I've been looking at 28's recently. Nice timing. Note that the Vivitar serial numbers tell you the manufacturer. the first two digits - this one is a 22 - so bade by Kino. Vivitar Subcontracted Lens Makers (1st two digits of serial number) 6 Olympus 9 Cosina 13 Schneider Optik 22 Kino (aka Kiron) 25 Ozone Optical 28 Komine 32 Makinon 33 Asanuma 37 Tokina 42 Bauer 44 Perkin Elmer (US) 47 Chinon 51 Tokyo Trading 56 Kyoe Schoji 75 Hoya Optical 81 Polar Cheers - keep up the good work. Much appreciated.

I always learn something from your reviews. Thanks for posting.

Always enjoy these! Going to look for that little Olympus.

It is so much more pleasant for me to listen to a cultured British voice than to any American speaking, I notice that again & again. Thank you for sharing your photography knowledge.

Hello Nigel, thanks a lot for the effort you put in your videos! Yes, the 28 mils are nice street photography lenses. For that purpose I like the Minolta MD Rokkor 3.5/28 mm very much. A few days ago I purchased one via eBay from Japan in top mint condition. Best wishes Ralf

I have four of the five lenses you review here. The only one I don't have is the Zuiko. Might have to get it! I always enjoy your videos and your insights. Keep up the good work.

Top notch as usual, Nigel! Not much of a wide shooter myself but got lucky with a Beroflex 28mm f/2.8 MC for 15€. It’s just a generic M42 lens from a low budget East-German brand, but made by CimKo in Japan, great coatings and sharp as a knife! Still getting used to that wide angle though.

Minolta 28mm f2.5 blur monster!!! Always love this thing ❤

I just bout my first wide angle lens, the Pentax-DA 15mm F4 ED AL Limited (green band) and could not be happier. I managed to win an online auction for an equivalent of about 160 British Pounds. They usually go for much more. Cannot wait for the weather to clear up so that I can use it to it's full potential. The star-like flare it produces are just amazing.

I wasn't old during camera companies shifted into autofocus models and brought simultaneously new "futuristic" design to their lenses (and camera bodies). I couldn't ever grow to accept new aesthetics as beautiful and still share Nigel's admiration of his Olympus 35mm. At least those new Chinese companies have revived some retro joy to lens design while big ones are pushing their bureaucratic looking performance monsters.

jupiter-12 35mm f/2.8 deserves a look.

Do you do anything with your photos other than show them here? Your suburban street photography is very unusual and I can imagine in decades to come will provide a valuable record.

Thank you for another preach dear lens wizard!

I have a Minolta rokkor MD 28mm f2.5 that is wonderful that's and reasonable priced

The canon fd series is definitely worth checking out!

thanks as always♥

Lydith was my first vintage lens (and my second lens after Olympus 14-42 kit lens), now, after almost 300 vintage lenses, it's still with me and i still love to use it :) btw. speaking of wide angles, i would really like to see your comparison between Mir-1 and Flektogon 35/2.8

yashica 28mm 2,8 is a good bargain and renders black and white beautiful on fuji

I like to play with my konica 28mm f1.8 it has really close focusing. Neet little lens that I will never let go of. I also have acquired a Zeiss 35mm f2 Distagon several months ago. I have been working with this lens and it's growing on me.

I have the 28mm and pretty great. If you are on APS-C or MFT, then the zuiko pen-f 38mm and 25mm are also great and still reasonably priced (the 20mm is lovely, but hard to get a good one at a sane price). I mostly try and use wide angles for "subject separation", if you get in close, everything else gets pushed back into the distance (hence I prefer the classic 28mm to 35mm, I find 28mm is as wide as I like before things just look silly).

Nice to see that back wall perked up. By the way, I got lucky in getting a Laoma 9mm 2.8 for Fuji at a super low price. But it didn't take long to realize I needed to turn off continuous ibis on my X-H1 and leave it on shoot only. Continuous makes the ibis go wild! (and yes, I set the lens mount setting to 9mm) A challenging lens like no other. Each shot is a problem to be solved.

What a coincidence, Nigel, I've just bought on Ebay auction, a Meyer Lydith 30mm f3.5 in Exa mount for £20. Looking forward to using it on my Exa 1a, as well as digitally.

Nigel I own a number of Samyang/ Rokinon wide angle lenses a Rokinon 20mm 1.8 , 14mm2.8 and a 8mm3.5 fisheye all are chipped so I set the aperture through the camera. The only downside they are Manuel focus but it has never been a problem in usage. I use the 20 mm 1.8 for low light and street photography, the 14mm 2.8 for astrophotography and wide angle shots and the 8 mm3-5 for close up wide angle like up close up on church's outside and inside and town squares

I hope for more videos to come especially about less known and unconventional lenses

I do have the Canon lens, out of these five. It's very nice for general work, though I prefer my Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8 for astrophotography, for it's a bit sharper in the corners and has the usual wonderful Pentax color rendition. Still, I should use the Canon more often. I've come to love my Sigma 28mm f/2.8 "Mini-Wide II" for close-up shots. It'll do 1:4.5 "macro" which just about right for getting shots of food at a restaurant while leaving some of the surrounding environment visible as well. It'll make the background as blurry as you like- but it does flare somewhat nastily if there's a very bright light in or near the image frame.

