Vivitar 35 mm f/ 1.9 (Komine) Lens

Wide open, this is a soft, painterly, fast 35mm with quite a bit of glow. The same SA that causes the glow makes the bokeh quite good. It's still sharp enough to use wide open, but the glow is heavy enough to make it low contrast and rather special-purpose. Stopped down, it's nicely sharp for general use. In fact, I rate it "A" overall in IQ.

The mechanical build is solid metal with buttery smooth focus.

Weaknesses:

This lens is the same size as the Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 -- big and heavy for a 35mm f/1.9.

If you want a 35mm lens to use for general-purpose photography faster than f/2.8, this is not the one to pick. The wide-open look is appealing, but too distinctive. Wide open, this is for shooting scenes where the word "dreamy" applies.

Comments:

Overall, a lens that grows on you. Yeah, you need to be careful how you use it near wide open, but it is fuly capable of making crisp images when stopped down. It's really not a low-light lens at all.