| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2007 Posts: 8,237
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 7, 2008 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, small, close focus | | Cons: | none | |
Excellent unheralded performer. Very sharp, even wide open. Close focus + native sharpness means incredible resolution for fine detail available up close. Love this little guy.
Taken with this lens:
 | | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 514 | | Review Date: May 10, 2008 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great color, easy focus, compact, good DOF | | Cons: | | |
Gotta be one of the best wide angles available. Manual focus only lens that hits it's focus target quickly because of the relatively generous DOF. Shooting for a week or so & haven't found one weakness yet. Good performance all around.
Softening at the edges of a frame when shooting f/4 or lower, but that is common with most wides, so you aren't giving up anything there. All 'round astounding lens that can be had cheap - and with auto aperture!
If you find one, BUY IT!
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2008 Posts: 8,819 | | Review Date: November 2, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | good value for the price | | Cons: | better variants not AF | |
There are many variations on this Vivitar 28mm lens, as this thread makes apparent. At least three of them are made by Komine and say "close focus" on the rim. Those so marked might focus as close as 14cm, but for others 20, 23 or 30cm might be the limit. So if you want the full magnification, look for those words.
All variants share similar optical qualities. They are generally free of distortion, render colours well and are easy to control.
Besides the Komine there are Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 lenses made by Tokina, Cosina and Kiron. To make things more confusing there are Vivitar TX mount lenses (made by Tokina) and at least three M42 versions. This doesn't even touch the f/2.5 or f/2.0 lenses in this focal length. Vivitar sure kept themselves busy!
I would rate these lenses a 7-8 and say they are great value if you don't mind manual aperture control. (Some of the later variants had auto-aperture but these are not as commonly found and might not have the same resolution.)
I should note that besides being faster, the Vivitar 28mm f/2.0 lenses are sharper as well -- they rate a 9.
EDIT: There are now over 30 known variants of manual focus Vivitar 28mm lenses. The Great Vivitar 28mm Bestiary provides a master catalogue. | | | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Lévis, Canada (Québec) Posts: 144 | | Review Date: February 6, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, cheap, solid. | | Cons: | Lateral CAs, vignetting. | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-5, K-7, K10D
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Bought this lens used to fit my K1000 back when I was shooting film. I wasn't disappointed!
This prime is pretty sharp for an old film-era lens and still does good on a DSLR, even wide open, where it's soft but still acceptable. Sharpness improves when stopping down. Contrast is good wide open and gets very good once stopped down a bit. The lens is good to very good from F4 and gets tack sharp around F5.6, where it's on par with modern glass.
Distortion is visible on film cameras but is less much of an issue on a DSLR, where it's very low. Vignetting is still strong wide open, even when used on the smaller APS-C sensor. Stopping down to F4 solves the problem.
Lateral CAs are on the very high side, which is to be expected for a lens designed for film. Purple fringing can occur in contrasty scenes and when it does, it's worse than most other lenses I've used. Flare resistance is pretty good for a wide angle lens. Bokeh isn't bad either, although it's not your best lens for buttery OOF areas. It gets very creamy from up close, however, so this is an excellent lens for close-ups of flowers and other subjects that may require a wider field of view than a 50mm lens, for instance.
It's also small, solid, and very cheap, so it's worth having it in your collection if you can find it in a flea market somewhere or on eBay. A nice lens for close-up photography, with the purple fringing and lateral CAs being the maing bugs.
| | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: September, 2006 Location: Horn Island, Torres Straits, Q Posts: 4,715 | | Review Date: May 4, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | size, bokeh, CF ability, angle of view, build quality | | Cons: | nothing | |
If I have a single general purpose lens this would be it.
When I raise the camera to my eye the scene appears the same as without the camera so for me this lens is the perfect angle of view.
No further comments to be added on the comments above.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: Southern Tablelands NSW Posts: 406
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 30, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp and Light A-version is simply GOLD. | | Cons: | I sold it!!!! STUPIDO!!!! | |
I have suffered LBA for some time, but this is the lens that started off my Seller's Remorse. I scored a mint A-version of this lens and sold it on. Big mistake!!! In the unceasing search for funds to hunt down the best glass, sometimes you should just hold onto some. The grass is not always greener.
The build quality of the Vivitar 28mm f2.8 CF is equal to most Pentax native 'M' lenses and the results in my limited testing far exceeds them. I compared this on a test card against the M50/1.7. The Viv outperformed the 50/1.7 from f2.8 to f8....after that they were neck and neck....though the Viv appeared to control CA much better even at smaller apertures. The Viv is far sharper and exhibited far better contrast to the M50/1.7. The Viv is lighter and the rings had a far more confident feel.
I highly recommend this lens for anyone who wants a utilitarian 28mm walk-around. My only advice is:
1. see if you can't hunt down an A-version, just for added utility, and
2, DON"T SELL IT!!!! (Caveat: or if you do then do so TO ME!)
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: April, 2010 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 813
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 11, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $55.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Solid build, Close focus, sharpness, CA control, IQ | | Cons: | Lens hood mandatory, a little soft at edges when wide open | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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According to the Bestiary mine is the K02 version (Komine).
It's a solid 9.
IQ is not as good as K28/3.5, same as A28/2.8 and maybe a smidge better than FA28/2.8 AL.
A lens hood will help increase contrast, and reduce sun glare.
The close focus ability can open the door for some real fun close-up wide shots - especially portraits. I call it the Pinocchio effect. 
