Help identifying Voigtländer lenses

[konicaman]

I just got 2 Voigtländer lenses in a box with several Voigtländer cameras. (just for at couple of hours handy work - lucky me 🙂 ). The only camera with a removable lens is a Prominent and the lenses for sure do not fit on that. Can somebody please help me out on this - which camera'll take these lenses?

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=7991

 

[historicist]

Voigtlander Vitessa?

http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Vitessa_T

 

[former member]

The Vitessa T is a rangefinder that also uses removable lenses.

The Voigtlander SLR's of the 60s also use them. I believe these lenses are for the SLR. The Vitessa T lenses have an F-stop adjustment on the lens. The SLR lenses require a ring on the camera body to be used.

ALSO: Rick Oleson has instructions for modifying these lenses for the Retina Reflex S series cameras.

 

[konicaman]

Thanks guys - guess I'll have to go looking for a Bessamatic...

 

[MXP]

I am also quite sure that the lenses are for Bessamatic / Ultramatic. It can be difficult to get a 100% working and clean Bessamatic and they are complicated to repair. Most of them have dirt in the viewfinder (old foam) and shutter often needs a CLA.

 

[ErnestoJL]

AFAIK, all the lenses you got are for either Voigtländer Bessamatic or Ultramatic.
All are excellent lenses but very complicated to work with as they have preset diaphragm and Deckel DOF indicators (those two little red bars that move as you close/open the iris) which mean a lot of mechanical parts to move at the same time. All of them suffer from the same problem, it is dry grease which means no moving parts.
IMHO, all of them deserve a good CLA and a body to show what they are capable of. I agree, the bodies are complicated (I know it by personal experience) but IMHO, the results are worth the expense
Good luck in finding the right companion for those beatifull lenses.

Cheers
Ernesto

 

[former member]

I've got a lot of Retina lenses, and have never had a problem with the aperture mechanism freezing up. They are hard to disassemble, you have to get a lot of little springs into place. The lenses themselves are Automatic aperture, ie they stop down by themselves and open up when the camera is cocked. On the Retina IIIS they act as manual lenses, or like auto lenses with DOF active.

 

[konicaman]

The apertures seem to move with just a light touch to the the little pin on the rim, so I guess they are working. I can´t know for sure until they are attached to a camera of course. I am still looking to find a suiteable camera, but there seems to be a lot of defunct Bessas and Ultras out there...

 

[ErnestoJL]

You´re right Konicaman, there are many Bessamatics and Ultramatics for sale out there. The digital revolution brought many good cameras to the market and prices are just a fraction of the real price they should have.
My personal choice is a Bessamatic, preferably the CS model that comes with a CdS exposure meter (the others have a selenium cell and is almost impossible to find one that still works). The Ultramatic was too a good and nice camera but being automatic, had a much more complicated mechanics, so it won´t be my personal choice. The most common lens is the Color Skopar 2.8/50 which is an excellent perfomer. This lens is a Tessar design, it is 4 elements in 3 groups, and focuses shifting the entire lens, not by the front cell as it happens with all the Voigtländer RFs. Another lens and a perhaps a better choice is the Septon 2/50 however it is not as common as the Skopar and a bit more expensive.
Again, good luck!

Cheers
Ernesto

 

[Silva Lining]

I just got 2 Voigtländer lenses in a box with several Voigtländer cameras. (just for at couple of hours handy work - lucky me 🙂 ). The only camera with a removable lens is a Prominent and the lenses for sure do not fit on that. Can somebody please help me out on this - which camera'll take these lenses?

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=7991

As the other posters have said, these lenses are for a Bessamatic or Ultramatic.

They are similar to those for the Vitessa T, but the mounting is different.

As a general rule, bessamatic/ultramatic lenses end in -ex

e.g. Skoparex, Dynarex, Skopar X (except Septon, Zoomar - uh 😱)

Whereas Vitessa T lenses end in - -et

Skoparet, Dynaret etc.


Promenent Lenses end in - on,

Skoparon, Dynaron, Nokton, Ultron

You can, with a little 'adjustment' use Kodak Retina Lenses on a Bessamatic

ARTICLE HERE

 

[konicaman]

Hi Silva
Interesting piece of handy work - don't know if I am that adventurous. Anyway gotta find the camera first. Going to a lot of flea markets this weekend; who knows, I might get lucky...