Great video as always. I don't seem to get on with 28s. Maybe I just haven't found one that I like. 35s are my preference for outdoors portraits and I have 3 favourites:- Jupiter 12, it's a very flawed lens but when stopped down a little, and with the sun just out of the frame, it makes the best flare that I've ever seen. It won't fit on many cameras but it's fine with Leica rangefinders and the Sony A7. It's possibly the best bargain out there if you like to make very stylized images. Leica Summicron R 35 f2, version 1. It focuses in a very strange way that I'm not capable of describing but it makes subjects pop like no other lens that I've ever used. It has its critics but I think that's mainly from measurebators who like charts and brick walls and don't understand an art lens. Schneider electric 35. It's still fairly new to me but it is just a really capable lens with no quirks to speak of - similar to a CZJ but slightly better in my opinion.

23:41 I've got a Pentacon branded 50 1.8 with "electric" on the front. It's got 3 tiny spring loaded contacts on the lens mount (M42) which presumably impart some useful piece of information to a suitably equipped camera.

I have the Flektogon 35mm f2.4 and the Pentacon 30mm f3.5. Both great lenses. My flektogon is paired with a Sony A99 and has the "electric" stamped on the lens. Amazing focus control on it. I also have the Asahi Pentax 35mm f2.8 and the 28mm f3.5. They also perform well too and are both of the Super Multi Coated version. I also have an Auto Chinon 28mm f2.8 and only paid £25 for it. Not as sharp as the others, but certainly a bargain.

hi. i had a thought. i have this penF lens fixed to a Fuji Xpro3 which is very good, but the frame is a bit tight as with the micro four thirds it does from 38mm to about 50, which is like a portrait. I wonder if there is an adapter that would neutralise the crop factor, that i could take with me to have more options during a photoshoot. This would be a way to get a wide and a portrait from one lens, but i don't know if the adapter exists. ..

I have the Lydith. Nice lens. Also Sigma mini-wide 28/2.8 - wonderful. And Unitor (who?) 35/2.8 - clean and sharp. Things get wider from there on.

That Vivitar produces amazing flares if you are a little adventurous!

Canon FD and FL lenses are nice. The FL's are nice looking all metal with great image quality.

I have an apsc sensor, any recomendation on 17-20ish mm? I want an 28mm equv.

Does anyone know if the Pentacon 30mm F3.5 is the same optical design as the Meyer-Optik Lydith?

Back in the early '70s I bought an M42 fit lydith for around £9.99 if I remember from Jessop's . Bought a converter to adapt it to the original Miranda M44 fitting and also used it ( without adapter) on my Fujica ST605. . I still regret selling it as it was really great for close ups of plants and flowers when I used the much lamented Kodachrome 25 & 64 slide film..

The Vivitar lens was made by Kiron based on the 22 serial number. If you google vivitar serial numbers you will be able to identify the lens maker. For example 37 I believe is Tokina.

To my knowledge there was no silver nose Olympus Zuiko 28mm f2.8, but only the f3,5 version. F2.8 version begun it production around 1980 I think. But to me fair, that older version is or should be a lot cheaper

I don't understand why English-Spanish subtitles are not enabled. Can that be solved? Thank you so much.

Your Vivitar 28mm f2. is made by Kiron serial number start with 22 . An other one isthe Vivitar 28mm f2 made by Komine serialstart with 28

I was strong until you showed the Lydith. Might have to SS about that one. Only Canon FD lens I kept was the little 35 2.8.

very nice ones :)

As to the flektagon -- those in Practica mount were dubbed "Practicar." But, it's the same lens.

What lens for this video

Thanks! - another very nice lens review. 👍

Debatable whether you class it as vintage (1991) but I just recieved my Pentax FA 28mm lens in the post this morning. I hadn't really planned on getting one but for £85 and in immaculate condition, it was too good a deal to miss, they're usually listed for at least double that.

Hi, i'm french and live in Brittany i visit all your vidéo, very interesting,great very nice 👍 i have some 35mm and 50mm Pentax vintage Lens and also one 135mm Tair lens, my camera is a Canon 6D i'm look in for another 35mm lens maybe the Carl zeiss distagon ze 35mm F2 or a flektogon 35mm f2.4 what you mind ?! Thanks and see you in a another vidéo

I recently bought vivitar 28mm 2.5. It's the most handsome lens I have but that is where my enthusiasm ends. On canon 6d I really don't like it. Soft below f5.6. I tried shooting landscape at all f stops and tree line is always muddy and soft. Like it cant get sharp for far away subjects. (It does focus to infinity. I checked.) Also vignetting is the worst I've ever seen. It's quite a bit better on a crop sensor though. Much less vignetting and it seems that center part can get sharp enough, even for apsc.

I almost always use a lens hood and a UV filter

I have an identical lens to the Lydith....without that name and it is a Pentacon by name... and undoubtably it's the same lens..... Nigel..

Hello, Why no Nikon lenses? Have you sold the Nikon Cameras. Thanks I appreciate your videos. Peace 🕊️

I like the set refurb,didn't like those spots on the wall,the picture is good or you could have got a tophat!

Another good place to look ( this is not a commercial break) could be Oxfam camera lenses.... you may get lucky...... Just saying Nigel.......... Hoooooo Haaaaaaa