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 measures imposed on the losing side as was at the 1814 Congress of Vienna and the Treaty of Versailles, which sow the seeds for the subsequent wars, the winners, read American, aimed to rebuild the shattered economies.

The subverted or flattened industrial infrastructure had to be reinstated. Heavy industry and resources were easy to target, being centralized, large-scale and limited in clients, but the real growth had to be in consumer goods, recreated from null. The exception was the US market; although it had taken a financial, moral and corporal toll, the consumer base was intact. The neutral European states, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Sweden, were unharmed. I assume that after centuries of wars with Russia, Sweden lost its taste for military clashes.

Fast forward to the late 1940s, Sweden was the first destination of the reemerging German industrial exports, sourcing raw materials and paying with goods consumed by the Swedish small but stable consumer base. The US market was next, with German manufacturers selling what the American industry lacked: high-end, sophisticated consumer goods. In this case, photographic devices, in a window that opened before the Japanese took over.

The optical industry in Germany had set the world standard. Post-war, it was either rebuilding from destruction or relying on advances due to wartime demands. With the reimerging pre-war camera makers, scores of start-ups invested in the new and popular photographic hobby. Just as in Japan, many had entered, few survived a couple of decades, and only a handful are with us today, almost neither in this industry.

The pre-war royalty of camera makers were Zeiss, Leitz and Voigtlander, with perhaps Rollei, whose founders came from Voigtlander. Zeiss was a mighty conglomerate that had swallowed Gorlitz, Ernemanne, Contessa, Nettel and ICA, where ICA was assembled of Krugener, Huttig and Wunche, all old-world, respected camera makers with track records going back to the rise of this industry.

Voigtlander and Zeiss had moved towards smaller camera size, a step down from the mahogany and brass bodies, yet not small enough to be a proper vest pocket size. Here is where Leitz saw the future. Leitz toyed with compact, 35mm format cameras since the early last century, presenting the first Leica concept in 1925. It was well before its time, probably beyond the hobbyist’s reach. To counter that, in 1932, Zeiss offered the Contax, a bulky and complex camera, but overall on par with Leica.

Voigtlander was lugging behind. The smaller models were still #120 format, with several Perkeo models using #127.

In the mid-1930s, Germany was going backwards, with rampant inflation and the economy in tatters, and with the war, all halted till the late 1940s. Then, when Leitz and Zeiss churned out production models of the updated Leica and Contax models, both promptly copied by the Japanese and Soviets, the best Voiglander could offer in 35mm format was the Vito line, competing with 2^nd tier models.

The compact 35mm cameras carried a simple message. They were easy to operate, priced within reason, and compact to take them everywhere. The long 35mm film offered three times the norm for #120 format. Variants of these cameras were offered across the board, from basic models providing the minimum required to high-end, state-of-the-art models. The user base grew, and the new picture-taking art was everywhere. The 35mm format was the future, at least for the next 50 years.

I guess that Voigtlander engineers were burning the midnight oil till 1950, when they presented answers to the leading models: the Vitessa against the Leica and the Prominent versus the Contax. Both were superbly made, over-engineered, complex and quirky. The Prominent did not achieve any prominence. It was a high-end rangefinder with interchangeable lenses, complicated and expensive, so it had one update and was dropped.

The Vitessa line, aimed a tad below, had a two-decade run in two incarnations, the early high-end models and the late midmarket range. To emphasize the fresh speedy cocking mode, it was so named, based on the French ‘Vitesse,’ speed.

Designing the early Vitessa, the engineers were still fixated on the prevailing compact models of the time, having a klapp front and bellows. Going on a safe path, they embedded this concept into the small footprint of the Vitessa.

The Vitessa stood out with two features. The cocking / film transport actuation rod and the front barn doors, replacing the common full-size klap front cover.

At the time, combined film transport and shutter cocking were not a standard feature. It was a transitional time where most cameras had a shutter cocking lever independent of the knob winder. To enable faster picture taking, the first step was to combine both, so film transport and shutter cocking would be simultaneous. The second step was the actuation mode. The typical top right-mounted lever seems obvious, but early manufacturers suggested several other modes. Leica had the Leicavit SYOOM bottom lever as early as 1933; Canon VT had a bottom lever in 1956, Retina Ib (018) of 1954 moved the cocking lever to the bottom left, and Smoca had a plunger cocking mechanism in 1952. Still, the left-mounted flagpole above the Vitessa is unique.
The barn doors covering the bellows and the lens assembly were already seen in the 1932 Glunz/Huttig/ICA Ingo, and were later replicated on the first Chinon Bellamy. For a reason unknown to mortals, Voigtlander had added this complex mechanism, prone to early failure, in a model that had to compete with the best of the time. A push of the plunger rod opens the double doors, and the lens assembly pops out.

