This Lens Cost Me Less Than $25

One of my favorite things that I’ve discovered recently are adapters for vintage lenses. I see most people using the respective camera’s brand of lenses like Canon glass on a Canon body or Sony to Sony. Though, about a year ago I learned that a friend of my that was using Nikon fully manual lenses adapted on a Fujifilm X-T3 and I got to try some of them out and found it to be rather enjoyable to use. Not everything has to be super sharp or always needed auto focus for your subjects and I found that through my first vintage lens, being the Minolta 50mm f/1.8 and I really dug the images. Not long afterwards, I was browsing a local garage sale with my girlfriend and we stumbled across a very slim telephoto lens by itself. It was a Vivitar 75-205mm lens made for Nikon’s F mount. I looked up to see how much an adapter for it would be and I found one that would total (after taxes and shipping) just above twenty one dollars. I turned and asked the owner how much they would be selling their lens for, and she told me three dollars.

Sold. Just like that, without further hesitation, I bought it for three dollars. Worst case scenario would be that it turns into a 3 dollar paperweight or that it looks cool on a shelf. However, it turned out to be fairly useable once the adapter arrived. This lens is a full metal build, weighing in at 791 grams (or just over a pound and a half), with 6 aperture blades, and max/min aperture of a (constant) f/3.8 to f/22. This lens also sports the rather curious close focusing mode for macro photos. The wide aperture would allow some to use this as a portrait lens if they really wanted to and you could get that nice bokeh that everyone desires so much. I also thought it was so cool to be able to use this vintage lens to get close up to leaves at sunset or even in the cracks on the bark of a tree branch. Click on each photo with the arrow keys on either side to see the photo zoomed in and how the quality holds up.

Not only is the close focus mode wonderful, it’s surprisingly very sharp and retains details that that I found to be unexpected - including scratches and dust particles on sunglasses from a very close up portrait.

Here are a few other examples of photos I’ve taken recently with this lens. Keep in mind that they are all shot JPG format and I used FujiXWeekly’s Bright Summer film simulation for the look and style of these shots (with some light adjustments in Lightroom).

Once again, I want to point out that macro/close focusing mode at 75mm. It is impressively sharp.

Even comparing it to the other telephoto lens I own, the Fujifilm XF 100-400mm, I believe it holds its own and definitely can be comparable. Both shots below (arrow keys to slide between each one) were both shot at 1/320s, f/5.6, and ISO 800 at 200mm.

Can you tell which is which? Neither one of these are edited by any means - straight out of camera, not minor edits through Lightroom.

This one was with the 75-205 Vivitar Lens! It appears to be a bit softer than the 100-400 equivalent.

Fujifilm’s 100-400 appeared to be a bit punchy, even at the same settings.

It’s wild to see how sharp the lens is, even up against a photo taken with the 100-400, which I believe to be one of my sharpest lenses. Still, there are a couple drawbacks with the 75-205 that I took note of while using it. When zooming in, the focus ring gets moved and the constant adjusting can have someone miss their shot. That being said, that’s more of a photographer’s first world problem, and isnt that big of a deal. I would say that’s more of a ‘me’ issue than an issue with the lens itself. The second thing is that it is awkwardly long. It has a full internal zoom, while most zoom lenses physically move on the outside and the lens gets longer, the 75-205 is already at it’s length and only moves when you’re adjusting focus. All other moveable components are internal. Because of that, walking around with this and carrying it can feel a bit awkward. Now, it’s nowhere near as heavy as the 100-400 but due to its length and how skinny it is, it looks a bit weird on the X-T3 body. Not a terrible thing, just a personal gripe.

I realize the two cons I mention are just very personal ones, they don’t impact how the lens is used really, just a minor user complaint. Still, those complaints are thrown out the window when my thoughts circle back to the fact that I purchased this for just under twenty five dollars! For a cheap zoom lens that is still so sharp, this is a fantastic place to start. The best part is that I've seen these online going for anywhere between $8.99 - $29.99. It’s an incredible price for a lens that is so versatile. Portraits, landscapes, macro - all for a very affordable cost.

Absolutely wild. Definitely recommend checking this lens out if you want to adapt this onto your current camera, getting a vintage-esque look to your shots.