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Vivitar MC Macro Focusing Zoom 28-70mm F3.4 or F3.5-4.8 Review RSS Feed

Vivitar MC Macro Focusing Zoom 28-70mm F3.4 or F3.5-4.8

Sharpness 
 8.7
Aberrations 
 7.9
Bokeh 
 8.1
Handling 
 7.3
Value 
 10.0
Reviews Views Date of last review
7 61,579 Mon March 25, 2024
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
100% of reviewers $26.33 8.57
Vivitar MC Macro Focusing Zoom 28-70mm F3.4 or F3.5-4.8
supersize


Description:
This is a manual focus standard kit type zoom lens. Can be found as f3.5- (pic) and f3.4- versions. The serial number starting with 9 indicates that it was made by Cosina, in the 1980's, and also for other brand-names like Minolta, Miranda, Praktikar and others.
The Pentax version is typically PKA mount. Specs for f3.4 version, f3.5 version may be different.

Focal length: 28-70mm
Weight: 365g
Optical design: 9 elements in 8 groups
Mount: Pentax K (PK) but can also be found with other mounts.
Aperture: f/3.4-4.8 to f/22, 6 bladed aperure
Covers: Standard 35mm film size (24×36 mm negative)
Closest Focus: About 0.35m (1.1ft)
Filter Size: 52mm (rotating)

Cosina also made a constant f4 aperture version with a 62mm filter thread, and in a constantly shifting market there were probably other variants produced under a variety of marques.
Mount Type: Pentax KA
Price History:



Add Review of Vivitar MC Macro Focusing Zoom 28-70mm F3.4 or F3.5-4.8
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New Member

Registered: June, 2017
Posts: 15
Review Date: March 25, 2024 Recommended | Price: $10.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Inexpensive, lightweight, well made, good IQ, useful range
Cons: Non-constant aperture - so consider auto-bracketing
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 7    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 10    Value: 10    Camera Used: Film full frame and APS-DSLR   

I paid £6.50 in March 2024 on UK EBay for mine, with postsge it cost a total of £8.40 GBP, so about $/€ 10. It is a Cosina made version (serial number starts 9...).


On my APS DSLR I get a useful 42-127.5mm equivalent range lens. On my film cameras I get a perfect "single kit lens zoom" that is good for 95% of my photographs.

Mechanics
  • My copy is smooth for zoom, focus and aperture - and has no zoon creep.


IQ

  • Sharpness is good. Contrast and colour is slightly lower than my 18-55 but both can be boosted in processing without much trouble. As with other Vivitars that I have, these have a blue green propensity from the multicoating - slightly suppressing red/yellow. Auto white balance fixes this, and a "Skylight 1B" filter works on film (so I tend to leave on a 1B filter as both colour correction and protection).
  • At F3.5 and wide there is a stop of vignette. At the telephoto lens end you loose a stop of light because of the variable aperture. This means problems with JPEGs unless you watch the auto exposure corrections, tweak in processing or shoot a bracketed sequence (bracketing is my favourite in any high contrast/difficult exposure situation).
  • As with all older "kit zooms" there is some mild barrel distortion at wide and pincushion at tele - but it is even across the frame so easy to correct.
  • The centre is sharp at f3.5, at F8 on an APS DSLR it is very good overall
  • There is veiling flare at 85mm with side lighting - some people like the look for "creative portraits" but a judicious hand to shade the bright light or a lens hood works wonders in restoring contrast (I use those inexpensive 3-position rubber lens hoods as they cope with the zoom range and protect the lens front well).
  • ON an APS DSLR at 85mm and set at 3.5 (F4.8 in reality, and the FF "equivalent" of F7.3 for DoF) the depth of field for a head and shoulders portrait at around 2.5m distance from the camera is 8cm infront and behind of the focus point - with good bokeh in the out of focus areas.
    • Adding a kick of flash weighted at 1/8 to 1/4 of the total exposure helps separate the image and adds catchights without creating harsh shadows - making this a useful portrait lens if you haven't got a 50mm F1.7 lens handy, even if you are using just a pop-up flash.
  • At the frame edges in high contrast images (branches against skies) there is about 1-2 pixels of chromatic aberration - it is not visible on 6x4 or 7x5 prints - but if you plan to pixel peep on screens then it is classic magenta/green and autocorrects well in my DXO software.


