A free Voigtlander Prominent.... Now what do I do?!

[eIII]

moving my grandma this last weekend and cleaning out her house i came across this nifty old camera. she said take it. i said ok. never heard of voigtlander but was intrigued and now i have found you all and what a happy bunch this seems to be! 🙂 🙂

i have now spent many hours on the web researching this camera, mostly in the archives here. i have learned A LOT! from what i have read this a mid fifties prominent I and is a quirky little gem with the funky focus. it does have the nokton 1.5/50 and from what i've gleamed this seems to be a good thing. the camera itself seems to be in wonderful shape, having sat in its leather case in a dresser drawer for many if not most of its years (it was my long deceased grandfather's camera).

i am not completely new to photography, but i have never heard of rangefinders till now. a few years ago i got into photography by buying a used Nikon FM2, all manual with a meter, and took a few classes. since then i've taken a lot of pictures and learned the basics- aperture/ shutter speed/ DOF. i'm not much of a techie and i have been content taking nice pictures with the nikon 50mm 1/1.8 lens that came with the camera. i like the control and have never had any desire to mess with lenses or even filters.

now that i've read up a bit on rangefinders my simple sensibilities are quite attracted to this new format, though i've yet to take a picture.

so, this new camera has me quite confused and i'm not sure where to start. all these buttons and levers. if i was just looking to get into rangefinders i doubt i would start with an old voigtlander prominent, but the price was right!
😛 😛

any suggestions? should i just throw some film in and see what happens? what film should i use? after sitting so long is their any precautions i should take? i can't be 100% sure the camera is functional, but it looks good and makes the right noises when i advance/ release the shutter (how's that for tech speak?). plus i've never worked w/o a meter.

i'm very excited and ready to dive in. despite the confusion right now this is a good problem to have! thanks in advance.

bill

 

[iggers]

It is a cool camera with a fine lens. Some people dislike the camera's "ergonomics", particularly the rangefinder / distance setting mechanism.

Ya gotta just dive in. There's no need to stand shivring at the edge of the pool. Throw in a 200 asa color film. Guesstimate the exposure settings, or bring your Nikon along for the metering. Try some indoor available light shots at f/1.5 (wide open) and 1/50 or 1/100.

Enjoy!

 

[KoNickon]

It is pretty straightforward to figure out, but there are one or two things to know about when using it. There's a little flat "tongue" that sticks out from the rear of the top deck, just by the film wind knob. You can push that in to enable you, if you want, to just wind the film on to frame #1 (rather than doing the wind, fire, wind, fire drill). To set the film counter, lift up the wind knob and turn the counter to 1. I believe it's ratcheted and only turns one way.

When rewinding, first slide that little button on top of the rewind/focus knob -- a D ring pops up to greatly speed the rewind process. (A very cool feature, I think!) Important -- on the top deck near the wind knob there's a small button with two crossed grooves. You need to push that button in and keep it held in while rewinding. (If you're planning to do your own developing, when that button stops turning -- and you can feel it because of the crossed groove texture -- you'll know to stop rewinding and leave the film leader out.

In use, the finder is rather squinty. And focusing is a little "different" because you're turning that rewind knob. If you would rather just do hyperfocal work, take a look at the focusing scale on the rewind knob. I don't have my Prominent with me, but there's a triangle and circle symbol on it, which as I recall can be used for hyperfocal at f8 and f16.

I believe Voigtlander recommended that you charge the shutter manually if you're going to use 1/500. You can still do so just by winding the film advance knob, but cocking it separately makes it easier to wind on the film.

Have fun with it! It's really a remarkable camera and a very innovative design (which is probably why it never caught on like the Leica, Contax, Nikon and Canon rangefinders).

 

[ZeissFan]

Dan is referring to me. Hate the camera, love the lens. I bought an adapter to mount the lens to a Contax. If you check out my site, you can see a few shots that I took with the f/2.0 Ultron. The Nokton is supposed to be a very highly regarded lens.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

You indeed have a very good "problem". Lucky you. I would do a few focus tests first, so that, in case the rangefinder is off, you wouldn't blame it on the lens. Have fun!

 

[Pherdinand]

aww, what a find! I certainly would be curious to handle a Prominent - but i certainly would have been in the same situation as you now, aka clueless, a few years ago😀

 

[furcafe]

Congratulations eIII. Like ZeissFan, I am firmly in the camp of those who love the Voigtlander lenses, but hate the ergonomics of the "innovative" Prominent body (which operates much like Voigltander's folding medium format cameras, not any other 35mm camera). That said, the Prominent is certainly capable of capturing wonderful images, particularly if you have a slow, deliberate photographic style, & the Nokton is truly 1 of the greatest fast 50mm lenses ever made.

 

[eIII]

"Ya gotta just dive in."

and so it goes. i took your suggestion, threw some film in and went at it. i grabbed my nikon for metering and of course the battery had died just since last week. so i winged it, wanting to get some nice outdoor shots before the sun went down.

KoNickon, thanks for the tips- extremely helpful.

so i flew through a roll of color 200, getting some eve sun, shade, and indoor shots hoping something would turn out. then off to the 1 hour shop.

wow! while my skills have much to be desired, there is no doubt about the quality of the pictures. my eye isn't nearly as trained or critical as many of you, but the results are undeniable, especially the outdoor. the available light indoor shots were much more spotty, a few way out of focus, and plain lousy composition. but there was enough good in the pics to realize the potential of this camera and to get me excited about learning this format.

i have a scanner i've never used, but i'll try to post a few pics to share.

thanks again!

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The Nokton is regarded as one of the best '50s of the '50s. The camera is built like a tank. It is funky. Voigtlander cameras are funky. I have a Vitessa with "plunger" wind. a 4" (or so) plunger on top of the camera, push it down to wind the film.

The Voigtlander lenses are top notch. The camera should give you some great pictures as well. Give Grandma a BIG thankyou, and get some good shots with the camera that you can frame for her. That should make her happy that the camera is getting some real use.

 

[Will]

Dan is referring to me. Hate the camera, love the lens. I bought an adapter to mount the lens to a Contax. If you check out my site, you can see a few shots that I took with the f/2.0 Ultron. The Nokton is supposed to be a very highly regarded lens.

Zeiss Fan,

Are you using the CV prominent adapter? So the adapter worked for both the classic norton and the classic Ultron?

Always enjoy looking at photos made by the norton, I want one... 😀

 

[titrisol]

If I were you I'd first shoot many times without film to make sure the shutter is working.
Move the focus and check that it is not stiff/loose
After you've played with it, just load it and GO GO GO!!!!
Please let us know how the pictures turn out 😉

Did you check this?
http://www.cameraquest.com/voiprom.htm
http://host.fptoday.com/melek/pages/cameras/prominent.htm

and a manual here:
http://www.butkus.org/chinon/prominent/prominent-splash.htm