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Vivitar (Cosina) 19mm F3.8 Review RSS Feed

Vivitar (Cosina) 19mm F3.8

Sharpness 
 7.1
Aberrations 
 7.0
Bokeh 
 5.8
Handling 
 9.3
Value 
 9.1
Reviews Views Date of last review
14 84,661 Wed January 25, 2023
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
93% of reviewers $63.77 8.14
Vivitar (Cosina) 19mm F3.8


Description:
Ultra wide angle MF lens for full frame. There are, it seems earlier versions, metal build, and later plastic ones. Typically, but not necessarily, PKA Mount.
Mount Type: Pentax KA
Price History:



Add Review of Vivitar (Cosina) 19mm F3.8
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New Member

Registered: June, 2017
Posts: 14
Review Date: January 25, 2023 Recommended | Price: $120.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Manual alternative to the 18-55mm AF
Cons: needs correction of barrel distortion
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 4    Handling: 10    Value: 10    Camera Used: Crop APS   

I got this first for film-era use: in that role it was the most affordable ultrawide available (GBP 95 / 120 USD New). The SMC Pentax-A 20mm F2.8 was way beyond my means - as it still is today!

The problems in that 35mm film role were [1] contrast is low at wide - and needs F8 to do well [2] with 64-200ASA film as the standard that meant tripods for any low light / interior shots [3] when photographing buildings (straight lines) the 3-4% distortion became visible [4] very large prints could show chromatic aberration in the far corners. Despite those limitations, I made great use of this lens.

In the DSLR era, most of those "problems" can be overcome. It now becomes the "28mm equivalent" on an APS sensor camera - and most of the problems that limited this lens' use in the film era are overcome: [1] 800asa is very high quality even on the CCD era DSLRs - and way above that with recent era Pentax bodies - so shooting at f5.6 - f8 is no bit deal [2] distortion correction and CA removal is easy - even with free photo software [3] contrast enhancement is much easier than in the film era if you want to use this lens wide open.

My copy was from the early 2000's - and the lens coating is great for flare control, while the mechanics of focus, aperture and mounting the lens are all fantastic. My glass is sparkling clean (with a digital sensor, any haze on the small rear element of a wide-angle is closest to the sensor and really kills image quality - which is the likely reason for most of the variation in IQ reported by reviewers on this forum. I have seen dramatic improvements in IQ from just unscrewing and cleaning the rear elements of several 28mm wide angles). Now - in the APS digital era I can use a traditional "wide angle lens hood" designed for 28mm's to help even further - and it keeps finger tips out of the frame as well!

I agree with carabez in the review - if you have an 18-55mm kit lens you get no real advantage in function by having an F3.8 prime wide-angle. But if you prefer shooting primes, or are a film-maker, then this is still a great choice. Even with an 18-55 on my camera, I carry the 19mm prime in my main camera bag and use it with ND filters for long-exposure landscapes.

Turbotak reviewd this lens below - and has trouble with flares. In my later era 2000's model the flare control is actually very good; this could reflect advances in coatings or that I have owned this since new and it is in "as new" condition without even a speck of dust inside.


I got my copy out recently after more than 10 years stored away and have been really enjoying using it again. Sometimes - going out with just one focal length lens is a great way to ignite creativity. As a bonus, it makes a crop-sensor DSLR very much smaller and less conspicuous as this lens is tiny (especially for an ultrawide) - this is why lens-hoods to keep fingers out of picture is an advantage even if you aren't trying to suppress flare!
===

Conclusion - if you can get this at a good price, I say "buy"; however filmakers seem to have "discovered" this lens and prices are rising as there are not many affordable 19mm wide lenses out there to "recycle". New ultrawides from even the "affordable" lensmakers such as Rokinon, Meike etc are huge and heavy and expensive in comarison.
   
New Member

Registered: June, 2015
Posts: 9
Review Date: April 5, 2020 Recommended | Price: $68.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros:
Cons:
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 5    Handling: 8    Value: 8    Camera Used: k1 II   

It's a really old-fashioned lens. For those like me sometimes looking for the "old" style is perfect (also considering the price). For those who want maximum definition, maximum contrast, for those who love the way of photographing landscapes in a "surreal" way it is not suitable.
   
