Nov 16 2015

Vivitar Tec155

VivitarTec155-8673This camera is interesting for several reasons, the primary one being that although it is a point and shoot with a fixed lens the zoom is controlled by twisting the front of the lens instead of some small button or lever like most other point and shoots. VivitarTec155-8670

This allows for very fast zooming with the focal length indicated in a window on the top plate.   Unfortunately the lens has very bad chromatic aberrations which appear as coloured fringing around objects particularly towards the edges of the image.

Vivitar_Tel155_Kodak400_2015_018

Additionally my copy of this camera has obvious dust and fibers inside the lens somewhere that show up in some of the images as well as a hazy blue spot sometimes in the center. Vivitar_Tel155_Kodak400_2015_009

None of this is outwardly visible on the lens.   So the only thing this camera is good for is if you are trying to take pictures that look like they came from a terrible camera.  This is despite the fact that the lens is branded as Vivitars top of the line ‘Series 1’ with 8 elements in 7 groups.