Vivitar 500PZ
Looking back at the 1990’s at some point in a camera advertisers career it must have become difficult to come up with new ways to describe the same features in an exciting way. How else can you explain this line about the PZ500 “…and a tripod socket, permitting the camera to be mounted anywhere on a tripod to take advantage of the self-timer and of the non flash exposure option” I feel that advertisers pain as I struggle to write about what sometimes amounts to the same camera in new packaging. But here we go. The Vivitar PZ500 sports a 35-70mm zoom lens that they suggest is a ‘Series 1 Optic’. Funny how they never had any other Series that they were proud of. The aperture goes from f4 at 35mm to f7.6 at 70mm. The zoom control is a clear rocker switch on the top that has the indicator LCD beneath. 
Now at least that is unique. The focus system is 35 zones which seems like plenty all things considered having hundreds of possible distance settings as some point and shoots have may just be more marketing hype. All kidding aside the lens is actually pretty good and the only shot that seems slightly out of focus is one where I took a picture through a chain link fence. I think the choice of a very conservative 2X zoom starting at 35mm allows for even lighting (no vignetting) and low optical aberrations. I added the tape to the battery door more as insurance than out of absolute necessity. One thing about one camera: The Vivitar PZ500 is essentially the same camera as the Leica mini zoom both being manufactured by Matsushita and having the same specifications except for the Leica name.
