A Tale of Two Lenses

I must confess, I have a liking for older lenses. In the main they seem to be more robust in construction and generally less complex in construction.

Whilst browsing the web I came across various references to Kiron lenses and their history of manufacturing lenses for other companies, this got my attention!

A large number of early Series 1 and other Vivitar lenses were produced by Kiron, sometimes these lenses were jointly designed by Kiron and Vivitar and subsequently sold by both brands with slight variations in their appearance to differentiate them.

What is less well publicised is that Kiron also manufactured the Series E lenses for Nikon, these lenses were made exclusively to Nikon’s own design specifications and not sold under any other brand name.

Not long ago whilst browsing a well known auction site! I spotted a Kiron 70 – 150mm lens at a very good price, so I bought it. Ok so it had an Olympus OM lens mount, not a problem since I have amongst my camera collection an Olympus OM film body. A quick message to my good friend Mark and I now had the loan of his Nikon Series E 75 -150mm lens to enable me to perform a comparison. Next problem was could OM mount be adapted for use on a Nikon DSLR and the answer to that is not easily. A slight setback! Never mind back to the auction site and lo and behold a Vivitar 70 -150 lens with a Nikon F mount, needless to say I purchased that quickly. Now I could do a proper comparison between the two lenses.

After a couple of preliminary tests I noticed something odd with regards to the colour balance, so I started looking for another brand of  70-150mm lens to provide another set of grey target images for comparison. As a result I obtained a Hoya 70-150mm f3.8 with a Pentax K mount. Incidentally, whilst Hoya did not manufacture lenses, they did make glass used within the lens They were (and still are) one of the largest producers of optical glass in Japan.

Lenses from left to right – Nikon 75-150mm, Vivitar 70-150mm, Kiron 70-150mm, Hoya 70-150mm

Specifications

                                                       Nikon                                                  Kiron/Vivitar                                                               Hoya

Focal Length                   75 – 150mm  one touch zoom                  70 -150mm  one touch zoom                                     70 – 150mm one touch zoom

Construction                   12 elements in 9 groups                           15 elements in 10 groups                                            12 elements in 9 groups

Aperture Range              f3.5 – f32                                                      f4 (Kiron)  f3.8 (Vivitar) – f22                                      f3.8 – f22

Focus Range                   1m – Infinity                                                0.9m (macro) – Infinity                                                1.5m – Infinity

Filter Size                        52mm                                                            52mm                                                                             55mm

Weight                            520g                                                               585g                                                                                481g

Length                            117mm                                                           97mm                                                                             127mm

 

Worth noting- Nikon lens has depth of field markings, but no infra red adjustment; whereas the other three lenses only have infra red adjustment markings

Testing Procedure

The Nikon and Vivitar lenses were attached to a Nikon D800 body mounted on a Manfrotto 190 tripod, shutter actuated by remote control to eliminate movement. ISO set to 100, daylight balance, zero exposure adjustment, matrix metering, camera set to aperture priority and images recorded in Raw.

A series of exposures were made from f3.5 (f3.8 Vivitar) to f22 and at 75mm to 150mm for the Nikon lens and 70mm to 150mm for the Vivitar lens.

In the case of the grey target tests, camera distance was changed when the lenses were zoomed to maximum to ensure the target remained a similar size.

Out of interest I wanted to compare both the Kiron and Vivitar variations against the Nikon and Hoya lenses – so I purchased an adapter to enable me to put the OM mount Kiron lens on my Fuji X-T1 body (I already own  Nikon F to Fuji and  Pentax K to Nikon F adapters) For the grey test the settings used were as before, the only exception being that the ISO was set at 200- this is the base ISO for the X-T1.

All images taken were viewed in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw on a colour calibrated monitor.

Results

The first thing that I noticed when comparing initial tests was that the Vivitar lens produced a more yellow image. This led me to the purchase of the Hoya 70 – 150mm lens to provide an additional reference point. When comparing all 4 lenses in Adobe Camera Raw, I made a spot colour check at the same quadrant on the grey target. Both the Nikon and Hoya lenses gave a near even RGB reading, whereas both Kiron made lenses showed a dip in the blue values.

