Sharp, contrasty and reasonable price.

Distortion at the extreme wide angle end.

A decent lens for the money, the distortion was not all that noticeable when shoting, but was pretty obvious and somewhat bothersome on enlargements of group shots. I use my Kiron for most of those shots now, and have sold my S1 lens. The rest of the range vacated in my bag by getting rid of this lens is now covered by the MD 35-70 and A Sigma Zoom flanking each end of the line. I use Minolta Manual focus cameras.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Minolta MD 35-70 f3.5 fixed, Tokina 28-70 f3.5-4.5 SZX, Kiron 28mm f/2.0

- Well built
- Sharp and clear pictures
- Cheap!!!

May be it isn't the best 28mm you can use but it is quite good for the most of us.

I cant say that this is better or not than a Canon 28-70 L but I could say that I have not found any big difference at the final results, OK, the 28-70L has one of the most advanced focusing systems but, if you are good at MF...
This lense is really cheap and since I had it I have stop using my 24mm and my 135mm (only in situations where I need the short focusing disance of the 24mm, focus at 19cm, or the 30mm more of my 135mm, but usually it doesn't happens).
Listen this: you know that Vivitar its just a "labeller", they dont make any lense just buy third-parties, well, if you want this lense for less money buy the Cosina 28-105mm f:2.8-3.8 ITS THE SAME LENSE!!! 72mm Accesory size, same ligh, same lenses / groups (15/13), just look a picture and check that the only one difference its on the label. Cosina strikes again! Cheap, nice, well built and wonderful lense for the best price you can found!!! (What do you think I have buyed? ah, ah...)
P.S.: The macro function works right well!

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 35-70 f:2.8-4
Canon 28-70L on an EOS 1V