Voigtländer

Voigtländer is one of the the world's oldest companies for optical instruments.

Chronology

• Founded by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in the year 1756 in Vienna (Austria), it was the first factory for optical instruments and precision mechanics there.
• In 1763 the company got protection by a decree from Austria's Empress Maria Theresia.
• In 1797 the state allowed Voigtländer to produce measuring instruments.
• In 1823 they got a royal privilege to produce opera binoculars.
• Shortly after the invention of photography had been published in 1840 Voigtländer produced the first camera lens which had been developped on the base of analytical calculations. This was an early landmark on the way to practical usage of photography. These Petzval portrait lenses had been developped by the mathematician Professor Josef Maximilian Petzval and the company founder's grandson Peter Wilhelm Friedrich von Voigtländer. The exposure times had been reduced dramatically by using the new 149mm lenses which allowed aperture upto 1:3,7 .
• In the same year 1840 Voigtländer introduced cameras made of metal.
• In 1862 Voigtländer had produced its 10.000th camera lens.
• In 1868 the Voigtländer headquarters moved from Austria's capital Vienna to Braunschweig in Germany.
• In 1898 Voigtländer became a stock market company.
• In 1900 the "Reise Kamera" (travel camera) was introduced
• In 1931 Voigtländer entered the mass market with the BESSA camera for 6x9 format.
• In 1939 the VITO, their first camera for 35mm film, was well received by the customers.
• In 1955 the 4.000.000th lens had been produced.
• In 1959 they introduced the Zoomar, the world's first interchangeable zoom lens.
• In 1970 Voigtländer was merged with Zeiss-Ikon.
• In 1974 Voigtländer had become part of Rollei .
• 1980 Plusfoto became Voigtländer's sales organisation.
• Since 1987 Ricoh and Chinon make cameras for Voigtländer
• In 1994 the last part of the original Voigtländer company in Braunschweig was closed.
• In 1995 Ringfoto bought Plusfoto and the Voigtländer brand.
• In 1999 the popular 35mm viewfinder camera body Bessa L was introduced, made by Cosina and based on a SLR body of them
• Nowadays two classes of Voigtländer products exist, the viewfinder camera series made by Cosina, and consumer cameras: compacts and digicams, produced by Ricoh, Chinon, or somewhere else in the globalized world for Ringfoto.

Voigtländer cameras

early cameras

• 1840: Daguerreotyp-Apparat zum Portraitiren
• 1900: Reise Kamera

35mm SLR

• Bessamatic
• Bessamatic de Luxe
• Bessamatic m
• Bessamatic CS
• Ultramatic
• Ultramatic CS

35mm rangefinder, interchangeable lens

• Prominent
• Prominent II
• Vitessa T

35mm fixed lens

• Vito B, small or big finder
• Vito BL
• Vito BR
• Vitomatic I
• Vitomatic II
• Vitomatic Ia
• Vitomatic IIa
• Vitomatic Ib
• Vitomatic IIb
• Vitomatic IIIb
• Vitomatic ICS
• Vitomatic IICS
• Vitomatic IIICS
• Vito C
• Vito CD
• Vito CL
• Vito CLR
• Vito CS
• Vito CSR
• Vito Automatic
• Vito Automatic I
• Vito Automatic II
• Vito Automatic R
• Dynamatic
• Dynamatic II
• Vitoret
• Vitoret D
• Vitoret DR
• Vitoret L
• Vitoret F
• Vitoret R
• Vitoret Rapid D
• Vitrona

35mm folding

• Vito
• Vito II
• Vito IIa
• Vito III
• Vitessa

120 folding

• Inos I (6×9)
• Inos II (6×9)
• Virtus (6×6)
• Prominent (6×9)
• Bessa (prewar) (6×9)
• Bessa RF (6×9)
• Bessa I (6×9)
• Bessa II (6×9)
• Bessa 66 (6×6)
• Perkeo I (6×6)
• Perkeo II (6×6)
• Perkeo E (6×6)
• Rollfilmkamera (6×9)

120 TLR

• Brillant
• Superb

127 folding

• Perkeo 3x4

Folding plate cameras

• Alpin
• Alpin Rapid
• Avus
• Bergheil
• VAG

reflex cameras

• 1905: Heliar Reflex ( 9 x 12 )
• 1908: Bijou
• 1912: Spiegel-Reflex-Kamera

stereo cameras

• 1902: Stereoskop
• 1905: Stereo and Panorama Kamera ( 9 x 14 )
• 1907: Stereophotoskop ( 4,5 x 10,7 )
• 1911: Alpin Stereo ( 10 x 15 )
• 1912: Spiegelreflex-Stereo
• 1913: Stereflektoskop ( 6 x 13 )

Zeiss Ikon / Voigtländer

35mm SLR

For the Icarex line, see Zeiss Ikon.

35mm fixed lens

• Vitessa 500 L / 500 S / 500 AE electronic / 500 SE electronic / 1000 SR

126 viewfinder

• Vitessa 126 CS / 126 electronic / 126 S electronic

Voigtländer (Rollei)

35mm SLR

With 42mm screw lenses:

• VSL 1 (TM)
• VSL 2CX automatic (prototypes)

With Rolleiflex SL35 lenses:

• VSL 1 (BM)
• VSL 2 automatic
• VSL 3-E
• Vitoflex E (prototypes)

35mm viewfinder

• VF101 (1974-1976)
• VF102 (1974, prototype)
• VF135 (1976-1980)
• VF35F (1981)

Intermediate period

35mm

• Vito
• Vito C
• Vito CS

Pocket Instamatic 110

• Vitoret 110/110EL (1976-1981)

Voigtländer (Ringfoto/Cosina)

See Cosina Voigtländer and other Ringfoto Voigtländers

Links

• Voigtländer
• Voigtländer site by Dietrich Drescher, alias doppeld
• Voigtländer page by Frank Mechelhoff
• Schoebels' Voigtländer archive
• Voigtländer Verein Club
• http://www.butkus.org/chinon/voigtlander_pdf/voigtlander_pdf_manuals.htm Some 40 Voigtlander instruction manuals in English, scanned in PDF format, 600 dpi