I tested both Nikon and Vivitar for full frame sharpness and coverage – photographs of the local pier were taken at 70mm and 150mm at all full apertures from f3.5 / f3.8 to f22.

Both lenses exhibited obvious vignetting in the corners at full aperture, reducing at f5.6 and gone at f8 to minimum aperture.

Sharpness was quite a mixed bag – at 70mm both lenses were soft on the edges at full aperture, sharpening up at f8 and starting to drop off at f16. Centre of frame results showed the Nikon lens again being soft a full aperture, sharpening up by f8 and dropping off by f16, the Vivitar however was sharp by f5.6 but again dropping off at f16. One worrying issue was the fact that at full aperture the Vivitar lens a substantial amout of flare in the highlights, once the lens was stopped down to f5.6 this had cleared.

Vivitar 70-150 at 70mm

Nikon 75-150 at 75mm

Flare on Vivitar lens at 70mm at f3.8

The 150mm setting tests gave some very strange results indeed.

The Nikon displayed serious red fringing at f3.5, this cleared by f8. In terms of sharpness the lens was a little soft at the edges wide open, improving at f5.6, peaking at f11 but starting to drop off at f16 and f22.

The Vivitar lens was soft at the edges at f3.8, this improved, peaking at f8 and then gradually dropping off to f22.

Vignetting was similar to that with both lenses at 70/75mm in that it was noticable at full aperture and again reducing at f5.6 and clearing completely by f8.

Vivitar 70-150 at 150mm

Nikon 75-150 at 150mm

Red fringing on Nikon lens at 150mm at f3.5

The 4 lens test

Obviously, using the four lenses on a DX sized sensor as fitted to the Fuji X-T1, vignetting was not an issue – I was more interested in the variations in colour balance and sharpness.

As previously discussed, both the Kiron and Vivitar lenses displayed a yellow cast, the Nikon lens was the most neutral and the Hoya lens somewhere in between.

                                                 Kiron 70-150mm                                                                                                             Vivitar 70-150mm

                                           Nikon 75-150mm                                                                                                               Hoya 70-150mm

In terms of sharpness the Nikon was a fraction sharper than the other three lenses – who were equal in sharpness, although the difference would not be a deal breaker. Interestingly, when used on the Fuji X-T1, the Nikon lens appeared to produce overexposed images at the 75mm end of the zoom range – but correctly exposed a the 150mm end.

Kiron at 70mm

Vivitar at 70mm

Nikon at 70mm

Nikon at 150mm

Hoya at 70mm

Sample images

Nikon 75-150mm at f8 with adjustments made to highlights and shadows

Vivitar 70-150mm at f8 with adjustments made to highlights and shadows

Conclusion

Although three of the lenses were produced by the same manufacturer, there are differences – as previously mentioned  there is a variation in stated maximum aperture between the Kiron and Vivitar lenses, although in practical terms it is unnoticeable. Both Kiron and Vivitar lenses have half stop clicks between maximum aperture and f16 and full stop to f22, whilst both Nikon and Hoya lenses have clicks a full stops only. All the lenses feel well built, however the Nikon lens suffers from zoom slip (it is a well known issue with this particular lens) this could be down to the lens being made to a price, although this takes nothing away from the optical quality of the lens. Whilst the Kiron and Vivitar have ‘macro’ setting, this is no more than close focus, although at 0.9metres it is hardly close focus, the Nikon focuses down to 1 metre and the Hoya brings up the rear at 1.5 metres. In terms of size and weight both the Nikon and Hoya lenses are longer and yet lighter than the Kiron and Vivitar.

The all important question is which lens to buy? On price alone the Nikon Series E lens nearly always cost noticeably more than the other three lenses, but colour balance and general build is close to Nikkor lenses if loyalty to manufacturer is an important factor, although the strange red fringing was a little worrying. Also worth noting is that third party Nikon F mount manual focus lenses are not as plentiful as other camera brands. The yellow cast with the Kiron/Vivitar duo can be easily corrected in post processing, although if taking photographs on transparency film the cast will be more obvious. It really is a case take your pick, any of these lenses will give you good results once stopped down a little.