Tokina or Vivitar 80-200mm?

[Djmorrsee]

Recently I ended up with identical lenses, ones a Tokina the other Vivitar, both being 80-200 f/4's. They're both old and used, manual focus and aperture (I have the budget of a college kid...).

I was just wondering peoples opinions of the brands, as obviously i dont need both, and am going to sell the other. The Vivitar seems to be in slightly better condition, as the Tokina has some slight hazing on the long end.

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[889Media]

If you have them both, why not just try them and see what works best for you? If there is any big difference in image quality etc, you should notice it pretty fast! Shoot same image using both lenses, then compare result! Even though I am sure someone here can better answer your question I just got a Tokina, and so far I am very happy with the lens. Not close to the build quality of my Canons, but it does it job

[Derrel]

"Vivitar" never made lenses...their lenses were made by OTHER companies, and they put the Vivitar brand name on the lenses. The first one, or two digits of the serial number on a Vivitar lens from the manual focus era are the codes for the company that actually made the lens under sub-contract to Vivitar. See this article:

Vivitar Lens Manufactuers


for the codes, and list of makers. Interestingly, the third digit is the year of manufacture within each **decade**, ie XX8 could mean 1978, 1988, or 1998.

I would of course, keep the better-performing lens out of the two.

[KmH]

Vivitar never made gear, just re-branded stuff some other company made for them.

[johnh2005]

Set some time aside and set up some simple shots. Set up a dark shot in a closet with low light take the same shot with both lenses same settings. Set up a closeup shot in the house and one outside, landscape shots, shots with lots of colors shots with lots of contrast. Take a pen and paper and make sure you keep track of which shot number was with which lens (or just always take the first shot with one lens or the other.) Then go in and compare the shots. If you can't tell the difference then list them both for sale and sell the first one you get a good offer on and keep the other one

[Djmorrsee]

I didn't know that about vivitar. It's amazing the things you learn on the internet.

Anyway, ill take both lenses out tomorrow to compare them in action.
Oh and based on the link derrel posted, the lens was made by Komine in presumably 1992 (it looks too nice to be '82).