[anthropas]

Hi All,

I'm at a trade show in Denver and there is a pawn shop down the street from my hotel. I went down today and saw a nice looking Vivitar Series 1 70-210 1:35 macro lens. I know there are many versions of this one and I think this is one of the nicer ones. It had a designation on the mount that said: "P/AK". (I think!) I tried to fit it on my K10D and couldn't. Is this not a Pentax mount designation? It looked to be in great shape. Can anyone tell me if this needs some kind of adapter or if it's the wrong mount all together? How much is this lense worth?

Thanks,

Anthropas

[k100d]

shouldn't be any special adapter, maybe you got it for another SLR mount?

[FotoPete]

Compare the lens mount of the Vivitar with your FA50. If the Bayonet and the aperture levels are the same, it should be fine.

I've seen a Vivitar 70-210/3.5 at the camera store before with a larger than normal flange that actually obstructed mounting on the pentax dSLRs. You would need to either grind off the flange part or unscrew it off directly.

[monochrome]

Hi All,

I'm at a trade show in Denver and there is a pawn shop down the street from my hotel. I went down today and saw a nice looking Vivitar Series 1 70-210 1:35 macro lens. I know there are many versions of this one and I think this is one of the nicer ones. It had a designation on the mount that said: "P/AK". (I think!) I tried to fit it on my K10D and couldn't. Is this not a Pentax mount designation? It looked to be in great shape. Can anyone tell me if this needs some kind of adapter or if it's the wrong mount all together? How much is this lense worth?

Thanks,

Anthropas

Hi:

• The mount of my version 2 (Tokina) lens is embossed P/K
• The mount of my version 1 (Kiron) lens is not embossed at all.
• I believe the version 3.2 lenses are marked PK/A to denote that they have the auto aperture contacts.
• Some copies of the version 3 lens do not have the contacts. Remember that the version 3 and higher lenses are not constant f/3.5 aperture - they are f/2.8~4.0.

Here is Mark Roberts' website page if that helps you Vivitar 70-210 Series 1 Macro Zooms - Mark Roberts Photography

Here is a link to photos of various lens mounts SLR Lens Mount Identification Guide

Maybe take the serial number list with you.

Credit to Mark Roberts:

The 1st two digits (or first one digit, in the case of 6 or 9) designate the manufacturer:
6 Olympus
9 Cosina
13 Schneider Optik
22 Kino Precision (Kiron)
25 Ozone Optical
28 Komine Co. Ltd
32 Makinon
33 Asanuma (Tokina) 37 Tokina
42 Bauer
44 Perkin Elmer (US)
47 Chinon
51 Tokyo Trading
56 Kyoe Schoji
75 Hoya Optical
81 Polar

The next three digits designate the year and week of manufacture. One digit for the year and two digits (01 through 52) for the week. Obviously, designating the year with a single digit doesn't allow you to differentiate between, say, 1978 and 1988, so you have to infer the decade of manufacture from other evidence (such as when, where and how you acquired the lens, what documentation came with it and the physical appearance of the lens). The remaining digits indicate the manufacturing serial number.

As to value - if you have your laptop with you (how else would you be posting?), try an ebaY completed listings search using Pentax + Vivitar +Series and you will get most if not all of them.

[Lowell Goudge]

Hi All,

I'm at a trade show in Denver and there is a pawn shop down the street from my hotel. I went down today and saw a nice looking Vivitar Series 1 70-210 1:35 macro lens. I know there are many versions of this one and I think this is one of the nicer ones. It had a designation on the mount that said: "P/AK". (I think!) I tried to fit it on my K10D and couldn't. Is this not a Pentax mount designation? It looked to be in great shape. Can anyone tell me if this needs some kind of adapter or if it's the wrong mount all together? How much is this lense worth?

Thanks,

Anthropas

As others have noted, you should compare the bayonette mount BUT there is one issue with this lens, even if it is a K mount. there is a large shield "protecting" the apature activation lever, that interferes with mounting this lens on a pentax DSLR.

It is a common problem with Vivitar lenses from the early 1980's.

there have been several links anr threads on removing this shield and cutting it down to size.

other than this issue, the lens works great. I own one, (have owned since 1981)

[Tasybear]

I cut 1/8" off the flange on my Vivitar Series 1, it fits my K100D super just fine.
A beautiful lens that I use most of the time, I use it with Av, MF at 3.5

[monochrome]

Compare the lens mount of the Vivitar with your FA50. If the Bayonet and the aperture levels are the same, it should be fine.

I've seen a Vivitar 70-210/3.5 at the camera store before with a larger than normal flange that actually obstructed mounting on the pentax dSLRs. You would need to either grind off the flange part or unscrew it off directly.

That is your problem - the flange blocks mounting the lens.

Here is the definitive Vivitar Series 1 70~210 Resource

The serial numbers are the key

Here's a PF thread about removing the flange