Cheap wide angle lens for D600

John Young

John Young

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I have bought a few lenses recently but could do with something wider than the 24mm I have on the low end of my sigma

I have seen a few cheap lenses on ebay like the

TAMRON 19-35MM

Cosina 19-35

Vivitar Series 1 19-35 mm F/3.5-4.5 AF

Anyone tried these, recommend any plus these are full frame lenses aren't they ? :thinking:
 
Don't know about those but the Tamron 17-35 is excellent and cheap (under £200 used)
 
Thanks - yeah I was looking at the Tamron and my budget was £200 or under but I then found an old Vivitar 19-35 on ebay for something like £30 and thought ....Hmmmm
 
The Cosina and Vivitar are the same lens but with different badges. They distort a fair bit at the wide end and aren't the sharpest lenses available BUT they do give a significantly wider angle than the 24mm you currently have as your widest lens. Not sure about the Tamron in comparison.
 
If, I remember right the cosina is a re badged vivitar,I still use mine that I bought with an eos 10 back in the nineties used it on full frame and crop and found IQ quite acceptable., in fact used it a couple of times recently
 
Thank you.....

So now that has me thinking, should I give the £30 cheapo a go or go for a £200 lens.

From experience some cheap lenses are brilliant - I have a Nikkor 28-80 I got off ebay for £25 and that is a superb lens. Very light and plastic but great
 
Personally I wouldn't hesitate to buying another if it has been looked after?
 
I don't know much about old lenses, but I do know that when i couldn't afford a 70-200, [or even a variable aperture zoom!] when I started out, I found a Vivitar 70-210 f/3.5 online for €50. All manual, and I actually learned a lot using that lens. Turned out to be pretty sharp and had 1:2 macro to boot. Sold it on when I built up the gear a bit, and got what I paid for it :) A very happy film photographer took it away.
 
Thanks everyone - I'm going for the Vivitar Series 1 19-35 mm F/3.5-4.5 AF :woot:

Would I be right in thinking that this was made for 35mm film camera so it will be full frame on my D600 ?
 
Give Samyang/Rokinon 14mm a try, it is a manual lens, so cheap, but many many love it, it is sharp, i never look at those Vivtar/Tamron/Tokina zooms at all, i will buy those brands with prime lenses, and Samyang/Rokinon trying to produce nice glasses these days.
 
Would I be right in thinking that this was made for 35mm film camera so it will be full frame on my D600

Yes.
 
TareqPhoto said:
Give Samyang/Rokinon 14mm a try, it is a manual lens, so cheap, but many many love it, it is sharp, i never look at those Vivtar/Tamron/Tokina zooms at all, i will buy those brands with prime lenses, and Samyang/Rokinon trying to produce nice glasses these days.
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Thanks - Yes I looked at the Rokinson and I started photography (35mm film) with manual lenses but I can't really go back to manual focus - lazy I know
 
Yup, the Cosivitar 19-35 is suitable for 35mm film so should be OK on FF digital (it might suffer from internal reflections though.)

Modern AF is often more accurate and almost always faster than MF on lenses/bodies designed for AF so not lazy at all!
 
Another to consider is the Canon 20-35mm. I had one and thought it was ok, nice an light and compact and has USM. There's quite a bit of distortion but I believe that these days there's a lens profile to fix that for you.

More expensive than the 19-35mm though.
 
you could look on dyxum, ok wrong mount but 3rd party lenses are the same anyways :)
 
woof woof said:
Another to consider is the Canon 20-35mm. I had one and thought it was ok, nice an light and compact and has USM. There's quite a bit of distortion but I believe that these days there's a lens profile to fix that for you.

More expensive than the 19-35mm though.
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I have a Nikon D600...... :)
 
At 14mm you really don't need to worry about manual focus, the dof at that focal length is huge. In fact for many of the uses of an uwa manual focus is a better option.
 
I have one of the Cosina's. It's an okay lens, not brilliant but worth £30 I would say. I always liked the images that I shot on film with it, I don't feel it has the same je ne sais quoi on my D700 but there you go. It'll need stopping down for anything decent but it's £30 for crying out loud :LOL: If you don't get on with it, sell it on and go for something more expensive! Originally I bought it because I wasn't really a wide shooter and didn't want to sink a load of money into something I wouldn't use but since getting it I've really enjoyed the focal length :)
 
Tokina's 20-35 (two different versions) are okay as well but like many cheaper lenses they need stopping down a fair bit to work well. I do also know of a Nikon 18-35 AFD lens well within your budget if you happen to post a wanted thread...
 
Thanks everyone - I got outbid on the Vivitar I was watching as I had to go out (emergency) It was at £25 for days so I put £40 as my Max bid and it went for £41

I'll keep looking....

Its just I have noticed at recent weddings in rooms etc when the bride is getting ready I could do with something wider. Don't mind stopping down as I would use flash with a cheap wide angle and maybe get a more expensive wide angle if I found I used it a lot or the quality was not up to the job
 
Having had a go at night photography whilst away, I'd be tempted by a samyang 14 mm. Better optically than the sigma too.
 
Some of these Vivitar lenses are made by Tokina, Komine etc..., you can usually tell by the first two digits of serial number. In M42, Canon Fd etc.. mounts the desired ones are from Komine which start with the first two digits at 28, I have used a few of these using adapters on my Fuji Xt1 & Xpro 1 cameras. I have found the Series 1 lenses to be of good image quality on modern cameras, particularly for the price paid.

Link to makers > https://www.cameraquest.com/VivLensManuf.htm
 
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Swanseajack said:
Some of these Vivitar lenses are made by Tokina, Komine etc..., you can usually tell by the first two digits of serial number. In M42, Canon Fd etc.. mounts the desired ones are from Komine which start with the first two digits at 28, I have used a few of these using adapters on my Fuji Xt1 & Xpro 1 cameras. I have found the Series 1 lenses to be of good image quality on modern cameras, particularly for the price paid.

Link to makers > https://www.cameraquest.com/VivLensManuf.htm
Click to expand...

Interesting - thank you, I will take note of that in future.
 
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