At F4 and beyond, sharpness and detail is very good.
A great walk-around lens (if you really like an all manual lens).
Jack.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: Ohio, USA/ India Posts: 478 | | Review Date: June 7, 2011 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | good value, build | | Cons: | | |
This is a good lens for the money. I have used it reversed for some extreme macros. The build is great. I have not had a chance to use this much after acquiring other lenses in this fl range.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2011 Location: Near Sydney, NSW Posts: 331 | | Review Date: July 7, 2011 | Not Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | VERY light & thus easy to hand hold, auto aperture, macro | | Cons: | Not the best IQ from a prime, not wide enough for APS-C | |
Don't get me wrong on not recommending this lens - I don't think it's hopeless, I'm just not sure of it's relevance in the digital age. It's not wide enough to be a proper landscape/wide lens - but of course has no reach either, and because of its f2.8 combined with a not-long 28mm, it doesn't throw backgrounds out particularly easily.
Positives are that it can focus very close, which is nice so I might recommend it to someone for a nice cheap price who is looking to take close shots of something, but I wouldn't recommend it for landscape or just generally 'street photography', as it's IQ isn't actually that amazing for a prime, personally I think you're better off with a kit 18-55 - but if you're going to buy a lens separately, go one way or the other - either really wide like the 16-45 or Sigma 10-20, or a 50 or 55 prime.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: November, 2010 Location: California Posts: 2,223 | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: November, 2009 Location: Sofia Posts: 3
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 5, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Solid build, Close focus, sharpness, CA control | | Cons: | a little soft at F2.8 | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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This is my favorite lens.Sharp,good colours and bokeh.A little soft wide open,but for me it's not a problem.I agree with stillshunter - "A-version is simply GOLD"!
 | | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2013 Posts: 3 | | Review Date: March 16, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, close focus, k mount | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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A good lens, cool is the close focus. K mount is a plus
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: t'North Posts: 166 | | Review Date: August 2, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Crisp, decent IQ, nice to use | | Cons: | over 30 variants and big price variations | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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Picked up my little Vivitar 28mm a while ago as I was after a cheap manual focus 28mm to tinker with for Panoramas on digital. The ebay pic was fuzzy, I knew it was a Komine but was amazed to get a mint PKA for very little cash
According to the the Robin Parmar listing, my copy is:
A03 "Vivitar | 28MM 1:2.8 | MC | CLOSE FOCUS WIDE ANGLE | NO. 28xxxxxx | Ø49MM"
It's great. Really nice to use (just like a Pentax manual focus 'A') works well with my K10D and doesn't seem to have any metering issues. For panoramas and stitched images it works fine (I see no obvious vignetting f4 to f11) and it shows little distortion. It an ugly sort of fella though
Used as a straight 28mm on DSLR (so 42mm equiv) it is a little more limited for me as that isn't a focal length I find useful but it seems capable enough. Pixel peeping there is some CA (easy to fix) and it can be prone to flare outdoors so a hood is a must - being 49mm these are easy to come by, you might already have one
when the opportunity arises I will ad some pics here
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: May, 2015 Location: Black Isle, Scotland Posts: 405 | | Review Date: July 31, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Close focus, half stop aperture ring, smooth focusing | | Cons: | Slight CA, long focus ring throw, slow, flare | |
I picked this up going by previous reviews and would - for the most part - agree with them. It's a good fit for APS-C as a normal lens, and with a nice close focusing ability (1:5 ratio on mine) is pretty versatile. By these virtues it was my lens of choice for most of my last holiday in France, though not as sharp or colourful as my Petri 50mm F2.0, nor of course having the range of my DA 18-55. I've used it to good success for close-up photos of butterflies and flowers, a bit further out for some environmental portraits, and also for a spot of landscape though I never really hit my stride there. Whilst it spent most of its time on the K-30, I also used it on an MX with Velvia 50 slide film, though the latter is yet to be developed.
The sharpness is pretty solid for the most part, though as has been mentioned previously it is noticeably soft wide open. Corner sharpness peaks at F5.6-8, whilst centre sharpness has a slightly wider range at F4-8. This is really to be expected. Vignetting is only really significant wide-open. Chromatic aberrations are often there, even when you're not trying to push the contrast. They're clean and small, so usually easy enough to tidy up in PP, but you can lose some sharpness if you don't look out for them.
The focus and aperture rings both work well, though I found the former to have longer throw than I would have liked. When you're trying to switch from distance work to something close that you've just spotted, you might end up missing it on occasion.
Something that bugged me about this lens, and I don't know if it's just my copy, but I could swear it's dark, as in I actually lose a stop with it. Example: I took a photo of a mountain at F8 with this lens, but felt that it really could have done with being a bit tighter so switched to my 50mm. When chimping that shot I found it to be overexposed where the Vivitar wasn't. I haven't done anything resembling a scientific test of this, so take this anecdote with a pinch of salt.
Overall I'd probably recommend this lens if you're looking for a relatively cheap normal prime for an APS-C body. It hasn't got any spectacular characteristics, but it does have a good focus range and sharpness. If you're so inclined, the out of focus effect can be quite fun to play with as well.
Sample images:
 | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: November, 2015 Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland Posts: 4 | | Review Date: November 19, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $52.61
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | the bokeh, the bokeh and finally the bokeh | | Cons: | at f2.8 it's not as sharp as I'd like it to be. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Cannon EOS 1000D
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