Vivitar 135mm f2.8 vintage lens review

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 The lens is made of metal, it weighs around 420g, it is 83 to 100mm long and it has an external diameter of 64mm, with a 55mm front thread. It has a built in sunhood lined with opaque material. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22 with half steps. Below the aperture ring there’s an auto aperture switch for compatible cameras. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 280 degrees and the minimum focusing distance is 1.4m. This copy has an M42 mount with a flange distance of 45,46mm.


The lens feels very premium: solid and smooth. The aperture clicks are soft but with good resistance and I would have preferred the ring itself to be a little wider. The lens itself is front heavy so it can be a little uncomfortable on small cameras.


Sharpness wide open is good with plenty of detail, only falling off a little bit in the corners. By f8 it gets a little sharper. I can’t see any distortion. Chromatic aberration is present wide open, along with some blooming, but they quickly disappear by f4. Colors are a little cold with good contrast and saturation. Specular highlights can have hard edges but no artifacts and backgrounds are smooth. It is prone to flares and losing contrast when shooting towards a source of light.


This Vivitar feels great to use and image quality is overall very good.

The only weaknesses are CA and blooming wide open that can make it lose sharpness. I have been looking for a good telephoto for my film cameras and this might just be the one.

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