Camera Testing - Voigtländer Vito II

Godfrey

Godfrey

somewhat colored
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About a dozen years ago, I was meandering by a museum in Palo Alto with a friend. As we walked past the museum, I saw a guy with a big box heading to the dumpster. There were interesting, technical looking things in the box, so I asked him what the stuff was.

"Donations from people, lots of old junk we have no space for," he replied. We took a look, and one of the things in the box was a beat up Voigtländer Vito II, looking much the worse for wear.

"You gonna throw this out?" I asked. "Can I have it?"
"You can have anything in the box, I don't care! Just want to get rid of it. It's not worth anything," he replied.

And so I took home the Vito II and a pretty little Kodak Bantam folder (bakelight construction). And they've been sitting on my bookshelf as display pieces ever since. Now, the Bantam has a working shutter but the standard catch is broken and gone, and who can really bother trying to find 828 film loads any more? But a few months back I was looking at the Vito II and wondered if the shutter worked... It almost did! I would make one rather lethargic exposure and then jam, and after a few minutes of jiggling it and working the shutter speed ring around, it would make another. The lens looked to be fungus free, the bellows (despite a ton of dust) looked sound. Hmm. 'Probably needs a good cleaning...' So I sent it off to the repair shop for a clean and service.

A couple of months later, it has returned with all the externals and internals cleaned, adjusted and lubricated. It needed a new mainspring for the shutter too. (Expensive, a whole $12! LOL!) The shutter works beautifully at all speeds, the little Color-Skopar 50mm f/3.5 lens is clear and ready to be used. I found an instruction manual for it and loaded it with ACROS 100 film just now (appropriate to its 1/300 maximum shutter speed).

I snapped a few photos of it the other day sitting next to my Leica M10-M just for comparison of size and such...





​

And we're off! Let's see what this little Color-Skopar 50mm can do! :D
I'll add pictures I make with it to this thread once I finish the roll of film and process/scan it.

G
 
Some nice shots there!

Advance Camera Repair did an excellent job of the repair and CLA! Everything on the camera works smoothly, precisely, just like you'd expect from a Voigtländer of that era. The shutter feels and sounds great!

G
 
Yes, as long as you remember to lift the lever to wind on they're lovely. Not having used mine for years, it took me an age to work that out again...

Those two pimples either side of the viewfinder are for a clip-on accessory shoe that is not only impressively ugly but also mashes your chrome underneath. Goodness only knows what they were thinking.
 
I'm kinda glad I don't have the cold shoe adapter. ;)

I've made 11 exposures so far ... most were indoors at the cafe earlier, then a couple using a tripod here at home. Probably mostly junk, but it's proving to me that the camera really does work nicely, and it's a very handy size and shape. I'll take it on my walk this afternoon, mayhap run out the roll of film.

G
 
Just back from my walk with the Vito II. It is a delight to use, to carry. I'm up to exposure 28 or so ... Might pull the roll a couple of frames early so I can process it tomorrow; I can't wait to see what that lens is doing. :D

G
 
You probably already know this, Godfrey, but Voigtlander's Skopar lenses were Tessar-types: Perfect for portraiture at wider apertures (softer with a little fall-off in the corners) and sharp for landscape at smaller apertures.

- Murray
 
Thank you, Murray. Yes, I have a couple of other Voigtländer cameras with Color-Skopar lenses. :)

G
 
Reading Godfrey's post made me want to get out my Vito ll again. However. I haven't used it much since I started having to wear glasses all the time as the viewfinder is just to small. Can anyone suggest an auxiliary 50mm viewfinder that won't break the bank but give a reasonable view. It has a cold shoe which isn't centred but I reckon I can make it work.

Cheers,
Clay
 
The Voigtlander Kontur viewfinders are cheap for the simple reason that a lot of people don't get on with them. They are the ones that are just a bright line in an otherwise black finder, and you need to keep both eyes open to use them. Confusingly you need the one labeled 35mm, as they were also made for medium format.

ETA see this article: Voigtländer Kontur Viewfinder: A Review and an Accuracy Test
 
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First off: I pulled my initial roll of film early because I wanted to see how well the Vito II was working, and what the Color-Skopar 50/3.5 was like. My quick summary (just looking at the negs on a light table with a magnifying glass—It's working very nicely indeed! I'll do some scanning today, there may be a couple of decent photographs in this first set of 23 or so exposures. My initial impression is that the lens is both very sharp and has rather nice bokeh as well. :D

It's a wonderful, compact, tidy camera to shoot with. Because it requires the focus set by scale and the shutter be cocked manually, it slows me down and keeps me thinking. The ACROS 100 film I had in it is near to perfect for daylight shooting as it gives you a full range of aperture choices, given the 1/300 sec shortest exposure time.

The peephole viewfinder is workable for me but does require a good bit of squinting for my eyes with glasses on. Of course, since I don't really need my glasses to see through it well enough to frame and there are no focusing aids in the viewfinder, I could live with it. But I found one of the 333/23 Accessory Shoe adapters cheap (about $30) and I have the Kontur 35mm viewfinder already ... that will make shooting with it nicer since my eyes work well with the Kontur viewfinders. I will have to find some way to protect the camera from the accessory shoe adapter — don't want the camera to get all scratched up, the metalwork is nearly perfect right now.

Now off to set up the negative scanning rig... :D Yesterday was a banner day in film processing: I processed the roll out of the Vito II, another roll out of the Minox 35GT-E, and another roll out of the Minox B. That's more film processed in one day than I've done in several years...

G
 
hap said:
can you push the lens back into the camera with that filter on? I am not able to do so on mine.
Click to expand...
Not that I can recall. I'm pretty sure I removed it when closing and left the camera open between exposures while in use because of that.

PF
 
Always best to remove filters/hoods/etc and set the lens to infinity before folding any of these cameras. Some can handle a filter, but not many ... can cause problems and jam things if you try to close with lens accessories in place.

...
Some of these negs are very fun!

241202-1005579.jpg
"Grinching into the Holidaze" - Santa Clara 2024
Voigtländer Vito II, ACROS 100​

Enjoy! G
 
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