Legacy Lens - 20mm F 3.8 Vivitar

Vivitar A7 with and adapted Sony A7

I had a few false starts in making some sample images using one of my a film-era legacy lens on my Sony A7. Be assured that no works of art resulted from this effort, although I did shoot one assignment for the paper with this across-the-century lens and camera combination. The three street images in t his post were made with a Vivitar 20mm F 3.8 lens. Trust me, nothing here would win me a Pulitzer. 

Possible Inspiration: It's odd that I've always looked at this particular Vivitar lens and felt as though there was something familiar about its focal length, outsized objective lens, and maximum aperture. After reminiscing a few moments, a word crossed my lips: Flektogon.

I remember reading in a photographic magazine (We subscribed to both Popular Photography and Modern Photography) about the Carl Zeiss Jena 20mm F 4.0 super-wide angle lens. I specifically remember the CZJ "zebra" pattern of the focusing ring, which featured bands of brightly polished metal alternating with bands of black enamel grooves. Carl Zeiss Jena was the label that identified the lens as a product of East Germany. Both the label, and the zebra patterned focusing ring were familiar to me, as the first real 35mm camera I ever used was a Praktica, an East German camera that had a CZJ 50mm F 1.8 lens.

Source Posting: Click here.

In many ways that Praktica camera would influence my passion for photography. I "inherited" the camera from my sister when she upgraded to a Nikkormat FTn. I played with the camera until it stopped working and required a lengthy stay at the camera hospital because the importer was Hanimex, the Australian company that handled the repairs. While waiting for its return, I started using my father's Mamiya Flex, a fully manual camera that used spool-to-spool 120 roll film. This proved to be a major challenge, and after learning how to extrapolate the readings from a Weston hand held light meter, I moved on to mastering flash, initially using flash bulbs and culminating with the mastering of the cumbersome but powerful Glaflex Strobomatic 500 flash I borrowed for the City College of San Francisco Photo Department. I remember keeping meticulous notes about my exposures and flash settings because roll film was expensive. The learning process was a slog, but I felt well worth the struggle. But I digress.

These photos were meant to show an exaggerated perspective of a super wide lens. So far as the performance of the lens-body combination, it seems to work quite well. Frankly, it's more fun to use the lens not knowing its sharpness compares with my more modern Fuji and Nikkor lenses. When ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, or a pixel-peeper, as the case may be.

More will follow.