The Vivitar 19-35mm Series 1

When checking my stats at Flickr I can’t help but notice the number of hits certain of my photos have had based on searches for the Vivitar 19-35mm Series 1 lens. There seems to be a lot of interest in the lens — also branded, apparently, as Tamron, Tokina, Promaster, Cosina and Phoenix — because, I would guess, the lens is pretty cheap for such a wide zoom. I bought mine on a whim, after little research, because I wanted to sometimes go wider than my Sigma 24-70 would allow, but knew I couldn’t yet afford the Zeiss 16-35 (that lens will be mine, in time). I could experiment and have fun while I saved my pennies.

The Vivitar starts at  f3.5 at 19mm, while at 35mm the widest aperture is f4.5; the lens is, therefore, not the brightest. (However, it is only one stop slower at 19mm than the Zeiss).  Because the lens is most often used for landscapes, however, it is usually set to somewhere between f6.3 and f10.

Tree Study 25

Second hand — from eBay, for example — the Vivitar version of this lens costs anywhere between £50 and £100, depending on condition. Meanwhile, a new Carl Zeiss 16-35, with its constant f2.8 aperture, is going to set you back somewhere between £1200 and £1500. There is obviously no contest. And this is can be seen by pixel peeing the above photograph. The photograph was taken with the lens aperture set at  f8.0. The tree in the centre is quite sharp at 1:1:

 

However, the branches poking above the horizon on the left-hand side are a little mushy:

Blurred branches at lens edge

 

Many websites note that the lens is at its sharpest at f8 to f11; at f16 and above diffraction becomes a serious issue.

But then, you get this for £100 or so:

Rainbow Over the Byway

This is at f10 and 19mm. The edges are a little vague, but in general it provided very nice output.

In the following photo, taken at f6.3, you can see that the edges have become blurry.

Mitzy in the Trees

 

Other problems that often need fixing in Lightroom are chromatic aberrations — depending on the f-stop and the lighting conditions, these can sometimes be quite noticeable — and lens distortions. Take this photo for example:

Beneath Teignmouth Peir

Here, there was purple and green fringing on the uprights…

Chromatic Aberration

And a lot of distortion that had to be fixed in Lightroom:

Under the Pier unenhanced

 

Here the distortion is also accentuated because I am shooting slightly downwards. Still, it was fixable in Lightroom. The photo was taken at f6.3; however, the extreme edges of the frame have been lost after all the adjustments to straighten the lines and remove distortions. And, of course, distant, hazy blue horizons are going to look blurred anyway.

So, I’ve enjoyed using this lens over the last couple of years. I’ve used it often enough, and been pleased with the wide vistas it gives me, to know that I want to move to a more modern and sharper lens. If you are in the market for a very wide-angle lens, however, and don’t want to break the bank, this lens, or the Tamron/Tokina/Promaster/Cosina/Phoenix equivalent, is a good place to start.

Tree Study 25, In Black and White

Tree Study 25, in Black and White

This tree sits on a ridge near Chisbury, in Wiltshire, to the south of the hill fort there. The tree is very attractive to my camera, and I have telephoto and wide-angle shots of it in all seasons, the branches bare or shimmering with young spring leaves.

Today, I went for a trip around the lanes at lunch-time, as, from a photography perspective, any bright day in winter needs to be grabbed; there will, after all, be plenty more rainy grey days, before March.

With the cloud structure present — a kind of grey mackerel sky beneath an even higher layer of cirrus — a wide-angle photo was called for. I had brought with me my old Vivitar 19-35mm lens. It’s not stellar, but how much sharpness do you need when the everything is going to end up tiny and far away…

On returning home, and loading the photos into Lightroom, this photo was as nice as I expected. I could also see that a black and white version would work even better.

So there was some button clicking, some slider sliding, some contrast and brightness jiggery-pokery, and hey presto….

[This pic was subsequently on Flickr Explore for 17 Dec 13]

Rockley, Barbury, Ramsbury and Trees

This weekend we drove little more than 5 miles from Marlborough, but in circles round and about it. Firstly, we took the byway from Rockley to Barbury. Then we came home, dropped off Lizzie, and I went on to Froxfield and Chisbury, and then Ramsbury to Axford and back to Marlborough.