Site Supporter

Registered: July, 2017
Location: Cinco de Mayo
Posts: 771
Review Date: October 23, 2019 Not Recommended | Price: $80.00 | Rating: 6 

 
Pros: All metal, easy focus. Sharper than DA 18-55mm at f8
Cons: Soft wide open
Sharpness: 7    Aberrations: 6    Bokeh: 6    Handling: 8    Value: 7    Camera Used: Pentax K50   

Wide open (at least on APSC) this lens cannot compite vs the Pentax DA 18-55mm, really bad CA and soft.

at f8-f11 is where this lens shines, a little more sharper than the Pentax Kit.

If you have an APSC camera an the Kit lens avoid this lens cos' you'll get no gain.

Maybe at full frame's arena have a substantial benefit. Meanwhile spend your money in another glasses.

   
Forum Member

Registered: February, 2019
Posts: 73
Review Date: June 12, 2019 Recommended | Price: $40.00 | Rating: 7 

 
Pros: Compact, accept filters, filmic softness
Cons: distortion, vignetting wide open, softness
Sharpness: 4    Aberrations: 10    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 10    Value: 10    Camera Used: Canon t3i   

One of the cheapest options for an ultra-wide FF lens - it's not as bad as the market price would reflect.

I compared this lens to my Tokina 11-20 at 19mm. It has significant barrel distortion, vignetting, and is very soft and a little hazey wide open. Stop down to f/5.6 or f/4.5 and the haze goes away and you regain sharpness. The general softness remains throughout, but yet, if you zoom in the detail still persists. This lens renders scenes in an otherworldly way, kind of like how when you watch a movie you feel like you're in it, rather than looking at a digital photo. The Tokina 11-20 was definitely cleaner, sharper, more rectilinear, and just overall better, but the photos seemed sterile and digital. This 19mm provides an organic look to a digital sensor. I can recommend this lens for scenes/subjects that would benefit form those sorts of organic characteristics. I will definitely use it for narrative video or photography, but it would do poorly in a car commercial, product photography, or architecture, for example.

As for aberrations, it flares like mad. I will attempt a SMC 20mm f/4.5 hood and report back. I saw no CA.

Happy with the acquisition. It matches well with the Pentax 24-35mm f/3.5.

Update: Upon further testing with my cinema cameras, the softness of this lens is even more pronounced, to the point where it’s just too much. Great for organic, fantasy stills though.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: September, 2010
Location: Somewhere in the Southern US
Posts: 12,285
Review Date: March 26, 2019 Recommended | Price: $25.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Ultra Wide on Full Frame! Small, Cheap, well made
Cons: FLARE! Soft edges
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 6    Bokeh: 7    Handling: 10    Value: 10    Camera Used: K-1   

Ultra Wide Baby! It's small, its ultra wide, and it’s not expensive! So, the flare that this finds(seeks out) is tolerable and something that you need to plan for, work against,and then deal with in post. Finding anything less than 28mm in FF these days is either tough or EXPENSIVE. This little lens is a pleasure to use and I'mglad I own it. I just wish I could find a hood that works on it in FF but given its UWA of view that's unlikely, but ifI did it might help tame the flare. Images are sharp in the center, and sharpen up around f8 in the corners. Distortion is manageable but there.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: March, 2013
Location: Hamilton, Texas
Posts: 769

2 users found this helpful
Review Date: April 4, 2016 Recommended | Price: $84.00 | Rating: 7 

 
Pros: build quality, very wide
Cons: bleary edges, flare
Sharpness: 5    Aberrations: 3    Bokeh: 1    Handling: 10    Value: 8    Camera Used: Pentax ZX-5n   

So, I see other reviewers saying this is optically good. I reckon they are shooting on APS-C and can't see that the edges and corners do get somewhat funky on a "full frame" 35mm film camera. Also, get ready for lens flare! Yes, this is a funky lens -- but not entirely in a bad way.

When I was using this on my Pentax ZX-5n loaded with Kodak Ektar 100, I basically treated it as a Lomography style camera. I wanted the distinct perspective that one only gets from an ultra-wide lens, but I didn't want to shell out a lot of money for a high quality ultra-wide. So, I ended up with this, and it turned out to be perfect for the task. The bleary and vignetted edges, massive flare whenever it was pointed even vaguely sunward, and ultra-wide perspective, combined with slightly wacky Ektar colors, made for some distinctive -- and sometimes striking -- images.

The build quality is actually superb, all metal, and is made in Japan. The focus ring is nicely damped, and it has a useful hyperfocal scale. The aperture ring on mine has the A setting which is so very handy on newer cameras. It's not a very large lens, but somehow it just looks perfect on the camera. Mine has a 62mm filter ring.

