Pre-Owned -Vivitar 28mm f2.8 wide angle lens for Nikon F Mount w/ Vivitar Wideangle hood 52mm
Lens is in beautiful condition and proper working order. No signs of mold or fungus.
The Vivitar Auto Wide-Angle 28mm f/2.8 is a classic, manual-focus vintage prime lens known for its compact build, solid all-metal construction, and versatility across film and digital camera systems.
Key Specifications
• Focal Length: 28mm
• Maximum Aperture: f/2.8 (stops down to f/16)
• Focus Type: Manual focus
• Filter Thread: Typically 49mm or 52mm (depending on the specific manufacturer variant)
• Available Mounts: Nikon F (AI), Canon FD, Minolta SR/MD, Pentax K, M42 screw mount, and others via third-party OEM producers.
Build and Performance
• OEM Manufacturers: Vivitar did not manufacture its own lenses; instead, they were contracted out to optical companies like Komine (serial numbers starting with 28), Chiron (22), and others.
• Optics & Sharpness: Generally soft wide open at f/2.8, sharpness and contrast improve notably by f/4 and peak around f/5.6 to f/8.
• Character: Offers pleasant color reproduction, decent close-focus capabilities (some versions focus as close as 23cm–30cm), and an affordable entry point into vintage wide-angle photography.
The Auto Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 lens with serial number 62601 does not fit Vivitar's standard 1970–1990 manufacturer prefix decoding system (where serial numbers typically start with a plant code like 22, 28, or 37).
Key Details & Background
• Non-Standard Serial Number: Short or early-series numbers in the 26000–62000 range often point to very early production batches, special variants, or pre-production/prototype units from Vivitar's distribution history (such as early "Bright Band" or contract runs before standardized catalog coding was implemented).
• Manufacturer: Because Vivitar did not manufacture its own optics, lenses from this era were contracted out to third-party Japanese optical works (such as Kino Precision, Tokina, Komine, or Cosina). Without a standard two-digit prefix code (like 22 for Kiron or 28 for Komine), the exact OEM factory requires physical inspection of the internal assembly or mount style.
Manufacturing & Serial Number Analysis
Vivitar was not a lens manufacturer; they were a distributor that commissioned independent optical companies (mainly in Japan) to build lenses to their specifications.
• The 1970–1990 Coding System: For lenses made during Vivitar's golden era (1970–1990), they utilized a famous 8-digit serial numbering system where the first two digits identified the exact manufacturer (e.g., 22 for Kino/Kiron, 28 for Komine, 37 for Tokina).
• Your Serial Number (62601): Because your serial number is only 5 digits long, it falls completely outside of that standard 8-digit system. This indicates one of two possibilities:
1. Pre-1970 Production: It is an early manual focus lens produced before Vivitar standardizes its system in 1970, meaning it uses an older sequential numbering scheme.
