Rangefinder Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Facts, notes and thoughts about vintage cameras and other trifle matters

November 7, 2024

Petri 35 2.8 Color Corrected Super

Petri 35 2.8 Color Corrected Super Compact cameras made before WWII were klapp style or twin-lens reflexes, using either 120 or 127 formats, so called in Japan ‘semi’ and ‘best’ / ‘vest’ respectively. The early German monoblock models using ‘Kinofilm’, 35mm format, did not catch up much till after the war. In Japan, the early 35mm models by, say, the...

35 mm/Japan/Petri/Rangefinder Comments: 0

November 5, 2024

Petri 7, 7S

Petri 7, 7 S Kuribayashi was one of the early camera makers in Japan, dating back to the early last century. Till WWII, they sold cameras under the ‘First’ brand via Minagawa Shoten, an external distributor that owned the First trade name. Note that Tokiwa Seiki, another early camera maker, made cameras for the same distributor until about WWII, so...

35 mm/Japan/Petri/Rangefinder Comment: 1

October 29, 2024

Clarus MS-35

Clarus MS-35 Pre-war Chicago was a hotbed of camera makers; about three dozen camera brands like Revere, Pho-Tak, Spartus, De Vry, and Busch called it home. In 1939, an outfit named International Photographic Industries, about which little is known, designed a new compact camera that was supposed to compete with Germany’s best. The idea was shelved due to the impending...

35 mm/Rangefinder/USA Comments: 0

August 15, 2024

Voss Diax IIb

Voss Diax IIb I thought I am done with the Diax models, as described on the Voss Diax page. Not so; I came across a Diax IIb in immaculate condition, which I couldn’t resist buying. The Diax brand existed for a short decade, and although it made well-built cameras, I guess they could not compete with the leaders for a...

35 mm/Diax/Germany/Rangefinder Comments: 0

August 11, 2024

Voigtlander Prominent

Voigtlander Prominent The PROMINENT name, styled in all caps, was introduced in 1932 as a high-end compact camera to preserve Voigtlander’s place among the top German camera makers. The camera was still a folding klapp style, reminiscent of the prevailing style of the time. The first Prominent was a little-known model, 6×4.5 over #120 film with a folding viewer, remotely...

35 mm/Germany/Rangefinder/Voigtlander Comments: 0

July 31, 2024

Voigtlander Vitessa T 136

Voigtlander Vitessa T 136 The Vitessa T / 136 was the last of the classic Vitessa lineup, following the Vitessa N and Vitessa L. With the T, the barn doors and bellows underneath it have gone in favour of a monoblock body with an interchangeable lens. The operating basics are much the same, so it is recommended to read the...

35 mm/Germany/Rangefinder/Voigtlander Comments: 0

July 27, 2024

Voigtlander Vitessa L 140

Voigtlander Vitessa L 140 The first in the Vitessa line was the 125, introduced in 1951. Several minor updates ended with the Vitessa N – 134 of 1954, the last of almost identical models. The market for hobby photography grew, as was the appetite for advanced technology, where on-camera, embedded light metering became a threshold for an upscale model. Voigtlander...

35 mm/Germany/Klapp/Rangefinder/Voigtlander Comments: 0

July 25, 2024

Voigtlander Vitessa N 134

Voigtlander Vitessa N 134 Of the many cameras that pass my desk, only a few are genuinely outstanding in design and ingenuity. The Vitessa N is such a model. It is a superbly built camera designed to compete with the Leica models as a high-end camera, but regrettably failed. As described on the Vitessa family page, Voigtlander was late to...

35 mm/Germany/Klapp/Rangefinder/Voigtlander Comments: 0

July 19, 2024

Voigtlander Vitessa Family list

Voigtlander Vitessa Family list The year is 1945. The war has just ended, and the nations of the entire northern hemisphere and more lick their wounds, victors and losers alike. After shedding millions of lives and devastating mass destruction, the world had to rise out of the still-smouldering ashes. Not to make history repeat itself and to avoid the draconian...

35 mm/Germany/Rangefinder/Viewfinder/Voigtlander Comments: 0

July 13, 2024

Voigtlander Vito family List

Voigtlander Vito family List Voigtlander was one of the pioneers in the camera trade, making cameras in Germany since 1850. Till the great war, cameras were of the luggable type, with compact models using the 35mm format gradually taking the stage in the 1930s: Contax in 1932, commercial-run Leica came about a decade earlier, and mass market Retina in 1935....