With the right light, and a nice lens, the byway from Rockley to Barbury always looks good; all chalk and gravel, it shines out from the green fields it cuts through…

The Byway from Rockley to Barbury, and the Wiltshire Hills

 

Wiltshire is full of softly rolling hills and downs. Moving to the left of the photo above, and zooming in on the autumn pastels and browns, reveals tumuli and the road between Rockley and Hackpen Hill…

North of Rockley — Tumuli and the Hackpen Road

After I returned Lizzie to Marlborough, I went to the Froxfield water meadow pond to check for birds; but little was there beyond the resident moorhens. I then drove out to Chisbury. With the rapeseed crops harvested, farmers have been planting some autumn or winter crop, the first green shoots of which are beginning to show. If you like photographing lines and curves — and I do — then the first shoots  of crops are a bonus…

The First Shoots of the New Crops, in Black and White

And they look lushly textural in black and white.

After Chisbury, I drifted up towards where the old Ramsbury airfield had been. I drove along the broken taxi-way, looking for birds; apart from the inevitable corvids, I saw mainly linnets and meadow pipits. From the airfield atop the hill I drove down into the Kennet valley at Ramsbury, and passed through the village and headed towards Axford. A couple of miles out of Ramsbury, the road climbs up-hill and then passes through a wood or copse before descending again towards the river valley. When I drove through the trees, the sun was low, illuminating the leaves and trunks and dappling the road.  It was the kind of light that also looks good, I think, in black and white…

The Light Through the Trees, in Black and White

Finally, I began to make my way back home to Marlborough.  Along Chopping Knife Lane, just before the turn for Cock-a-Troop Lane down to Werg, the aspect over the fields towards Mildenhall was very autumnal, muted pastels and browns, with patterns limned by harrow and plough across the fields…

A View from Chopping Knife Lane

At the left of the photo, you can see a pair of hedges marching up the side of the hill, above the leftmost white house; that is the Roman road that leads out of Mildenhall, or, more accurately, Cunetio, the Roman town that once existed there.

A final tip of the hat to Mitzi, for getting me there and back again; it got its own Lensbaby tilt-shift style portrait today…

Mitzi, the Pinin, Lensbaby-ed in the Trees

Exploring the New BagCam

In a post a few weeks back (A Trip with the E900 – After Which a Decision is Made) I mentioned that my Sony A850 had broken, forcing me to use the then current BagCam — a Fujifilm E900 — for my weekend photography. I also said that I thought it was time to buy a new BagCam, and that I’d settled on a Fujifilm X10. Well, I did buy one, and I’ve been playing with it for a few weeks now, and it is a nice camera, with lots of external controls, nice results, and a pleasing retro exterior.

Here are a few examples from my first photographic forays into the field with the funky Fuji…

As usual, there were trips along Wiltshire byways to be made. This route was from the village of Uffcott towards Barbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort in Wiltshire. This looks back down to the track to the village, and the old hangers at the edge of Wroughton airfield:

The Byway from Uffcott to Barbury Castle

This is from another journey around the same byways;  Barbury Castle, photographed from a southerly-ish aspect at the honeyed hour:

Barbury Castle from the South

A small stand of shrubs on Overton Down can be viewed on the byway from Hackpen Hill to the Sanctuary. This photo made it to Flickr Explore:

Stand of Shrubby Trees at Overton Down

I like a bit of abstract minimalism as much as the next person:

Green in the Rust

It is only ten minutes’ walk to countryside from my office. The towpath along the canal offers a walk from the town out into the countryside, and provides opportunities to see barges and locks:

Locking the Barge

All-in-all I’m very pleased with the X10. It provides a more modern small camera for my ManBag; it handles nicely; it provides nicely detailed photographs within the limits of the small sensor. I hope it lasts as long as the E900 did.

Six Wiltshire Songs – “Winter Song”

Winter Song

We woke to clouds, remember? High and bright,
Like a hazy gauze, a white net that foils
The low winter sun, and holds its rays fast.
Verges glisten, peppered with frosted white
Dew, each mottled blade a cold green nail.
Our faces were cold. Our kisses were not.