Adapter for an old Vivitar lens?

[Indigo November]

I just bought two old Vivitar lenses at Salvation Army, for $20 (combined!), nothing is wrong with them, they were supposed to be more, but the manager gave me a deal.

So, the problem is, they obviously won't mount to my Nikon D90, and I can't figure out what kind of mount they have. I need to buy an adapter, but I don't know which one.

If I post pictures of the mounts, could someone help me?

Also, could someone tell me a bit about these lenses? Any info on them at all? One is a 28mm f/2.5 "auto wide-angle", and the other is a 135mm f/2.8 "auto telephoto". Both are in very good shape, no scratches. Both have metal lens caps that just slip on and off, the cap for the 28mm has a dent in it, but if the lens was dropped, it shows no exterior damage. Both have a focus ring and an aperture ring. Neither of them have any plastic anywhere, even the grips are metal.

As for the mounts, I can post a picture later, but I will try to describe them as well as I can.
There are two metal discs, almost opposite each other on the back of the lens, one larger than the other. There are two metal pieces that slide back and forth, one sticks out further than the other. One of these metal pieces moves when you turn the aperture ring, the other closes and opens the shutter when you move it.
I can post pictures later if they would be helpful.

Could someone point me in the direction of the correct adapter for these lenses to a Nikon D90?

Thank a bunch, it's much appreciated!

-Indi

[Aegea]

You may want to examine the lenses closely, sometimes the mount is identified somewhere (e.g., "N" might mean Nikon, "C" might mean Canon). I'm sure there are Vivitar experts on this site who can shed more light on this. Meantime, this site may help you identify your lenses.:

SLR Lens Mount Identification Guide

Something to consider is that Nikon unfortunately has about the largest flange to sensor distance of any common DSLR, which means that adaptation of other mounts is difficult - the lens ends up too far from the sensor to get infinity focus, unless there is a lens in the adapter, which is a whole other can of worms.

[Indigo November]

Well, I took a good look at them, and there are no marking to identify them. But looking at the link you posted, the only one that matches is the first photo, the canon FD mount. The only difference is that mine don't have the red dot.

I searched around for an adapter and I found one from a very reliable camera store in Vermont, but it doesn't have the optics in the adapter, and it clearly states that it won't allow infinity focus.
The other one I found is from a Russian place that I've never heard of. I have no idea how reliable they are, but they have the only adapter I could find, with optics. The optical adapter also doesn't specifically say whether or not it is for a Nikon F mount, it just says "Nikon mount".

Would you recommend the $30 adapter without optics or the $65 adapter with optics? Does anyone know how reliable rugift.com is?

[Aegea]

Can't help much, I'm afraid. I think Rugift has been in business for quite a while. Some of the Russian optics are supposed to be quite good, but whether that applies to their Canon to Nikon adapter, I haven't a clue.

If you do go for the Russian one, please let us know how well it works. There are some old non-Nikon lenses that I'd like to try

[inkista]

I think rugift is ok, I remember some folks on dpreview buying the cheap Russian tilt-shifts from three or four years ago, but I'd double-check on resellerratings and by doing a google on them, first, before buying anything.

If it were, me, I'd probably go for an adapter with glass in it (or find one with glass on eBay). The Canon FD mount isn't even adaptable on Canon EOS these days, so the distance difference between it and Nikon F is pretty big, and that adapter is going to act like an extension tube. Unless you're adapting a macro lens, chances are good you want that glass element.

Unfortunately, it's going to act like a cheap teleconverter. You're going to lose sharpness, max. aperture, and gain a little on focal length. For the most part, it may not be worth it, unless you really can't afford glass any other way. The only mount that can adapt FD lenses with simple rings are the large-sensor compact mounts: Sony NEX (E-mount) and micro four-thirds.

Also, when using a manual focus lens like this with an adapter, there are a few other stumbling blocks: you won't have metering. You won't have autofocus. You'll have empty EXIF fields for the focal length and aperture and other lens information. And you won't have aperture control from the camera body (you have to use the ring on the lens). This means you can only shoot in M or A modes. If you're ok with all this, I'd say go for it.

Just my personal feeling, but going for an old manual focus Nikon AI or AI-S lens would have been a better choice.