Vivitar 135mm f/2.3 Series 1

This M42 forum has been pretty dead of late, so I'll report out on one of my recent acquisitions; the Vivitar 135mm Series 1. This one is a very early lens, probably made in the first couple of weeks of production in 1975. There is no multi-coating, or VMC as Vivitar called it. I have been searching for this lens for quite some time and finally found an affordable opportunity. In M42, it often sells in the $175 to $200 range.

I also have the 90mm and 200mm Series 1 lenses, both of which I like very much. This lens seems to be known for great bokeh in addition to being sharp and fast. I've taken a series of test pictures just around the yard as I'm too lazy to go anywhere. I find that the lens has blue fringing, just like the longer 200mm. The vast majority of my pictures to date have been at or very near fully open. So when you view the pictures below, they are likely between f/2.3 and f/4. There have only been a couple at smaller aperture and you may notice them yourselves. I don't keep records of the aperture used and my memory stinks.

Just like the 200mm, it requires precise attention to focus. I have not yet gotten the sharpness I expect at close up, but there is evidence that it is indeed sharp when focus and aperture are right. What surprised me is that it appears very sharp at longer length, while most lenses do very well close up and fall off at length.

I'm posting a series of photos that I hope demonstrate the lens performance at different lengths and backgrounds. Please tell me what you think of the bokeh, color, contrast, etc. Most are slightly cropped, but the deer shot is at 50%. The deer shot also still has the blue fringing as I thought it gave the flowers more color and character.

nice work with the lens, and good job focusing on the squirrel shots.

i had looked for one of these in the past. it seems to be the best pick of the manual focus wide-aperture 135s, as far as i can tell. all the faster ones tend to be riddled with abberations, and the slower ones are, well, slower.

actually, looking a bit more carefully now. the second squirrel shot shows some very heavy purple fringing on the bark. is it a crop of the image, or the whole thing?

gillbod: That squirrel picture is a 33%crop. I have removed the purple and reloaded the image; it may take a few refreshes before you'll see the updated image here. You will see the purple/blue in the deer shot - not just the flowers, but her nose as well. I had mentioned the fringing as a problem with this lens and the 200mm Series 1 I have. The 200mm is worse and takes more stopping down than does this one. It appears to go away with this lens with just a few clicks. This lens doesn't have the VMC and I don't have a UV filter for it yet. Also, I wonder if my image sensor might be prone to the fringing. I've seen uncorrected images from a Canon and 200mm Series 1 with none to minimal fringing; a whole lot better than mine.

Grey: Please let me know when you have some pictures as it might help answer my question about the sensor's role in the fringing.

Makes perfect sense, skm.sa100. I must still be in the film mentality where I'm worried about wasting film. I usually take a couple shots, refocusing each time, but your approach is much better.

Glad to see that my technique works for you. I've found that this works in a lot of cases, the exceptions being kids and sports. And one needs to be crazy or extremely talented to use an MF lens for either of these.
Due to the very shallow DOF, the above picture initially looked soft. Then I looked at the tender end of the leaf and it looks perfectly in focus.
I must commend you for attempting to put the two guys at the top left OOF.
Enjoy the great lens that you have.

Just trying to breath life into this forum. Here's some from today...