Vitessa

Vitessa, early model without meter
image by Alf Sigaro (Image rights)

The Vitessa was an innovative 35mm folding rangefinder camera made by Voigtländer in the 1950s. The folding bed was replaced by a barn-door assembly, the focusing was operated by the user's right thumb via a wheel on the back of the top plate, with a distance dial (and depth-of-field scale) set into the top plate. The film advance and shutter cocking were operated with a large plunger rod pointing out of the top plate, that could be retracted when the camera was folded.

The series had a number of small variations during its production. The very first models did not have strap lugs nor automatic parallax correction. The most expensive models had a 50mm f/2 Ultron lens, the others a 50mm f/3.5 or f/2.8 Color-Skopar. They all had a Compur-Rapid or Synchro Compur shutter to 1/500. The later models had an uncoupled selenium meter.

The folding Vitessa was replaced by the rigid Vitessa T, a camera based on the same body but without the barn-door and with interchangeable lenses.

At the end of the 1960s, Zeiss Ikon / Voigtländer produced a series of compact 35mm cameras called the Vitessa 500, and some 126 film cameras called the Vitessa 126, that are both discussed elsewhere.