... an absolutely gorgeous fall afternoon, with temperature rising into late-summer like 70s ... i resisted the urge to go riding, if only to give my butt a day's rest so it could unflatten a bit ... instead, i picked up an old friend and went down to the farmer's market ...
... okay, i'll wait for you to stop laughing ... but when i purchased this vivitar series 1 135mm in 1975 it was the most extravagant lens i'd ever owned, and, oddly enough, when the specifications and capabilities are compared, it remains so to this day ... tired of the accepted wisdom that "off-brand" lenses weren't as good as those produced by nikon and canon, ponder & best, the import company using the "vivitar" brand, decided that they were going to take on the big guys ... for design they contracted perkin-elmer, then of sr-71 spy camera fame, later to be infamous for the hubble telescope ending up having to be fitted with glasses ... no plastic involved, this 1-1/2 pound lens is a beast to carry, for sure, but the question remained, "what about taking pictures with a modern digital camera" ...
... technically, the vivitar exhibits a lot more chromic aberration than more modern lenses ... that's to be expected when you consider that using a ray-tracing program my desktop macintosh can search thousands and thousands of possibilities and in only minutes pick out the most perfect fomula, while a vintage 1970s computer needed days or even weeks to determine a single solution ... overall, when it comes to what counts, producing images, after almost forty years the lens remains an absolute gem ...
... p.s. ... and, of course, it seems i've now the urge to have salad for supper ...
