This old little camera really was a nice easter egg. I got the time to scan the first roll I shot with this camera just few days ago and I was shocked: this kind of sharpness out of what it was designed as a cheap compact camera was really unexpected, also considering that I loaded it with some low quality, grainy film (Fujicolor 200).
The Voigtländer Vito B is a compact, viewfinder camera made in West Germany from 1954, they are usually equipped with a Color-Skopar 50/3.5 lens which was highly regarded for its sharpness and contrast and, as I could witness, it's not just a nostalgic talk between old aficionados.
The "snapshottish" heritage of this little camera is evident by the lack of a real rangefinder and no exposure meter: the "normal" usage was based on the sunny/16 principle and the approximate focusing through the use of the triangle and circle symbols on the focus ring (at about 11 and 40 feet), stated you set a closed enough aperture. For more evolute amateurs there was a rangefinder accessory to be mounted on the the shoe located on top of the camera, together with a "sport" finder (nothing more than a 35mm frame on black) that allowed framing with both eyes opened.
The shutter is a Prontor SVS with coupled time-aperture pairs, the same mechanism used on the most expensive Hasselblad medium format system. No wonder that using this overkill tech on amateurish cameras like this one brought the German photographic industry in bad financial waters when Japanese camera flooded the west with far less complicated devices.
Still the sound of this shutter is a sort of celestial and soothing music for every lover of precision mechanic.
(Alessandro Guerani is a professional photographer specialized in food shooting. He lives in Bologna, Italy, and is available for assignments to create the images you always craved. Read the "About me" or contact him using the "Mail me" in the blog menu above.)
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2 commenti :
Thanks for sharing this with us Alessandro. The Vito B is a wonderful reassuringly solid little camera to hold; with design and attention to detail missing in todays electronic age.
hey alessandro, just picked up a vito b 2.8. i'm new to this scale focusing. there is a red triangle on a dial that is fixed to the shutter speed. to either side of this triangle is the full aperture range from 2.8 to 16. then there is another dial from 3.5 to infin. which also has a triangle and a circle.
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