Other than these two unique features, the engineers added further specific complexities, more in the dedicated Vitessa pages. Note that all Viterssa models are marked as Vitessa only, no model / generation name.

The Vitessa camera line

The early, fixed lens, barn doors Vitessa models are subject to naming conventions that differ per the source you follow:
- The first model of 1951, known as the Vitessa I, A or 125, has a sleek body, a name engraved on top, and no accessory shoe or strap lugs. It has a fixed back and was offered with Ultron 2.0/50 and a Compur Rapid shutter.
- Three years later, in 1953, a variant of the above came out, still named 125 but also referred to as 132; I am not sure which is correct. It had a removable back and Compur Rapid or Synch Compur shutters.
- Vitessa N, under 133 and 134, followed in 1954. It was similar to its predecessor, but with the Voigtlander logo embossed at the front, an accessory shoe was added, and a cheaper Skopar 3.5/50 lens option was added. In the 134 the the shutters speed ad aperture rings could be locked together to retain the EV.
- Vitessa N 134 page.
In 1956, the Vitessa L or II, under 140, added an uncoupled selenium light meter. This model had five versions, including different lens and shutter combinations, meter lens appearance, and EV range.
- Vitessa L 140 page
The 1956 Vitessa T or III eliminated the double doors and pop-out bellows and added an interchangeable lens mount. It still retains the overall look of the early models, but as it was made with fewer moving parts, more have survived to this day. The lens mount by Deckel was supposed to be a base for a platform-wide glass-sharing system, but it did not take off. Per Mckeown, it is interchangeable with the Braun Colorette models and the Wittenauer rebrands.
- Vitessa T 136 page

This was the last of the classic, high-end Vitessa cameras, sold for about a decade. The Prominent, the Vitessa and the Vito line did not save Voigtlander, and in 1956, it was taken over by Zeiss. Zeiss was not immortal either, as it gave up camera-making in the 1970s. ZIV / Zeiss Ikon Voigtlander had revived the Vitessa name with a line of entry-level models aimed at the lower end of the market:

Vitessa 500 models were offered from 1968 onwards. The Vitessa 500AE Electronic, aka Vitessa 500AE, came in three finishes: leatherette, wood, and gold, the latter of which fetch higher prices at the used market. They were simple to use: a viewfinder with a match needle light meter.
A year later, the Vitessa 500L and 500S followed with a refreshed look; not much changed. The 500SE added a self-timer.
In 1967 came the Vitessa 1000SR, a rangefinder version of the Vitessa 500S.
With the craze of the ultra simple 126 format Instamatic type models, in 1967 Zeiss / Voigtlander presented the Vitessa 126 Electronic and the 126S Electronic, souped-up, automatic cameras. Trying to retain some market share, these models were sold for under DM100, a third of the 35mm sisters of the same generation.
In the 1980s, Voigtlander’s name was taken over by Plusfoto a German distributor. Along with other model names, they revived the Vitessa moniker with a line of cheap point-and-shoot models. All but have vanished with the demise of film cameras.
An anecdote, in 1957, Voigtlander toyed with an SLR based on the Vitessa; several prototypes survived, and three were recently auctioned for an average price of USD25,000 each.

Model	Year	Type	Format
Vitessa T 136	1956	Rangefinder	35mm
Vitessa 1000 SR	1967	Rangefinder	35mm
Vitessa 126 CS	1967	Instamatic type	126
Vitessa 500 AE Electronic	1966	Viewfinder	35mm
Vitessa 125	1951	Klapp	35mm
Vitessa 132	1953	Klapp	35mm
Vitessa N 133	1953	Klapp	35mm
Vitessa N 134	1954	Klapp	35mm
Vitessa 126 Electronic	1967	Instamatic type	126
Vitessa 126 S Electronic	1967	Instamatic type	126
Vitessa 500 AE wood finish	1966	Viewfinder	35mm
Vitessa 500 L	1968	Viewfinder	35mm
Vitessa 500 S	1966	Viewfinder	35mm
Vitessa 500 SE Electronic	1966	Viewfinder	35mm
Vitessa L 140	1956	Klapp	35mm
Vitessa L 200 Annivarsery	1956	Klapp	35mm
Vitessa N2 134	1956	Klapp	35mm
Vitessaflex prototype	1957	Compact SLR	35mm
Vitessa Dummy	1951	Klapp	35mm