Hidden Pentax Gems: Vivitar 28mm
The Pentax Spotmatic SP – serving photographers since 1965
The ability of even the newest Pentax DSLRs to utilize lenses going back at least 45 years is known to many Pentax shooters, and old but excellent Pentax glass is used with the help of various ( PK-, M42- mount) adapters by shooters of other camera brands, even on full frame cameras such as the Canon 5D.
Most Pentax shooters are focused on photography, not showing off or making a fashion statement. Therefore, it seems that Pentax shooters are often not averse to using old equipment if it produces great results. But if one does not own or inherit a set of lenses, it is often hard to know which lenses or accessories are worth the price and trouble to track down and buy. This information can be gleaned from perusing forums such as Pentax Forums or MF Forums, but I thought it would be a good idea to blog about some of the most valuable “Hidden Gems” for the Pentax cameras. In this post, I’ll start with the wide angle lens creating so much ado (even touted as the FA31mm Ltd replacement) on the PentaxForums: the Vivitar 28mm/f2.8 (or f2.5 or f2.0).
Vivitar 28mm/f2.x wide angle
Claim to fame: sharp, close focusing wide angle prime that is widely available for cheap
Going price: $20 – $80
Downsides: They seem to be popular in EBay. Flare resistance not up to SMC standards
The Vivitar 28mm would traditionally be considered a wide angle lens and indeed the lens says as much, each of the variants bearing the words WIDE ANGLE. On a Pentax DSLR with a 1.5x crop factor, however, the lens has the field of view corresponding to a focal length of 42mm which happens to almost exactly match the field of view of a true normal lens. A “true normal” focal length for a camera system is approximately equal to the diagonal length of the image plane, so for a 35mm film system, the true normal focal length is 43mm, which coincidentally is the focal length of one of Pentax FA Limited series of lenses (the Pentax SMCP-FA 43mm/f1.9 Limited). Thus, where as the old fast fifties (50mm/f1.4 and 50mm/f1.7) become very well suited for portraiture when used with a DSLR, the Vivitar 28mm could be said to be “the new fast fifty”, meaning a fast, “normal”, general purpose prime.
The lens comes in a large number of different variants, cataloged thorougly in The Great Vivitar 28mm Bestiary. It is not totally clear, which of the variants are the best, and they all probably offer great value for their price.
There are, however, some general guidelines for evaluating different variants of the lens:
- The lenses with the words CLOSE FOCUS (M01, K01, K02 and A01 and A02 in the bestiary) are among the best, and can focus the closest
- The f2.5 and f2.0 variants are better than the f2.8 ones
- The Kiron and Komine made lenses are better than the Cosina or other KA-mount lenses (M2x, K2x and A2x in the bestiary)
Sample shots
These photographs are not shot by me and thus I will only link to them.
- Vivitar 28mm Close Focus
- Vivitar 28mm/f2.0 (Kiron)
- Vivitar 28mm/f2.5
- Vivitar 28mm Close Focus Wide Angle (Komine)
Notes
If you go for the M42 screw mount variant, then you will need to use a M42 to K-mount adapter ring. The M42- and K-mount lenses will additionally have to use stop-down metering.
