Pentax M 135 mm / 3.5 vs. Vivitar Series 1 135 m / 2.3

[knyghtfall81]

Managed to pick up the Viv S1 135 mm / 2.3 to try out, and went out to test it out over the weekend. I packed in the Pentax M 135mm/3.5 to see how the two compared.

I did take a coupla shots of (almost) the same picture, just to see how they turned out. The results are as below, which I corrected for contrast (seems to be a problem for non - A lens), but not for colour saturation or sharpness. Shots on the K20D, stored in jpeg direct.

Test shot 1 - Green trees.
Both lenses did not do that well here - the lighting was quite harsh, and there was a bit of flare. Nonetheless, the VivS1 seemed a tad sharper at f8.

M at f8


Viv S1 at f8


Here are the cropped images for comparison:

M 135


Viv S1

[knyghtfall81]

Test shot 2 - Night concert

In this shot, the M lens outperforms the VivS1 in terms of sharpness apparently - though I suspect this may be because of better contrast control due to the M's SMC coating. shots below for your own judgement. Both at f8 as well, on tripod. The colours on the Viv S1 is warmer as I put a skylight filter on it, the M lens has a UV filter on.

M lens


Viv S1



Crops:

M lens


Viv S1

[knyghtfall81]

And finally, just some images from the Viv S1