It's kind of a tough lens to review. By the usual optical standards that we use for evaluating lenses, it's weak. And yet, it does have character, and I have become strangely, perhaps irrationally, attached to mine. I'd hate to give it up.

   
New Member

Registered: April, 2013
Posts: 3

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: August 26, 2013 Recommended | Price: $100.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Colour rendition, contrast, close focussing, light!!
Cons: Not quite sharp enough for serious landscape shots
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 7    Handling: 10    Value: 10   

Very lightweight yet sturdy, excellent length on an APS-C. Suits most conditions from landscape to walkabout during the day and very discrete. Very short focus turn which is useful for quick shots.

Updated 11/04/15 - Got another copy much sharper!

   
New Member

Registered: December, 2012
Posts: 13
Review Date: June 22, 2013 Recommended | Price: $60.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Very compact, Has the A setting, Easy to focus, Decent sharpness
Cons: None in particular

I have the Pentax DA 55-300mm and the 18-55mm kit lens. Out of the two the 55-300mm seems to be a better lens so I bought some primes in the wide angle range. I have the Pentax A 50mm f1.7, the Pentax A 28mm f2.8 and now this lens. This lens seems a little sharper than the kit lens at 18mm and slightly wider. It is easy to focus and plenty fast enough considering the sensor in the K5 and the built in image stabilization. It is very compact and goes very nicely with the compact K5 body. It has nice colors. Actually the 18-55mm kit lens is not a bad lens especially if you get the second version (without WR) but if you want a nice manual focus wide angle lens with the A setting (which to me is important) and at a very reasonable price then this is a good choice. The A setting works perfect every time unlike the finicky PK A adapter for the Tamron adaptall lenses ( many of which are otherwise very good lenses). I bought all three of these manual focus primes on e-bay for about $250 total which makes a nice package to go with the K5 for a very reasonable price. Combined with the Pentax built-in image stabilization you are getting a better deal than you can with a similar package for the Nikon D 7000. The Nikon manual focus ais lenses won't connect electronically to the camera body like the A setting lenses for Pentax.
   
Junior Member

Registered: August, 2009
Location: Lexington, KY
Posts: 30

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: October 3, 2011 Recommended | Price: $10.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Tiny, close focus
Cons: IQ off center
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 7    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 8    Value: 10   

This lens was part of a large lot... but it was one of the parts I wanted. Funny how getting what you want isn't always as good as wanting it. :ugh:

Anyway, this is a very clean very little lens... absolutely tiny for a full-frame 19mm. It's about 1/3 the size of my 20mm f/3.8 Vivitars, but comparably well made. The serial number is not in the usual place around the front of the lens, but on the side; it starts with a 9, so it was probably made by Cosina. The close focus also is pretty good:



Actually, IQ overall is very usable. However, like every old ultra-wide I've ever tried, this lens is not without issues. You can see some swirl to the bokeh, which means it vignettes a bit too. Contrast isn't particularly high and it can flare badly; there also is some CA. Worst of all is the quite strong barrel distortion:



That looks like 2-3% barrel distortion on APS-C... I don't want to know how bendy it gets on full frame! Or maybe I do? I certainly would like to know how two of the above reviewers found their copies of the lens to be free of distortion, because the distortion is pretty obvious with my lens and this is not the kind of thing that commonly varies across samples.

Like so many old ultrawides, this isn't really a clear win against APS-C kit zooms. However, this is definitely better than many of its peers (e.g., my Spiratone 18mm), and on a full frame sensor might be quite compelling -- especially in that most of what it gets wrong is easy to fix in digital postprocessing. It also deserves extra points for being so small.
   
Forum Member

Registered: April, 2011
Location: Gwynedd
Posts: 93
Review Date: June 11, 2011 Recommended | Price: $60.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Compact, Good IQ
Cons: Can't actually think of any!

I bought a rather beat up looking copy for a song. When it arrived it was a pleasent suprise, beneath the tattered exterior lies a little gem. For the record mine is a Cosina made lens, I'm not sure how many variants there actually are of this particular design.

Mine is plenty sharp wide open, not tack sharp of course, but certainly capable enough. There is no CA discernable. There is very, very little distortion, so little in fact if it wasn't for the focal length wrotten on the front you'd swear you were looking through a 50mm. (In marked contrast to the 19mm end of a Cosina 19-35mm zoom, where you know you're looking throug ha wideangle!). In fact I did wonder whether it really was a 19mm lens since the front plate did actually come off very easily when I tried to remove the UV filter!