This lens is small, light and shares the 52mm filters with most of my lenses - AF or manual. With my Vivitar 19mm F3.8 lens and a F1.7 50mm I get a very small 3 lens manual set to use when I want to challenge myself by taking control and leave my AF lenses behind. I grew up with film cameras and still use mine when I can find and justify the cost of using film - so using manual lenses on a DSLR with manual exposure control is a good way to keep my hand in and avoid losing my hard-learned skills without the cost/inconvenience of film! Given the recent price falls for secondhand older 6-10MP CCD sensor era DSLRs - you can justify getting a whole system just to keep you "in training for film"! (I got one recently for £25 GBP - with an AF 18-55mm lens included!)

DSLR - focus confirmation is good in bright light for all settings, and at the tele' end in low light, while at the wide angle end this fails in dull light - I have a pentaprism and big finder on both DSLR and film cameras so this may be worse for those with daker pentamirror viewfinder cameras.

The posterior lens element on this 28-85 mm lens is easy to reach, unscrew and clean - this can be critical for IQ as this last element has a disproportionate impact on IQ as it is very small diameter lens and lies very close to the APS sensor and is just behind the aperture blades so often collects haze from vapourised lubricant from the aperture mechanism and magnifies it (this is a 30+ year old lens). That haze is hard to see with the naked eye but a clean of the inner surface of that part of the lens with isopropyl alcohol seems to improve the IQ on every secondhand wideangle film-era lens I have bought. NB - the impact is a lot less on telephoto lenses as the geometry is different, but still worth investigating. On wideangles this has taken lenses fron a 3-4/10 rating to an 8/9 score many times for me. Just make sure to rethread the element carefully and check that you are not "off centred" when you reassemble.


So for the price I paid this is a 10-star lens; but even ignoring the costs I say this is a surprisingly good buy. Yes a non-variable aperture zoom with an F2.8 setting would be better - but those lenses were always expensive, are hard to find today, and are big and heavy - in which case I would not be using them and would just use my 18-55m AF zoom which has great IQ.

I normally buy the line that 1980-90s zoom lenses aren't worth getting - concentrating on primes instead - but I have to say that this lens is a pleasing exception to that rule.

If you can't yet afford some AF lenses, or want a way of recreating a 1990s film camera experience to maintain camera skills, then I rate this as an excellent buy and won't be selling mine on or giving it away anytime soon!
   
New Member

Registered: September, 2020
Location: Victoria, British Columbia
Posts: 2

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: September 21, 2020 Recommended | Price: $38.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Sharp, Light Weight, Inexpensive, No zoom creep
Cons: None yet
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 7    Value: 10   

This copy was very close to new. Original box and packing. Maybe why no zoom creep on a lens noted for same.
I use the Fuji X-E1 camera and I was looking for a quality light weight legacy full frame zoom for to use in APS-C format for a light weight carry-around to travel with a (sharp) M42 Zeiss Jena 24mm (155 grams) on Speed Booster. When I don't want to carry a full range of Topcor lenses this arrangement gives me a 26mm plus a 43-105mm focal length. The all up camera/lens weight with this range of focal lengths comes in at 1150 grams (2 lb. 8 oz.). Perfect for light carry.
I tested the 28-70 (as a 43mm to 105mm) out in the garden (first try out). Very close in. f5.6. slight crop in PP.
   
Site Supporter

Registered: May, 2015
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 892

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: March 2, 2017 Recommended | Price: $20.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Surprisingly sharp, K-A mount.
Cons: Zoom creep, not a good looking lens.
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 8    Value: 10    Camera Used: K-5   

Having seen an earlier reviewer of this lens post an image of bee and flower that I thought was too good to be true, I saw this lens on Ebay being sold with a Pentax MG.
I succumbed and bid, if the lens was anywhere near as good as it had to be to produce that image, it was going to be a great buy.
The lens is rather sharp! Stopped down a bit.
I have not been impressed by Cosina made zooms before but have to say that I like this one a lot.
A few images taken and compared to other manual zooms I have show it to be well worth having.

The bad points to this lens are perhaps specific to my copy, they are zoom creep, so many older zooms exhibit this so not unexpected, on this zoom it occurs between the 50 and 70mm focal lengths.
On my copy the lens mounts my K-5 with a slightly graunchy feel, this is probably due to the Ricoh pin but it did not give any problem (like locking into the AF drive).

