Found a pristine Voightlander Vitomatic 1 camera

[ToddB]

Hey guys,

Need some feed back. I ran by a antique store on the way home , and found a pristine Voightlander Vitomatic 1 camera. Are these any good? how do you focus? Researching it online right now.

Be back soon to see if anyone chimed in.

Todd

 

[snapguy]

nasty habits

Back in the days when your camera was made, Voightlander had a nasty habit of making really interesting cameras that were viewfinder, not rangefinder cameras. You had to set the distance to the subject manually, there was no coupled rangefinder. I understand yours is one of those. I think this keep the value down.

 

[Jojje]

High quality west german (some of us still remember what this meant) camera. Color-Skopar is a very capable lens. Probably even the light meter (made by Gossen) will work o.k. I've shot slides with one and all exposures came out fine. Shame your's doesn't have a rangefinder but don't let that put you off. Note that the shutter won't fire if there's no film in it. (Which is great if you loaded the film clumsily.)
On a local forum a camera repairman told he threw all Voigtländer spares to the bin in the 1980's - they were never needed.
http://www.cameramanuals.org/voigtlander_pdf/voigtlander_vitomatic_i.pdf

 

[Kirks518]

butkus.org is your friend - http://www.butkus.org/chinon/voigtlander_pdf/voigtlander_vitomatic/voigtlander_vitomatic.htm

 

[R.Gould]

Te vitomatic 1 camera was the vito b with a built in exposure meter, I have the vito b with a color skoper lens, and it is no mean performer, I suggest that you get hold of a shoe mounted rangefinder, you can often find one for around £5, or $5, the Voightlander cameras are very well built, very solid and dependable, and capable of very good results, In later Vitomatics ( from the IIa onwards) had a built in coupled rangefinder and used the Compur slk shutter which had a top shutter speed of 500, so use and enjoy a vintage piece of photographic equipment

 

[pbromaghin]

I wouldn't call a non-coupled view finder a nasty habit, it just made for a less expensive camera. This is a beautifully made camera with top quality glass. It isn't all that hard to zone focus as long as you keep to a fairly small aperture (f8 or so) and don't get too close. It's an extra little challenge that can add to the fun.

 

[Peltigera]

Why on Earth would you want a rangefinder with it? I have a Vitomatic II which does have the rangefinder and I do not use it. With a small amount of practice you can judge the distance accurately by eye - keep the aperture down to f8 and the depth of field will cover poor distance judging. The method I use is to imagine I am lying down on the ground between me and the subject - how many body lengths is there? I am almost exactly two metres tall so I then double my body lengths to get the distance to set on the focus scale. If you focus on 7 metres at f8, everything between 3 metres and infinity is in focus.

 

[Peltigera]

Incidently, your Vitomatic takes a 32mm push fit filter/lens hood.

 

[AgX]

High quality west german (some of us still remember what this meant) camera.

What do you mean by that?

 

[Jojje]

AgX:
Just for example, people rave how they have bought excellent quality german-made camera when it actually is made in DDR. I don't want to put them down, but there is a difference.
In my youth I used to wear affordable DDR-made clothing - cheap and durable but not so good looking.

 

[ToddB]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the chime in on the camera. It is a beautiful camera, not a scratch on it. I currently have it on flea bay.

 

[AgX]

AgX:
Just for example, people rave how they have bought excellent quality german-made camera when it actually is made in DDR. I don't want to put them down, but there is a difference.
In my youth I used to wear affordable DDR-made clothing - cheap and durable but not so good looking.

East-German cameras were made to same quality control standards as in West-Germany.
East-German 35mm SLRs were still designed and manufactured when such was no longer the case in West-Germany (with the exception of Rollei).

 

[Jojje]

During my years serving metal industry when these "ISO9001 approved" signs keep popping-up I have learned that a "quality control standard" is just as good as its control. Too frequently non-existent.
Perhaps there were design flaws then..? Older people still remember the unreliability of the Exacta shutters and flimsy film travel gear on Praktisix. Perhaps early experiences created the bad reputation which just carried on and on? I have only one GDR-made camera, an Ercona. Balsam is separating from the lenses as do the leathers but otherwise produces nice photographs.
Pardon me if I have carried on this bad reputation of East-Gearman photographic equipment against my better knowledge!