New 85mm f/1.4 for about £250!?

[Joe]

Just interested to find out if anyone has experience of the Korean made lens sometimes badged as a Vivitar series 1, Polar, or other makes we've never heard of before?

A new 85mm f/1.4 lens for about £250 is going to tempt many, much cheaper than Nikkor,Zeiss and Canon equivalents (cheaper than s/h ones too....assuming you could find some)
fittings for Nikon,Canon,Pentax and Sony (tho all manual) look to be available

http://www.foto-tip.pl/sklep/product...08&language=en

It wouldn't be the first time a lens had been 'copied' by a far eastern manufacturer (the glass designs on net searches looks like the old zeiss design)

However, the saying "if it looks to good to be true......" rings a bell.....just interested to see what others think?

[Don Hoey]

Joe,

Out of interest I found a current thread on DPR ( discussion plus pics ) taken with this lens.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...hread=31403989

Don

[Joe]

Thanks Don.

My automatic assumptions that this lens might be a bit poor look to be proved wrong. From those on DPreview it sounds like its not that bad.
cheers

[sigmasd14]

Originally Posted by Joe

Just interested to find out if anyone has experience of the Korean made lens sometimes badged as a Vivitar series 1, Polar, or other makes we've never heard of before?

They are good lenses...In the States the most common brand name used for them is Rokinon and many people swear by them. Unlike the Zeiss 85mm f1.4 Planar T* they can be used wide open without CA or coma problems.

Originally Posted by Joe

A new 85mm f/1.4 lens for about £250 is going to tempt many, much cheaper than Nikkor,Zeiss and Canon equivalents (cheaper than s/h ones too....assuming you could find some)

For that price you could get a used Canon FD 85mm f1.2 L or FD 85mm f1.2 S.S.C aspherical. And there are'nt any 85mm lenses better than them.

[miketoll]

Interesting to see the Vivitar series I name show up again. In the late seventies or early eighties I bought a Vivitar series I 28-90 vari-focal (as opposed to zoom) lens for my Canon A1 FD mount camera. In those days Vivitar series I lenses were reckoned to be top drawer but the marque seemed to fade away and I presume the original company disappeared with the name bought up by the Korean company behind this lens. My lens was sharp, very well made, heavy and a bit slow to use due to having to manually refocus after every change of focal length. In the end I hardly ever used it.