Lamy Vista

[williamseymour123]

Review – Lamy Vista

 

First impressions

 

When I first took this out of its packaging, I remember being a little underwhelmed as it wasn’t filled with anything. That soon changed when I inked it up. The silver Lamy pouch that came with it was nice, and will hold a couple of pens.

 

Appearance and design

With the nice red ink and converter, I love how the pen looks. As someone who is constantly taking apart anything I can get my hands on it’s a joy to be able to see the inner workings of the Vista, and it makes for a more interesting look than is achieved with the opaque Safari line. The pen is very sturdy and feels solid. The only downside to the clear body is that any scratches or cracks are going to really show!

 

 

Weight and dimensions

The pen is very light in the hand, weighing in at 20g including the cap, converter and ink. Using cartridges instead of the converter brings this down to 17g. For comparison my Parker Sonnet weighs 30g. The pen is a medium size, and fits well in my (admittedly rather small) hands. The flat parts of the grip mean that it is quite thin, as well as making the pen comfortable for long writing sessions (e.g. back-to-back A-level exams!).

 

Nib and performance

 

For the price I paid for the Vista (£8 on eBay), I was really pleased with the nib (medium line). Particularly when paired with the Waterman ink (shown in the photo) it just danced across the page as I was writing. When using the slightly drier Lamy ink cartridges the flow is a little slower but the pen is amazing all the same. The only downside for me was that there wasn’t really any give in the nib, although it didn’t impact the writing experience much.

 

 

Filling system

 

I’ve used the Vista with both the Lamy cartridges and the converter. Both systems hold a fair amount of ink, and are easy to fill. I liked how there were two small raised parts on the converter which fit perfectly into the bottom part of the grip section.

 

 

Cost and value

 

Excellent! As mentioned above I paid £8 for this pen and can find little wrong with it. The value for money is, as with most Lamy pens, second to none: you get a durable pen with a more industrial (and surprisingly elegant) look which will never give up on you!

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I thoroughly recommend the Lamy Vista but would advise that you use it with the Lamy converter (which it isn’t sold with ) to bring out the full ‘look’ of the pen.

 

-Will-

Edited January 27, 2012 by williamseymour123

[htom]

I have two of them in EF and love them. I cleaned and saved the first dozen cartridges, set them aside to dry. Now I refill them with whatever strikes my fancy. A bit more flex in the nib would be very nice but that's more of a comment than a complaint. I'd like an EEF nib, too. For $us25 ... nearly perfect.

[sparky.88]

Nice review. Thanks! I really enjoy my Lamy Al-Star. I love the looks of the Vista. If I close my eyes, I can see one in my near future.

[senzen]

Love mine with Rouge Hematite and Violette Pensée. The red leaves crud on the Lamy but it flows perfectly.

[Pen2009]

My Vista was also in the pen rotation as it is a good writer. After using this pen for about a year or so, I noticed the silver colored "Lamy" logo on the barrel started to wear off and now does not have any silver color (only visible by the shape of the font).

[yamborghini]

wow The Vista looks quite nice with colourful inks. I might give this a try.

[williamseymour123]

Love mine with Rouge Hematite and Violette Pensée.

 

Ooh! I might have to get something like that!

[robofkent]

I have one but it is rarely used....however having seen this post I may retrieve it now! What a great price you got yours for!

[1point1mm]

Nice review and glad to hear of another individual really enjoying their Lamy Vista. The nibs on mine are the 1.1mm and 1.5mm.

 

Enjoy!

[fourseamer]

Thanks for the review! I've had a Vista in my rotation for a while now. Has a very nice F nib on it, and I love being able to monitor the ink level at all times. With a colorful ink, it makes for an attractive pen.

[hologram]

I own a Vista with M nib and an Al-Star with 1.1mm italic. Matched with the right ink (Diamine or Watermana) the Vista writes nicely although the nib is very rigid. Still struggling to find a wet enough ink for the italic which tends to be on the dry side. Both pens are good daily writers, well constructed.

[The Royal Pen]

Now all you need is some new cool ink that you can wash swish around in the converter

 

I swish the ink around more than I write with it.

[yoitzo]

Vista EF was my first fp. It's what got me addicted. Although the EF seems to make a line that's closer to a M, I still love it. It is one of the smoothest nibs I have. Weird though, because I own two other safaris and the nibs are not as smooth, even after minor adjustments.

 

Mine however, did not come in a silver pouch but in a lamy cardboard box. Is this a new thing?

[Phormula]

Thanks for the review

[ballboy]

It's a very nice neat demonstrator look for the pen. Lamy's converter and cartridges are my favourite proprietary brand ink system as they feel well made and work nicely (in the converter's case.)

My safari was bought as is; no case or blister packaging, which meant I could try it before accepting it. I think it even had the brown paper seal broken off from the converter fitting which made this possible.

 

My Studio came with the new folded black ribbed cardboard packaging mentioned (my earlier Studio came in a tin.)

 

 

Whatever the packaging, the pen is a delight in form and function.

[williamseymour123]

Re-reading this makes me sad that I haven't used mine for ages now! Things are made a bit more awkward now that all my ink, along with some of my pens, are at uni while I'm at home with the rest of them (until the start of term). More pens must be the answer.

[dannytang]

While I like the fact that the Vista is a demonstrator, it makes for a nice conversation with non-fountain pen users, I find that my Vista feels a lot cheaper than my Safari.

[Erise]

Pretty much agree with your review, given that this is my first fountain pen and I just LOVE it with a F nib. I'm using it with Noodler's Black ink and it just writes like a dream, so much that I'm looking for excuses/reasons to write stuff down instead of typing them up.

[Teacher Man]

so much that I'm looking for excuses/reasons to write stuff down instead of typing them up.

 

I know that feeling. Apart from the pricing and the solid quality, what I love about all my Lamys is the fact that you can simply change the nib. My Lamy Vista has been an F, an M, and is currently a 1.1 Italic.

[Pen2009]

My Lamy Vista's logo on the barrel has lost the silver color all but the edge of the words. Other than that, the Lamy Vista / Safari is a great pen for the money.