That said build quality is pretty good, mine has obviously had ahard life, there is dust within the helicoid and you can feel it but everything still functions flawlessly.

I've been struggling to think of a big downside to this lens. I really don't think it has any, perhaps if we're being picky the contrast and colour could provide a bit more pop, and the flare resistance could be better (although it's by no means poor for such a wide lens anyway). Definitely get a hood to go with it.

I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend this lens, I even like the bokeh despite it's 5 sided Iris (it's remarkably smooth for such an iris deisgn!)

Have a look at the tests I did here.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: July, 2010
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 1,501

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: April 19, 2011 Recommended | Price: $30.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Fairly Sharp, Useful Focal Length, Beautiful Colours
Cons: Manual focus... Low Light Peformance

I picked this up with an MX 35mm camera on ebay for £30... The MX had seen better days but the 2 lenses that came with it were in tip-top condition...

I find this to be fairly sharp, nothing close to my m-50 1.7 or Tamron 17-50 2.8, but sharper than the kit 18-50...

For street photography the focal length is more useful that the 50mm and less obtrusive than the Tamron... Pretty good match paired with my K-x and an MEsuper with m-40mm 2.8

The colours and contrast this lens produces match any lens I own...

CA has not been an issue...

I do struggle with manual focus... No fault of the lens... Build quality is acceptable...

Its not a great lowlight lens... But if the sun's out...

For the price these are going at you'd be daft not to pick one up
   
Veteran Member

Registered: December, 2008
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
Posts: 650
Review Date: February 16, 2011 Recommended | Price: $135.83 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: clear, sharp, great color, wide angle, price
Cons: focus and DOF

I needed a super wide angle from the film days but could not afford much over a 100. I watched and tried for over a year and bought this in Dec. 2010. It does have the K A mount which works flawlessly. The first pleasant surprise was that it has about a 2 degree wider horizontal angle of view than the DA 18-55! Another joy of working with this one is it is completely rectilinear! I never noticed till I bought this lens that the DA 18-55 kit lens is not rectilinear at it's 18 mm focal length. I must say at first I thought I was dreaming this so I actually checked image of the same scene side by side and the 19 is wider. Why, I do not know?? Lately I have noticed that both my K-x and K100D have trouble telling me of correct focus with scenes closer than 2 - 4 feet and the lenses DOF is not as great as 20 mm, 24 mm, and 35 mm lenses whom are MF when close focused. Scenes beyond 5 feet the DOF is great even though the lens is not close to infinity and no trouble focusing. So this is a disappointment But I feel this is the lens for scenic landscape shots. I want to comment on price. Mine seems so much more expensive but it seems the pool of older, inexpensive super wide angle lenses is drying up now that we are at the end of 2010 and into 2011. This does not mean they are not available but just higher priced. I do feel I paid a fair price for this lens and I do have an excellent unit.
   
Inactive Account

Registered: June, 2010
Location: Manila, Philippines
Posts: 4
Review Date: December 3, 2010 Recommended | Price: $20.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Wide and Sharp
Cons: Manual Focus (which is fine with me)

I was very hesitant on getting this "baby" coupled with a Tamron 24mm Adaptall lens. But that didn't stop me from getting it! And boy, was I amazed at it's superb build and wideness. Now, I never leave home without it!

Go get one now, if you're a fan of manual lenses! It's rare!
   
Junior Member

Registered: June, 2010
Posts: 47
Review Date: July 26, 2010 Recommended | Price: $60.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Frequently used focal length, relatively low c.a., automatic lens (other than the focus)
Cons: Not as sharp as other primes I own

Camera used with: k10d

These days, it is hard to find a decent prime lens for 20mm or under, at a reasonable price. That is why I snagged this lens. I read some mixed reviews about this lens, but many of them were for different brand cameras as well.

In short, this is a better quality lens than the kit lens at 19mm, but not as good of quality as some other 28mm primes. I don't like to compare lenses that have different focal lengths, I just dont want you to be expecting the same image quality as say the pentax-m 28mm 2.8.

The edges are a bit soft even when used at a sharp f stop such as f/11, but not horrible, and less soft than the kit. Less c.a. than the kit lens and sharper as well.

I do not have any other similar focal length lenses to compare this one to, I am sure there is better, and I know there is worse. Just try finding a good one for under 100.

It gets an 8 for quality + value. I would like to see some other reviews of people with this lens and other similar focal length lenses to really get a feel of how this one stacks up.
Add Review of Vivitar (Cosina) 19mm F3.8



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