Voigtlander Archives - Facts, notes and thoughts about vintage cameras and other trifle matters

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....

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

October 6, 2023

Voigtlander VF 135

Voigtlander VF 135 In the mid-1960s, Voigtlander, a time-honoured brand in the industry, had felt the brunt of the up-and-coming Japanese camera industry. After making quality cameras for decades, they needed to broaden their local and export market to capture the base of the user’s pyramid. The time of the Klapp style has long gone, and the quality Vito, Vitessa...

35 mm/Compact/Rangefinder/Voigtlander/West Germany Comments: 0

October 5, 2023

Voigtlander Vitoret F

Voigtlander Vitoret F Voigtlander had an entry-level camera line sold parallel to the high-end models, the Vitoret. It seems there was an unofficial convention by the camera makers to name their bottom line with pet names ending with ‘tte’, such as the Jubilette, Baldinette, Gloriette, Lordette and so on. Voigtlander dropped the ‘te’ at the end and added ‘re’ to...

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

October 4, 2023

Voigtlander Vitomatic I / II

Voigtlander Vitomatic I / Vitomatic II In 1958, Voigtlander introduced updates to two early Vito models: the Vito BL viewfinder updated to the Vitomatic I, and the Vito BR rangefinder updated to the Vitomatic II. The ‘Matic’ in the names did not mean much innovation over what was already there, just rebranding. Both cameras closely resemble the earlier models, weight...

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

October 3, 2023

Voigtlander Vito BL

Voigtlander Vito BL After the Vito B, Voigtlander followed with a similar body camera, with an added light meter, as the Vito BL. And, as with the Vito B on its four models, there were two models under the same name. The early model had a rectangular window on top, with a needle over a zebra crossing and a reference...