Vivitar 35ES

The largly unknown Vivitar 35ES

 A few months ago I came across this little camera during one of my visits to the local charity shop. It looked in poor condition and I wasn't quite convinced that it worked well but for the grand total of £25, I decided to take the plunge.

This is a Vivitar 35ES from 1978, it was sold under other brand names such as Revue 400ES and there is a Prinz version out there (in chrome!) - these cameras were churned out by the Cosina factory and there are minor differences between them all. Minolta must have bought the same chassis/rangefinder/meter assembly from them as the Minolta 7Sii looks very similar and displays the same issues as the Vivitar/Revue siblings (read on). Not sure if Minolta used the same lens or they put their own - would they call Rokkor a lens they didn't make? (remember the Celtic lens line for Minoltas? They were not made by Minolta, that's why they are 'Celtic' and not 'Rokkor'). Minolta dropped the GN Flashmatic feature and put a full aperture ring instead; making the Minolta variant more usable.

The late 70s was a period that marked the end of the "fixed lens rangefinder" market with even fewer models boasting a fast standard lens. I won't go into any historical aspects of the camera, I will just go straight into looking at my sample.

First check with a DSLR showed
correct focus on infinity

Repairs/maintenance

My sample came with a massive ding on the filter thread - actually it is so deep that has almost folded the metal in half. I was concerned if this has affected the lens elements alignment but a quick test with a DSLR confirmed good focus at infinity. That's promising. I tried to undo some of the damage by gently hammering a piece of wood but the dent is so sharp that went straight through the wood without straightening it. Eventually I wrapped some  long nosed pliers with thick linen and tried to straighten it. Finally I managed to screw another filter on it and paint over the paint loss. I think it looks sort of ok now, I will leave the two filters there as a sort of basic lens hood.

The viewfinder was so cloudy that made focusing difficult - apparently this is a common problem with all these cameras (Vivitar, Revue 400ES, Minolta 7sii). According to internet wisdom the issue lies in the design of the viewfinder - moisture gets trapped between the first and second element (marked in the picture with red) and leaves you with very little leeway to clean it - a complete disassembly is the only option. I managed to wipe the areas visible in the picture with a slightly dump cotton bud (dumped with lighter fluid) and things have improved a lot. There is still some slight haze left but this is between the first and second element of the viewfinder and I am not going to disassemble any further.

**ATTENTION ** DO NOT TRY TO CLEAN THE LENSES SITTING DIAGONALLY (marked with blue in the picture).  These are the beam splitter and mirror - leave them dirty and filthy or your rangefinder patch will vanish into ether....

The biggest challenge for me was the light meter. When I first put a battery in, the meter refused to work. After I slightly unscrewed the battery door, the meter came back to life. I removed the bottom plate and the battery door and placed them in white vinegar and scrubbed them with a tooth brush - this seems to have cleared all dirt and corrosion and now it works well.

But my problems were not yet over- I noticed that the camera exposed constantly two to three stops over - that goes counter to my experience with cameras which were designed to work with the outlawed mercury 1.35v button. Usually they underexpose by almost a stop with modern 1.5v buttons - but not this one, for 200asa I need to crank up the ISO to 800 in order to get accurate readings - I use 400asa films and in order to get an accurate reading, i can switch asa to 800 and is still 1.5 stop off.

Again, internet wisdom says that this is common with these cameras, this is how the light meter is designed. Even Vivitar 's little sisters,  the 35EE/35ED display the same behaviour. The only way around it is to either adjust the meter to work with 1.5v batteries or use hearing aids batteries or try to source higher voltage buttons.

Losing hope that I will manage to make it operate accurately, I noticed on the back something that looks like a potentiometer. I am not sure what it does but i am fairly convinced that the green cable attached to it is coming from the meter (looking at the exploded camera parts diagram, I can see three cables in this camera. The cable coming out from the battery compartment is red, the one for the flash is brown so the green one attached to it *must be* from the meter).

I turned this bit upwards a bit and ckecked the
exposure needle.

After messing about with it, the readings seem to be between 0.5 to 1 stop over compared to my Nikon F90x. I decided to leave it there and test with a film.

There is a lot of discussion online about the "stuck aperture" problem caused by a broken exposure needle - luckily mine is still in one piece and I am very careful when pressing the shutter button. Slowly and steady is the best way.

Of course, light seals have turned into sticky toffee goo, I spent almost a whole night and a whole bottle of lighter fluid to clean them. I used some wool and a bit of PVA glue to stick it. Works much better than self adhesive felt that I used in the past for other cameras so I am planning to switch and redo all my old cameras.


