Probably not. Yet every year, the tail end of our annual SLR chart contains a gaggle of these beasts that somebody must love. Even though I seem to have ignored their existence, I felt it was time to find out just how good, bad, or dreadful they were, and discover who would possibly want them. Be prepared for the unexpected.
I cherry-picked the least expensive models ($160 street) bearing the Phoenix and Vivitar names: the Phoenix P-2000 with 28–80mm f/3.5–5.6 Phoenix lens and the Vivitar V3800N with 28–70mm f/3.4–4.8 MC lens. But let’s wring out the bodies first.
There is no Phoenix or Vivitar camera factory. Both bear the importers’ brand names, and are the brainchildren of Chinese engineering based on Japanese camera designs of 20 or so years ago. Looking at the prices, you might expect plastic bodies. Not so. Each has a supersolid, all-metal chassis with polycarbonate top, bottom, and hinged back, metal lensmount, and the trim, angular external cosmetics of the midlevel cameras of their origin.
Looking through the viewfinders of both will give you a shock. Perhaps you’ve forgotten how big, bright, and clear a first-class glass-prism focusing image used to be (before engineers realized that mirror prisms were far less expensive, even though image magnification and brightness suffer slightly). It would be hard to beat the quality and efficiency of the finder systems in each camera, no matter the price. The
Phoenix’s finder image magnification with a 50mm lens (our standard) tested out to be a whopping 0.92X (excellent), and its screen image finder area was 89 percent of the actual picture area (very good), with no parallax error detected. The Vivitar provided an even greater 0.93X (excellent) and, again, an 89-percent image finder area with no parallax error. All of these figures are superior to most other SLRs we’ve tested, save top-of-the-line professional cameras—and even there, the image magnifications of the Phoenix and Vivitar are often superior.
The Phoenix has a horizontally split optical rangefinder plus microprism collar, while the Vivitar uses a diagonally split rangefinder and microprism collar. The entire finder screen areas of both can be easily used for manual focusing, which is more than can be said for most AF SLRs. Both cameras have good centerweighted TTL metering, convenient depth-of-field-preview lever, provision for making multiple exposures, PC-sync terminal and hot-shoe, and the ability to accept threaded cable releases; each is powered by two 1.5-volt alkaline or 1.55V silver-oxide button cells, or one 3V lithium.
ODDEST INCLUDED ACCESSORY EVER: Buy a Vivitar V3800N and you get—absolutely free—a Frame Divider! When screwed into the rubber lenshood (also furnished), you can create many multiple images on a single frame using the camera’s multiple-exposure button.
All that being said, nearly everything else about the two cameras is quite different. The Vivitar’s features closely resemble those of the famous Japanese-made Cosina manual SLR, which has been sold under countless brand names and with various lensmounts—the Ricoh KR5, Olympus OM-2000, various Yashica SLRs, and the Nikon FM10. The Pentax-style K-bayonet mount will work with virtually all K-, KA-, and KAF-mount lenses, with the exception of the newest J-mount Pentax lenses, which have no aperture-setting rings. A user can choose from an almost unending selection of new and used Pentax-mount lenses at highly attractive prices.
The Vivitar has a mechanical, metal, multiblade shutter (similar to what you find in all film SLRs today), with speeds from 1 to 1/2000 sec. In our lab tests, speeds were remarkably accurate for a mechanical shutter—up to 1/1000 sec with only a 1/4-stop variation. However, we found 1/2000 sec to be 1/2-stop slow. Flash sync tops at 1/125 sec.
A central green LED to the right of the focusing screen aids in selecting the correct shutter-speed and aperture combination. Too much exposure, and a red “+” lights above the green circle; too little, and a red “–” appears below. The exposure variation between the correct green and red warnings is about 1/2-stop, a differential that can be used for exposure compensation. Manually set ISO film speeds are 25–3200. The camera turns on as soon as you lightly press the shutter release. Its backslot holds a cardboard filmbox end, reminding you what film has been loaded. The slot has a conversion table printed within, showing ISO and DIN equivalents. The camera body is easy to grasp, due to the rubberish back-and-front covering with built-in contoured finger moldings.
The Phoenix P-2000 is a stranger bird indeed. It’s built on the still-available Minolta X-370 manual-focus, automatic-exposure SLR chassis, and has the same electronically controlled cloth focal-plane shutter as the X-370, but with speeds from 1 to 1/1000 sec (1/60-sec X-sync) rather than the X-370’s 4–1/1000 sec. Instead of the X-370’s shutter-speed array to the right of the finder screen, the P-2000 has three-diode, manual-exposure-control LEDs with a large, green, central OK circle, an equally large red LED on top signifying overexposure, and a yellowish LED below for underexposure. Exposure differentials between the LEDs again appear to be about 1/2-stop.
Not too surprisingly, the P-2000 is available with a Minolta manual-focus MD mount, but can also be ordered with a Pentax K-mount as an alternative. The Phoenix P-2000 has the same red self-timer LED as the Minolta X-370; the mechanical clockwork self-timer of the Vivitar has none. The P-2000, like the X-370, has a white collar around the takeup spool, which makes fastening the film leader a bit easier. Manually set film speeds are ISO 12–3200. The camera has an on/off switch.
