about any other manual focus lens in the same zoom range, which

I could get under 200$ would be helpful.

Thank You.