Wide open the bokeh can exhibit some swirly effects with light sources. Not to Helios 44-2 standards but it is a not really ugly. (To me anyway).

Good lens at a good price if you like the older manual lenses. Would I pay more than 30 bucks for it? Probably not but others may be happy paying more.
   
New Member

Registered: September, 2014
Posts: 14
Review Date: September 12, 2014 Recommended | Price: $30.00 | Rating: 6 

 
Pros: Build, Design, Price, Focal Range
Cons: Zooming is a bit stiff, Color rendition, Sharpness
Sharpness: 7    Aberrations: 6    Bokeh: 5    Handling: 1    Value: 10    Camera Used: Canon EOS 60D with adapter and Pentax P30n   

Definitely good value, but the macro mode is nothing to write home about and can be fiddly sometimes. Design is nice and build quality is as well. Nice and cheap with a good crop sensor focal range.

The zoom is incredibly stiff and is my main complaint with this lens, when you zoom it and out it is jittery and inconsistent in movement when a nice lens would be buttery and constant.

Color rendition is average but nothing of SMC Pentax quality for sure but it is still multicoated so that helps. Sharpness is average, it is what I would expect from an average zoom at this price. And aberrations like this were to be expected.

It's a shame this lens is so mediocre because it is annoyingly my lens in the best condition at the moment until I buy some new shiny primes in a week or two.

Good value for a mediocre zoom I just wouldn't go above $30
   
Veteran Member

Registered: July, 2014
Location: Nagoya
Posts: 577

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: July 24, 2014 Recommended | Price: $35.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Sharp! Fairly light, easy to use, inexpensive.
Cons: Really can't complain for what it is.
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 8    Camera Used: Miranda MS-3, Pentax Me Super, Olympus E-510   

This lens came with a Miranda MS-3 my girlfriend bought in a charity shop to give to me because she knows I like old cameras. An 80s zoom lens with a metal and plastic construction never leaves one expecting much, but when I got to trying the lens I was amazed by its sharpness on both film and digital. A hood is recommended but colours and contrast are generally good and it's almost up there with a good standard prime for IQ. Macro mode is good and certainly allowed me to get close enough to all the dust on my Taron Auto EE...
Very, very impressed by this one.



   
New Member

Registered: November, 2013
Posts: 14
Review Date: February 21, 2014 Recommended | Price: $25.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: very sharp lens
Cons: very few CA's
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 10    Handling: 10    Value: 10    Camera Used: MZ5,Z20,MZ10,sfx, K-s1, k-x. k-5; fuji x-e1 + x-t100   

Much more brigther than 18-55

++ nice contrast,

++ very fine color rendition

++ really very sharp, even in the corners

+ very low CAs in the corners

suitable for close-ups, too, but not a special extreme macro lens

one of my best wide angle-small tele zooms fot pertraits and landscapes

*****************************************************************************************************

VERY IMPORTANT: modern zooms of his range are not so good corrected in the corners

*****************************************************************************************************

very good centered optics

nearly perfect - one of my best lenses - full recommendation
   
Veteran Member

Registered: April, 2010
Location: California
Posts: 484

3 users found this helpful
Review Date: December 27, 2012 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Sharp, cheap, compact, A-setting, full metal build
Cons: Zoom creep, not that fast, rotating front element, some barrel distortion at the wide end
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 7    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 7   

This lens does not have the reputation of the coveted early Series 1 lenses, but apart from its bad zoom creep, I find it very decent. The A-setting of my copy did not work properly anymore, so I opened it and some superglue did the trick for fixing the stop-down actuator. The lens has eight aperture blades, is sharp, produces a nice and smooth bokeh and renders beautiful colors, so I'm glad I managed to fix it. I did notice some moderate barrel distortion at the wide end on APS-C, so I would not necessarily recommend it for architecture shots. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to use on my full-frame Pentax MV of old. Now on APS-C, it no longer gives me a wide angle view, but considering it allowed me to take shots like these, I should probably use it more often.


Incoming by Ludger Solbach, on Flickr
Add Review of Vivitar MC Macro Focusing Zoom 28-70mm F3.4 or F3.5-4.8



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