Low distortion and great wide angle range.

Feels cheep.

The ability to crop the ultra wide angle picture adds a lot of value compared to just using a fixed 20MM lens. The ability to get past 28MM to compare what you would get using your "regular lenses" helps in deciding if this is the right lens for the picture at hand. I don't want to cary a lot of extra weight and this thing weights almost nothing.

Customer Service

Not used.

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20MM fixed lens.

Low Cost, Great range!

Not a solid feel.
Noisy.

If you're looking for a low-cost wide-angle zoom, you can't make a better choice!
Don't expect the greatest quality, but it's worth every penny you paid for!

Customer Service

Never used.

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I have the Cosina 19-35 (Cosina also builds the Vivitar lenses).

Very good quality for the price, no flare, lightweight.

Reading other reviews, it seems to me that the quality is not sustainable. Mine has no flare, but when I select infinity, it focuses far beyond it. I have MF version, so I should be careful when shooting outdoors.

A very good value for money, very light. Probably not for everyday use, but worth having.

Customer Service

Never tried.

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Russian Mir24 2.4/20

Low price
Super wide angle
high quality pictures

"cheap" feel

While this lens does feel cheap, it is lightweight and offers high quality pictures. This lens has given me wonderful scenics with impressive depth of field due to it's extremely wide angle. Buy this lens and you're getting probably the best bargain out there for wide angle zooms.

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Vivitar 35-70mm zoom
Vivitar 70-210mm zoom

I have used the standard 28mm and 24mm wide angles for years but since I got my nikon n70 , I started going AF lenses.This lense is awesome in for indoor or scenic outdoor shots.I have used a 20mm fixed lenght lense before and
it nice but having the versatility to zoom from 19-35mm is outstanding.Its perhaps not the shapest lense made but why spend $1400 for nikkor?Best bargin I ever found in a AF lense.

I used this indoors on
a few trips and found out my flash wasn't wide enought to get edges of photo but thats
how wide this thing shoots.

Really happy with this thing and gives new look to my photographs.Highly recommend everyone to keep one in the camera bag.I use this for my standard lens now and never use the 28-80mm AF zoom I have now.

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None

-The price is right!
-Good pictures
-Light weight
-The price is right!!

This lens feels very light, plasticky (sp?) and cheap. It also flares like crazy, so you have to be careful with that.

An excellent lens for the money. I would still be saving if I had to buy Canon but with the Vivitar I have many rolls of film to enjoy. I definately recommend this lens to those of you who can't afford the better lens.

Customer Service

haven't had to use

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none. I just have a Sigma 28-200 and a Canon 50 1.8

Great low price
Sharp pictures with little distortion
For the price, very good build quality

Fairly slow (but all these type zooms are from very manufacturer unless you want to spend over $1,100)

Hey, for what you're paying for this is good stuff. Mine is the MANUAL version. I bought this for use with my manual Pentaxes, as the wider Pentax lenses are hard to find and expensive when you do find them. The zoom action is very smooth and the focussing is very well dampened. Picture quality is very good and will please any casual shooter and most of the more serious type. Vivitar has done a very good job at offering a wide angle zoom the masses can afford and it gives good enough quality that I don't think spending an extra $900 or so to get something better would be worth the extra performance gained.

Customer Service

Not used

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Leica 21mm f2.8-M

Very sharp. Little distortion. Low price.

Not the greatest construction.

Very sharp with good contrast and low distortion. Not great construction, but has held up well with moderate use.

Customer Service

Not needed.

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17mm Tokina

Little distortion for such a cheap lens. Sharp. Light weight.

Flares like mad. (just shade it with your hat) Pretty wobbly focus ring. Can get some dust inside. Not a 17-35L.

The Canon 50mm f/1.8 of wide angle zooms. Pretty flimsy but the optics are good and if it breaks you're out, wooooo, 150 bucks. This lens is pretty user serviceable. When I got mine from KEH there was a big dust speck behind the front element. The DOF at 19mm f/16 allowed for this speck to show up in the pictures. So I took a screwdriver and removed the front element retaining ring and blew the dust out. I noticed that all the other elements had similar retaining rings, so I disassembled the whole thing just for fun. It's pretty cool to see what the insides of your lenses look like. I put it back together and it still takes great pics. This lens really can't be beat for the price. Although I would still sacrifice various body parts for a 17-35L. Maybe one day the Red Cross will take pre-mortem donations eh? I mean really, do we absolutely NEED two whole lungs? And why is the liver so big anyway?

Customer Service

They did a good job fixing my Mom's 110 back in '80.

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17-35L. Ooooh baby.
20-35. pretty good but too expensive for what it is.

AN EXCELLENT LENS FOR THE COST! Sure, it flares more than the lenses that are VERY similar to it but cost 8 times more (literally), but for the HUGE possibilites it offers you as a photographer, it is most DEFINATELY worth buying a better lens- shade for the lens and saving yourself a LOT of money. Very sharp (if you keep the aperture at 5.6+), good contrast, focuses smoothly.

Cheap price = cheap construction. Simple. Means that it won't last forever but its not exactly a huge investment, is it?

A great lens! I can't believe I almost didn't buy it because of some of the whiney reviews from people in here that care more about having the most prestigious equipment rather than good images. If you're REALLY anal about having ABSOLUTELY no distortion, beautiful body construction that'll survive being dropped time and time again, and a famous company-name printed on your lens, then don't buy this lens. Otherwise, its fantastic!

Customer Service

not great, but like I said, its a bare-bones product.

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