Up for sale is an excellent CLAed (Cleaned/Lubed/Adjusted) classic third party  lens, the Vivitar 24mm f/2 Wide-Angle in Canon FD mount.

This classic lens astounded photographers when it came out with its  combination of an extremely wide angle of view coupled with an exceptionally fast-for-its-time  f/2 max aperture. It was produced for Vivitar by the famed Kiron/Kino Precision corporation of Japan, as evidenced by its serial number beginning in "22."

This particular example is in excellent condition with light handling wear, excellent mechanics, and glass free of scratches/haze/fungus.

Additionally, this lens has been disassembled and CLAed with aperture and helical cleaning full helical relube for optimal performance. This is absolutely critical with this model of lens, as it originally used a very unstable grease, which migrates into the aperture and can not only haze inner lens surfaces, which degrades image quality,  but also WITHOUT EXCEPTION will suffer from slow or fully seized aperture blades in unserviced examples. I have handled hundreds of these lenses over the years, and literally have NEVER come across an unserviced example that did not have this problem.

CLA FAQs

This lens has been completely disassembled and CLAed (Cleaned/Lubed/Adjusted), with cleaning of individual components aperture cleaning and total helical cleaning/relube for like-new performance!

Q: Why buy a CLAed lens?

Put quite simply, lenses get dirty over time. Many used vintage sold lenses here on eBay are described as “mint condition,” typically meaning they are free of obvious optical flaws like haze or fungus and have a clean-appearing exterior. However, opening them up tells a quite different story. While these lenses may appear tightly built, they nearly all use open designs, which allows substantial amounts of dust, dirt, and grit to enter the lens, where it settles into delicate precision components, adversely affecting the mechanical properties of the lens and leading to increased wear. Furthermore, even in unused samples, lubricants tend to degrade over time, leading to degraded focus action as grease dries out, or slow blades and soiled optics as oil migrates within the lens.

Q: What  services do you perform on the lens before sale?

With the lens disassembled, I perform a full CLA (Clean Lube Adjust). This entails cleaning out any internal and external soiling, cleaning aperture blades of grease that can slowing, re-lubing the focus helical, and adjusting all components for tightness and accuracy. Where there is extensive dust or internal lens soiling, I will disassemble lens cells and clean off surfaces; however, it is my general philosophy to keep lens elements in their factory positions in assembled cells when at all possible to ensure optimum performance.

Q: DUST? What do you mean DUST?

A: All vintage lenses have dust in them. In fact, they had dust in them when they were brand new from the factory! This is because prior to the advent of very modern sealed designs, lenses were not put together in a clean room environment, and the natural static charge of the glass tends to attract dust particles. Coupled with the open designs used in these lenses, it is virtually impossible to find any vintage lens without some degree of dust particles visible when you look closely through the lens. All of my CLA lenses have at minimum the exterior and internal cell surfaces wiped with a dust-free, lab-grade optical tissue and then blown off with an air bulb prior to reassembly and thus have a significantly below average amount of dust for a vintage lens.




This lens features the Canon FD mount which can be used natively on Canon film SLRs. It also can easily be adapted for manual use on most popular DSLR, and mirrorless formats with an inexpensive adapter ring (sold separately, see chart below for digital compatibility).


If you have any questions about whether this lens is adaptable to your camera system, please contact me before purchase.



Digital mount compatibility chart

Mount

Adaptable?

Glassless Infinity?

Notes

Canon EF DSLR

Y

N


Nikon F DSLR

Y

N


Pentax K DSLR

Y

N


Sony A DSLR

Y

N


Sony E Mirrorless

Y

Y


Panasonic/Olympus 4/3 DSLR

Y

Y


Canon EOS M Mirrorless

Y

Y


Canon EOS R Mirrorless

Y

Y


Fuji X Mirrorless

Y

Y


Leica/Panasonic/Sigma L

Y

Y


Panasonic/Olympus m4/3

Y

Y


Nikon 1 Mirrorless

Y

Y


Nikon Z Mirrrorless

Y

Y


Pentax Q Mirrorless

Y

Y




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