| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 509 | | Review Date: April 13, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Well built as a 3rd party lens; f/2 | | Cons: | Lower quality than Pentax lenses. A bit soft at f/2. Sensitive to direct light. | |
I have a Kiron version of this lens. Very impressed. Although the aperture blades are a bit oily, they have not affected normal use yet.
Built quality is not as high as the Pentax one, but at a much lower price (no complaint at all). Largest aperture is softer than a Pentax one. Again, how can I complain about this, given the price.
Overall, I am a happy man. I have to say that I am more easily impressed.  | | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: September, 2007 Location: Boardman, Oregon Posts: 106 | | Review Date: December 20, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fast, and bright. Great field of view with APS-C. | | Cons: | Nome | |
I also have the Kiron branded lens. I find it fun to use, especially indoors where there is not much light. If it is stopped down to 5.6 or 8, the depth of field hardly requires focusing, making it a really good lens for "street" shooting.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2010 Posts: 29
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 19, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharpness, rich colors, pleasing bokeh, min. focus 0,3m(1ft) (love or hate the focusing ring) | | Cons: | lens cap, flares | |
Even though this lens is possibly more than 20years old, my copy is still in great shape and it’s all metal construction does not show any signs of decay. The aperture ring is still snappy, the focus ring smooth.
The focus ring is also the thing that kind of defines this lens in everyday use. It is extremely short, about 90° or ¼ of a rotation. That could be seen as a really bad thing, but most of the time it is not. (See Update) On every aperture higher than f4 there is no longer a need to focus as the DOF is so deep that there is no need to focus anything above 2m distance.
The focus range from 2m to Infinity takes about 10- 15° on the focusing ring. Focusing above 2m distance is done by simply putting the somewhere between (or on infinity for landscapes) and “bam!” sharp picture. The rest of the focus throw is taken by 0.3m to 1m which is plenty to focus normally at that distance.
f2 to f4 is where there are actually OOF areas to observe the pleasant bokeh that this lens delivers. At f2 to it is smooth and almost dreamy but does lose some of the “dream” part when you stop down.
I bought this lens because it was praised for its sharpness. And I can only repeat that, you are not likely to find this sharpness anywhere else for this price. Wide open you can make out some softness, but once stopped down this lens is sharp, sharp, sharp!
Another point that this lens handles exceptionally for its price is colors: they are rich and saturated and I hardly ever want to change them in PP.
Now to the bad things, when you point this lens in direction of the sun it will flare. The other thing which I consider even worse is the horrible lens cap, the second I put this lens in my bag I hear the distinct click which tells me that it lost its cap again (I advise on buying a 55mm Cap for replacement).
This lens, if you find one, is quite a bang for the buck. It is my go to lens when shooting landscapes, street photography or indoors without flash. 9/10
Sample pics:
http://minus.com/mwnchG
UPDATE:
After half a year and a lot of new glass in my collection i would still condiser this one of my sharpest lenses, maybe the sharpest. (Have to do more testing with the DA40ltd).
Any focusing issues have completely vanished, you just have to get used to it.
Marlboroman.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Lexington, KY Posts: 30
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 22, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, usable at f/2, IQ stopped down a bit | | Cons: | Was stuck wide open (a common problem!) | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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These are hard to find at decent prices, so I was glad to grab this perfect-looking 22-serial (Kiron) Vivitar on eBay to use with APS-C digital.
However, when it arrived, I discovered the aperture blades stay wide open no matter what. The aperture ring moved freely, but nothing happened. Apparently, oil on the blades is a common problem for this particular lens, with stuck open as the most common failure mode. I was easily able to remove the mount from the back, and that gave me access to the spring-driven aperture linkage. The spring was slightly stretched, but when I forced the aperture closed, it was immediately obvious that the blades are covered in oil (worst on the front side). I was not able to open the lens enough to get access to the blades, so I worked them a bit and then pulled the spring a little tighter to help force it. I'm now storing it stopped down, and it looks like it may work ok for a while like that, although getting the oil out is the only way to truly repair it. I'd much appreciate any insights as to how to get access to the blades for oil removal... here's what it looked like with the mount removed:
Anyway, even as a 24mm stuck at f/2 it is actually rather nice -- much smaller and optically better than my Tamron 24mm f/3.5, for example. There is a surprisingly shallow DOF at f/2, although bokeh are only slightly better than average for a retrofocus design. On APS-C, it gives the field of view of a 35mm on full frame, so you get a nice combination of a relatively wide view and background defocus. It is easier to focus than most old wide angles, despite a very short 1/4 turn from close to inifinty. The sharpness isn't bad wide open, but there is a little glow and large-scale contrast is fairly low:
Overall, it is quite usable wide open, which is better than I expected. It gets really good when stopped down. That said, high-contrast edges are not what you want to shoot with this lens near wide open. The relatively minor glow is gone by f/2.8. However, there also can be a very thick purple fringe wiide open, which isn't completely gone until f/5.6-f/8 -- this is why I've given it just a 7 for Aberrations. Sharpness peaks quite high around f/8:
Oh yeah, there's also a lot of DOF at f/8. In fact, the image isn't terrible closed all the way to f/16, and at f/16 there is tons of DOF.