Our shutter-speed accuracy tests of the Phoenix showed it to be as precise as practically all SLRS using electronic shutters. The Phoenix camera back has a film-indicating window. Its smooth rear back isn’t as convenient to hold as the Vivitar’s, but the right front grip is rubberized and slightly better shaped than the Vivitar’s.
GO FOR GREEN! Vivitar V3800N (left) view has a diagonally split rangefinder, microprism collar, full focusing screen, and three-LED exposure control. Red warnings are about 1/2-stop away from green. Phoenix P-2000 (right) is much the same although red and yellow incorrect exposure circles are less elegant and rangefinder is horizontally split. But some users may prefer diagonally split rangefinder.
How did it come to be that a Chinese manufacturer was able to use a Minolta X-370 camera body? When the X-370 was introduced about 15 years ago, it was made in Japan. Subsequently, manufacture was transferred to mainland China, and later, according to my sources, the Chinese factory was given permission to produce manual-exposure cameras using the X-370 body. The X-370 and P-2000 cameras are, to my knowledge, the only SLRs still using cloth shutters. Result: shutter action is slightly quieter than the Vivitar’s.
Close-focusing Vivitar
Now for the lenses. The Vivitar 28–70mm f/3.4–4.8 MC Macro Focusing Zoom is Chinese-made, with sturdy metal-barrel construction, half click-stops, and heavily rubberized focusing and zoom rings. It close-focuses to 1:4 at the 70mm focal-length setting (actually even closer—see Lab Results). It accepts 52mm filters.
The Phoenix 28–80mm f/3.5–5.6 Macro is considerably lighter due to essentially plastic (but sturdy plastic) barrel construction. It has no half click-stops and is made in Japan (maybe by Cosina). It accepts 58mm accessories and has a slightly smaller maximum variable aperture because of the longer focal length. The lens also has a convenient, highly grippable focusing ring plus a metal, ribbed zoom ring. You reach macro focusing (marked to 1:4, but it’s actually 1:3!) by turning the zoom ring beyond an indent at the 80mm setting.
The front lens elements of both lenses rotate during focusing, so polarizing or graduated filters should be positioned after you focus.
Lab and field tests indicate that both lenses performed well above what was expected, both at normal and close-focusing distances. At most settings, results from these lenses would be indistinguishable from those made by top-grade lenses of any other SLRs.
Other fripperies: The Vivitar cloth neckstrap is broader and easier to attach. A rubberized, removable eyepiece, which is provided for the Vivitar, sticks to the camera better when a tiny spot of glue is applied. The Phoenix comes with a lenshood and a unique accessory—a Frame Divider—which screws into the lenshood and divides the picture into one quarter, one half, or three quarters for multiple images on one picture frame. Both cameras are provided with well-made, two-piece vinyl carrying cases.
Which camera would I pick? It’s a real toss-up. Over time, the electronic shutter of the Phoenix will probably hold its speeds better, but having all mechanical speeds available, even when batteries poop, is very attractive—and a 1/125-sec sync is better than 1/60 sec. Then again, there’s that extra 5mm focal length that goes with the Phoenix. Hmm…
No matter how magnificently these two perform, who’s willing to give up all the modern conveniences we first listed? Not I. But two types of photographers might: Students, who really want to understand the basics of exposure, focusing, and controlling depth of field, will learn more operating either camera manually than by letting an auto-everything camera do it all; and landscape, scenic, or still-life photographers bent on the same control, who aren’t crushed by the frantic need for operational speed that contaminates most of our lives. One Ansel Adams scenic is worth how many pictures on the sports pages of your local newspaper?
SQF data for 11x14 print size indicate excellent performance at 28- and 50mm, very good at 80mm. However, there was noticeable barrel distortion at 28mm (1.30 percent), and minimal barrel distortion at 50mm (0.43 percent) and 80mm (0.22 percent). At closest focusing distance of 13 inches (1:3) at 80mm, center sharpness was excellent from f/5.6 to f/22. Corner sharpness was poor from f/5.6 to f/8, good at f/11, very good at f/16, good at f/22, and acceptable at f/32. Optimum performance was at f/16.
SQF data for 11x14 print size indicate very good performance at 28mm, good at 70mm. However, there was noticeable barrel distortion at 28mm (1.55 percent), and minimal pincushion at 50mm (0.45 percent) and 70mm (0.22 percent). At closest focusing distance of 13.5 inches (1:3.9) at 70mm, center sharpness was good at f/3.4, excellent from f/5.6 to f/16, and good at f/22. Corner sharpness was poor at f/3.4 to f/5.6, acceptable at f/8, very good from f/11 to f/16, and acceptable at f/22. Optimum performance was at f/11.
CONCLUSION: Nearly professional results at extremely low prices. Fine for close-ups, center and edge, at moderate apertures. Note: Phoenix close-focusing at 1:3 is actually better than its 1:4 specs!
