Originally posted by vonBaloney I would say that's a huge difference. There is no Vivitar now, essentially. It is *only* a name that Sakar sticks on stuff at its pleasure.
I agree. A little history lesson might be in order. The "old" Vivitar was a brand of Ponder and Best (a U.S. company dating to the 1930s) that was created in the early 1960s. Many different photographic products were sold under the Vivitar name including lenses and flashes.
Unlike some competitors, they did not shop for existing lens product and rebadge. Instead, they hired experienced optical designers and worked with various Japanese makers on the implementation and manufacturing of their designs. This was true from the earliest days. Vivitar was an early adaptor of computer-aided design and it was those designs that were the basis for the final product. This was a major marketing point back-in-the-day and resulted in consistently good and occasionally very fine optics. So, while a Komine-made Vivitar 28/2.8 is a fine lens, it was not a Komine product, per se. That does not mean that there was no "cross-fertilization" between Vivitar and its manufacturers. It just mean that a lens of similar appearance under say, the "Focal" name is unlikely to be the exact same lens made by Komine, but sold as Focal.
1969 Ad:
That was the "old" Vivitar. Vivitar was sold on the death of its founders and while products continued to be made, the business model changed and quality suffered. As noted by von Baloney, this happened after the company's high point in the 1970s and 1980s. Eventually (2008) the parent company's owners went broke and the Vivitar brand name was sold to Sakar. The current Vivitar-branded products have no relation to the historic brand.
Steve
FWIW...in the late '70s and early '80s, Vivitar was not exactly a bargain brand. When I was shopping for a 28mm K-mount lens in 1982, a Vivitar 28/2.8 like the one currently on my shelf was about $10 more than a Pentax-M 28/2.8. The lenses were not expensive, but they weren't the cheapest either.