This is a well-built and tiny 24mm f/2. What's not to like about that? IQ also gets very good fast, and by f/2.8 it's doing much better than most old 24mm lenses at f/4. Thus, I think it deserves a 9. Just be wary of oil on the aperture blades if your lens serial number starts with 22 (as this one does) -- Kiron seems to have made lots of good wide-angle lenses with bad grease in them.
| | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: April, 2011 Location: Gwynedd Posts: 93
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 7, 2011 | Not Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Fast for focal length, chunky build | | Cons: | heavy, Iris prone to failure | |
I have spent a long time hunting one of these out, and when I finally got one I was massively disapponted. For starters, compared to it's f2.8 counterpart, it weighs a ton and is huge. Second, the Iris was slow as a sloth on Sunda, and it seems that this is a good copy! I have only come across one other working copy, the rest have all been jammed.
I did get a chance to test it before I sent it back, and was impressed with sharpness, colour and contrast, all were acceptable (even wide open). I was suprised at just how much DOF there was even at F2 though, certainly not good for throwing out background!
Would I reccomend it? No, for the silly prices they command you'd be better of with a much cheaper, lighter and sharper Cosina made 24mm f2.8.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: January, 2011 Posts: 440 | | Review Date: August 18, 2011 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | fast and useful focal length on aps-c | | Cons: | very soft & glowing open, extreme coma off center, heavier, oil onblades | |
Mine example came with oil on the blades, slow to close, and gets stuck around 5.6..
I took the auto-aperture lever off to turn it into a manual iris lens, which allows me to select from f/2 to f/5.6 reliably.
Wide open it gives a glowy, dreamy soft look to your images, but subject detail is preserved. By f/4 the glow is gone, and sharpness improves. When I can get it to f/8, outdoors, it's prob max resolution, but I was not blown away by it, sharp, but only 'ok' sharp.. for instance, I would rate the old smc 40mm pancake as sharper..
Well thing is that when you'd like to use it wide open, let's say on the street at night, you have the glow to deal with, but also significant coma, as you see how street lights get distorted and "streched". It effectively becomes a special-effect lens, but YMMV.. by f/4, that's gone, but so is the advantage of a "fast" lens ..lol~!
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Lexington, KY Posts: 30 | | Review Date: November 23, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, usable at f/2, IQ stopped down a bit | | Cons: | Was stuck wide open (a common problem!) | |
Not a bad lens for the money
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2012 Posts: 151 | | Review Date: May 29, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 4
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 5
Value: 7
Camera Used: k30
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I didnt use this lens much on my k30. Only took like 30+ photos with it. initially found it very difficult to focus... then got used to it (close-ups). I will update the ratings once i get time to play with it longer.
Here are some photos i really liked which were taken with this lens
 | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2016 Location: New York, NY. Posts: 1 | | Review Date: January 20, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $37.75
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Size, long focus throw. | | Cons: | Chromatic aberration. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Sony a6000
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This is the second copy I get from this lens.
I like the fact that its soft wide open and it has that dreamy/glamorous look and the long focus throw helps you get your subject in focus more accurately. In the other hand it's soft in corners even when stepped down, a negative point for landscape photographers.
I don't only recommend it but encourage you to have it in your bag, your crate or shelf...  | | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2012 Posts: 151 | | Review Date: July 17, 2018 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | None | | Cons: | Soft | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 5
Value: 7
Camera Used: Kx
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Got this lens along with a lens lot. Initially, I was excited but then I only used it once. I found the focus to be difficult and the sharpness is not there below 5.6
May be I should give this lens another try. The irony is, I have taken one of my best clicks with it.
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