Vivitar 135mm F28 Telephoto Lens F/ 35mm Review

This is a short review of a Vivitar 135mm f/ii.viii vintage lenses which is another I inherited from my Dad who used to utilise it on a Zenith B photographic camera in the 1970's or 1980's.

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 auto telephoto Images

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8

6 blade aperture

M42 mountain

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 showing Auto/Manual switch and actuation pin

Automobile/Manual switch and actuation pin

Built in lens hood

Serial No 28809118

135mm f/2.8 auto telephoto

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 Description

It's a 135mm M42 mount lens with an auto/manual switch and a f/2.8 to f/22 discontinuity range.

There is an in-built lens hood which slides over the front element when required, although on my copy this is then loose that it won't keep in place if the lens is pointed upwardly. The aperture has half-dozen blades and operates quite smoothly in half stop clicks apart from the final one-stop click from f/16 to f/22.

The focusing band is also smooth in operation, and is nicely damped. It is certainly easier to plow than the takumar 135 f/3.5, which if anything I find a bit too potent. According to the focusing scale, the closest focusing distance is about 5 anxiety, and then this would not be a natural choice for macro unless you use an extension tube or close focus attachment lens.

My copy has quite a bit of internal dust and also some scuffs on the inside of the back element which I oasis't bothered to try to remove. Sometimes on one-time lenses there is a pocket-size gap at the dorsum near the mount which you can use to strength air in with a blower and clean the internal grit out, but this lens is completely solid circular that expanse, and the gap between the lens torso and the internal focusing section is too pocket-size to use. I haven't taken the lens autonomously to try to clean it although these type of lenses are normally of unproblematic blueprint and then that is a possibility old in the future if it becomes necessary.

Vivitar lenses were made by a variety of dissimilar manufacturers, and the serial number of mine (28809118) indicates that this lens was made by Komine (because of the 28 starting serial number). The viii as a 3rd digit suggests it was made in a year catastrophe in 8 which was probably 1978, since I would approximate that by 1988 there wouldn't be many M42 lenses existence fabricated.

Although I inherited my re-create from my Dad, information technology is possible to buy a copy of this lens reasonably easily. A quick search on ebay uk reveals a price ranging from £30 to £50 on a 'buy it now' deal. That sounds quite expensive to me – I would expect to probably pay about £25 to acquire one in an auction.

Bokeh

The pictures below show some concrete bears which sit in my garden at home, used every bit a portrait subject to evidence the level of background defocus with the lens set from f/ii.8 to f/22

f/2.eight

f/4

f/5.half-dozen

f/8

f/11

f/16

f/22

Macro

Equally I said above the close focus altitude of 5 feet doesn't make this a natural choice for macro photography, but the shots below were all taken using a pocket-size extension tube fitted to the camera. This reduced the closest distance to about 2 feet and at least qualifies these pictures as close-upward if not macro.

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 with extension tube – Pond life

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 with extension tube - Leaves

Vivitar 135mm f/two.8 with extension tube – Leaves

Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 with extension tube - Flowers

A motion-picture show of flowers taken with the Vivitar 135mm f/ii.eight lens fitted with extension tubes.

Flowers

Full general Pictures

These are some general pictures taken with the lens in my Mum'due south garden. I think they show a reasonable operation in one case the lens is stopped downwardly to f/5.vi which puts this lens in the 'certainly worth the money only not a super star' class. These pictures, along with all the others in this post tin be viewed at full size by post-obit this link.