I have had this lens in my possession since 1994 or 1995, bought in St. Albans from the old photo supplies shop of Mr. Totteridge. His small shop was my delight and I visited him many times, when living in the nearby Watford. Of course, the shop does not exists anymore, sadly. Good memories, good times.
This Vivitar 28-200mm f3.5-5.3 MC lens in OM mount was meant to supplement my (meagre at the time) lens kit for my OM2n and OM1; apart from the ubiquitous 50/1.8 prime, I only had the 75-150/3.5 in my bag. So I decided this Vivitar was the one I was missing from the flock so I splurged on whatever the cost was. don’t remember.
Pretty heavy, but for me was all right; I seem to recall that stopped down, it was pretty sharp, but the results were not was not always up to par the other way around. At 3.5 aperture, up to f8, everything was sharp. The distortion became apparent when going over, at f16 and 22, from 50 to 135, again, if I remember this correctly. Soft-ish images from f16 upwards, but do not quote me om that, for it is quite a long time since I used this lens.
Good close focusing at 1.1m, when extended to 200mm; this I remember impressed the newbie that I was at that time. No flaring that I remember of, but I was discovering that a good lens hood goes a long way, so I had one of those for this lens (72mm). It didn’t like to be pointed at strong sun, but what lens likes that?
A good selection of apertures and I have never felt I am missign a shot because of the 3.5 max aperture. Overall, I would say a good and decent lens for an OM camera, albeit heavy and somewhat bulky. But this is a vintage lens, so why comparing it with newer ones? Haven’t used it much in the last 20 yrs, it just sat silent in my cabinet. I need to put it to good use again.
I am glad that the lens creeping is not a real issue with it, although it does happen for the barrel to slide unaided, if I point the lens downwards. Just to be comfortable, I will put a few very thin strips of Gorilla Glass tape; that’ll fix the slight creep of the barrel.