VIVITAR Series I AF lens 9552405 19 - 35mm f/3.5 - 4.5, tested July 1996

Lens number 9552405                  

Available mounts: Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus.

Price: $457.95 (Canon) $417.95, others.

Accessories: Lenshood

Specifications: (Tested values in italics)
Focal length: 19 - 35 mm (19.10 - 32.80mm)
Maximum aperture: f/3.5 - 4.5 (f/3.42 - 4.50)
Construction: 13 elements in 11 groups
View angle: Diag. 97º - 63º, Horiz. 86º - 54º, Vert. 64º - 38º
Minimum aperture: f/22 - 29
Click stops: ½ stops from f/3.5 to f/29.
Number of blades: 8
Scales: Focussing in feet (white) and meters (green). IR indices at 19mm and 35mm. Focal lengths marked at 19-, 24-, and 35mm
Zooming: 50º counterclockwise to 35mm
Focussing: 70º counterclockwise from infinity to close focus, 1 ft. 7 11/16 in. ( 0.5m)
Weight: 12 3/16 oz. (345g)


Distortion: @ 19mm, 1.1% barrel; @ 28mm, 1.5% barrel; @ 35 mm, 0.7% barrel.
Lateral color: Very slight at 19mm, should not affect picture quality. Slight at 28mm, moderate at 35mm - may affect picture quality.

Hands on: Well finished in satin black polycarbonate with metal bayonet mount. Average size, but fairly lightweight for a zoom in this range. Wide-ribbed, rubberised zoom ring is easy to grasp, operates smoothly with moderate force, holds settings well,; narrower, textured, rubberised focus ring near front turns very smoothly in manual-focus mode but action is underdamped. Large, legible, white-on-black focal-length and footage scales; metric scale less visible in green on black. Infrared focusing indices for 19mm and 35mm focal lengths, no depth-of-field scale. Furnished lens shade bayonets onto front ring, reverses for storage, but is, of necessity, wide and somewhat unwieldy.

In the lab. SQF data indicates good overall performance and commendable consistency across the focal-length range. However, field curvature at all focal-lengths was judged to be excessive and may affect sharpness at the edges of the field when photographing flat objects at wide apertures. Distortion was minimal at 35mm, just noticeable at 19mm, and 28mm, a better then average performance for this class of zoom.

In the field: Test slides showed good sharpness and contrast at all focal-length settings and apertures except for a slight loss of sharpness visible in the corners of the field at maximum and minimum apertures.

Conclusion: A handy ultrawide-to-wide zoom offering good overall performance at a reasonable price.

Macro / Close-Focussing

Max MAG: (all distances to lens)
1:22.5 @ 19mm ( 1 ft 4 1/8in. (0.41 m)
1:10.9 @ 35mm (1 ft. 1 in. (0.33m)

@ 19mm: Center sharpness was well above average from maximum aperture to minimum aperture. Corner sharpness was well above average from f/8 to f/16, average at f/3.5 and f/22. Optimum-performance aperture: f/8. Very noticeable barrel distortion.
@ 35mm: Center sharpness was well above average at all apertures. Corner sharpness was above average from f/8 to f/29, average at f/4.5. Optimum-performance aperture: f/11. Noticeable barrel distortion.
Subjective Quality Factor     KEY:
A+
A
B+
B
C+
C
D
F


@19mm

MAG   >
4
5
6
8
12
17
22
Size (in.)   >
3.5 x 5
4 x 6
5 x 7
8 x 10
11 x 14
16 x 20
20 x 24
@ f/3.5
98.1
97.0
95.7
92.8
84.5
72.7
60.7
@ f/5.6
99.3
98.8
98.3
97.1
93.7
87.9
81.1
@ f/8.0
99.6
99.4
99.2
98.6
96.9
93.9
90.1
@ f/11.0
99.5
99.2
98.9
98.1
95.8
91.8
86.8
@ f/16.0
99.3
98.9
98.4
97.2
93.9
88.4
81.8
@ f/20.0
99.1
98.6
98.0
96.5
92.4
85.8
78.0


@28mm

MAG   >
4
5
6
8
12
17
22
Size (in.)   >
3.5 x 5
4 x 6
5 x 7
8 x 10
11 x 14
16 x 20
20 x 24
@ f/4.0
97.7
96.4
94.9
91.3
82.1
69.0
56.2
@ f/5.6
98.8
98.2
97.4
95.5
90.4
82.2
73.0
@ f/8
99.6
99.4
99.1
98.4
96.5
93.1
88.9
@ f/11.0
99.5
99.2
98.9
98.1
95.8
91.8
76.8
@ f/16.0
99.3
98.9
98.5
97.3
94.2
88.9
82.4
@ f/22.0
99.0
98.4
97.7
96.0
91.4
83.9
75.3


@35mm

MAG   >
4
5
6
8
12
17
22
Size (in.)   >
3.5 x 5
4 x 6
5 x 7
8 x 10
11 x 14
16 x 20
20 x 24
@ f/4.5
98.0
97.0
95.7
92.6
84.5
72.6
60.7
@ f/8
99.1
98.6
98.0
96.5
92.4
85.7
77.9
@ f/11
99.5
99.3
99.0
98.2
96.0
92.3
87.6
@ f/16.0
99.4
99.0
98.6
97.4
94.4
89.3
83.1
@ f/22.0
99.0
98.5
97.9
96.3
91.9
84.3
76.7
@ f/29.0
98.9
98.3
97.6
95.7
90.8
82.9
74.0


SQF testing

This is some of what Pop Photo had to say about SQF testing in November 1990 when they were finally happy with their system.

In short, SQF is the way to relate the total of all our MTF measurements to the quality you can expect at any given print size.

Under normal conditions, a slight difference in SQF will hardly be noticeable. Experimentally, it's been shown that a difference of 10 SQF units will show a definite difference in quality level, with a difference of only 5 units producing a just noticeable difference (JND). SQFs below 50 yield unacceptable results.

SQF: making the grade
With five distinct quality levels to work with, it seeemed only natural to assign letter grades to each:   A for the best, then B, C, D, and finally F for anything below 50. We added "+" grades to A - C to characterize the quality, widening the group as quality diminished, giving a full 10 units to both C and C+ grades. In our system, we broke them down this way:
99.9 - 95.0   A+
94.9 - 90.0   A  
89.9 - 85.0   B+
84.9 - 80.0   B  
79.9 - 70.0   C+
69.9 - 60.0   C  
59.9 - 49.5   D  
          <49.5 F  

We expanded the C and C+ categories to fit actual experience. There was little point distinguishing between a D and D+. As overall quality goes down, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between pictures. It's easier to tell which of two good prints is sharper than it is to determine which of two prints is fuzzier.

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