Using the camera
When you first pick up the camera, you notice how small it is. The advance level has a small throw and the shutter button has quite a bit of distance to travel before tripping the shutter (it needs to trap the exposure first). The small size of the camera can be a disadvantage thought, the viewfinder is small and the controls on the lens feel cluttered - you definitely need a bit of time to familiarise yourself with how you hold this camera in order for your fingers to find the shutter speed ring and focusing tab instantly without looking. Despite all the criticism, the small size of the camera will allow you to squeeze a couple of extra frames from a roll - I did get 37 pictures from the second roll.

As i said, the viewfinder is a bit on the small side and has a blue tint. The rangefinder patch is yellow in colour. On the right you can see the aperture values and the needle pointing at them. I would describe it as functional but it won't win you over - especially if you have used other rangefinder cameras. On the negative side, the lower end of the aperture values are obscured by the view of the lens assembly and are not easy to read. Also, you need to keep your eye at the centre of the viewfinder, looking through it at the slightest angle introduces distortion that makes accurate focusing difficult.

Not good - not bad either. Just functional

The main selling point of these cameras is the 40mm f/1.7 lens consisting of 6 elements in 4 groups and mounted on a Copal leaf shutter offering speeds between  1/8sec to 1/500 sec. The lens is of good quality but always remember that we live on the age of internet hype so if you are expecting "poor man's Leica summilux bokeh" you are bound to be disappointed.  It is a good lens though, it will manage to make a picture on film. There are a lot of rumours and speculation about who produced it but I am not going to go into it.

ilford HP5+ in HC110 at f/11

The Vivitar 35ES is a shutter priority camera only - that means that you select the shutter speed and the camera selects the aperture. Officially, there is no other way of adjusting exposure and while this might sound restricting (and is to an extent) exposure is calculated on a "trapped needle" way - that is the definition of exposure lock. Turn the camera towards what you want properly exposed (or meter off a middle grey area), press the shutter halfway and keep it pressed - you have locked exposure. Now recompose and take the picture. Very useful. Unofficially, you can adjust exposure whilst you have trapped the needle - for example if the the camera selects 1/60 and f/2.8 I half-press the shutter button, lock exposure and move the shutter ring to 1/125. Basically you can adjust exposure by over/under exposing as much as you like.

Bokeh is good at f2

At f/1.7 lens shows considerable aberrations 

If you find yourself in a situation where your battery has run out, then you are very likely to feel worried as the camera doesn't operate without batteries - but there might be a glimpse of hope - just rotate the Auto/Flashmatic ring to other positions than Auto - this sets the aperture to different values (i.e GN 55 closes down to about f/22, GN28 closes down to about f/16 and GN14 to about f/11). The shutter speeds work independently of battery so you might be able to grab a few shots in good light. If the light conditions change then you are properly screwed - you need a new battery.

[Rant mode On]
Am I the only one who finds this fear of "running out of battery" to be completely irrational? I have been using battery depended cameras since 1989 and I never have run out of battery. If you remember to bring an extra roll of film, remember to bring a spare set of LR44 batteries. They are tiny and last for dozens of films.
[Rant mode Off]

Taken at around f4

Also, another useful thing is that the camera doesn't lock if exposure is outside the light meter's sensitivity - for example if your light meter is below f/1.7 for 1/8sec, you can still select any speed and take a picture - aperture will open fully and shutter will fire at selected speed (albeit possibly underexposing). The same goes for very bright conditions.

Although on auto, with the shutter 
set to 1/15 and f/1.7 it took a picture

One of the things I quickly disliked in this camera (and possibly every rangefinder too) is how easy and quickly you can make a fingerprint smudge on the viewfinder window. I almost had to clean it before every shot and - yes - I am a very careless person but it is also very easy to smudge it too.

Despite my initial concerns about the light meter, the pictures came out well exposed. Adjusting exposure via exposure lock works very well but you have to get used to pressing the button with the tip of your finger. Stopped down past f/5.6 the lens is as sharp as any other lens and at wider apertures is slightly soft but with very pleasing signature. Out of focus areas look good too.

Loads of aberrations wide open 
but still quite pleasing rendering

Conclusion

A very good camera indeed. It is a bit risky buying one as more and more of them suffer with broken light meter needles which makes them inoperable although there are some hacks online that people can do. With its small size, good lens, silent operation and ease of use, I can see why a lot of people like it.

For me, it is a bit quirky to use and the rangefinder style of focusing is not exactly second nature. Also it feels slightly smaller than what I would like it to be. I can see me using it more as a walk about camera from time to time but I doubt I will be counting on it for any major projects.

Recommended.