New to Vito CLR

[VitoGuy]

Hey guys, just joined. Just purchased a Vito CLR off of a classified site and will be picking it up later this weekend. Guy that has it right now says camera is in great shape, appears to be 100% functional, has run a roll of film through it and all seemed to work as per settings, but hasn't had the film developed.

Reading between the lines I take this as the light meter is facked. I won't know for sure until I run a roll through it, but if is it out of whack, is this something I can adjust/fix myself and how difficult would it be? Is there anything I should be looking out for in looking over/checking out this camera? My experience with photography started last Sept with a digital SLR so fully manual film cameras are new to me. Can I use my SLR as a temp 'light meter' for comparing against the Vito's?

Looking forward to posting some photo's if all is well with it.

Cheers!

 

[Keith]

Hey there,

I've emailed you about this and will get onto it tonight when I get home.

I did mine recently and it was dead easy to work on ... I think I may do a separate post on this with pics for a sticky ... for others out there who have this fantastic little camera!

Cheers. 🙂

 

[ZeissFan]

You have two options:

The Sunny 16 rule.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_16_rule

Or you can buy a small handheld meter. I have a couple of handheld meters.

I'd probably pick up a roll of print film and try the Sunny 16 rule.

Good luck. The Vito CLR is a nice little camera, although the front mounted shutter release is an acquired taste (to quote classic camera author Ivor Mantanle).

 

[VitoGuy]

Picked it up and I'm very happy and surprised it's in as good as shape as it is. Shutter seems to work at all ranges including bulb, definite difference between 1/15 and 1 /500 second exposure. Apertures work as seen from inside camera with the film door open. Rangefinder is clear and bright and tell me if I'm too optimistic, but I think the meter is working! Both needles move fine, in low light the white needle is pegged off the right but when I move it towards an incadescant 60W lightbulb, the closer I get to it the white needle moves to the left of the meter until the camera is inches away from the lightbulb and then the white needle is within a few millimeters of the left hand side. Lens is clean, clear and no scratches.

Came with a wrist strap that goes into the tripod socket, a brown leather case with shoulder strap, a lens filter case (no filters) and english instruction manual.

Guy who sold it to me showed me it work a flash (flash not included)

One other thing it does have that I figured out is there is a little plastic cover that you can stick over the light meter thing - the part on the front of the camera that looks kinda like a bugs eye. So it's a light meter cover. The question is why and when would I use it?

Other than that it is super clean. It could pass as 1 month old, not 40 years!

The only issue with it is the self timer is sticky, not a big deal since I can't ever see myself using it. Might play with it a bit here and there to see if some use free's it up.

Can't wait to load film in it and try it.

Another question, is when I load film, at what place do I hook the leader tab into the take up spool? First hole in leader, 2nd ???

Cheers!

 

[VitoGuy]

An update...

An update...

Holy c-r-a-p!!! I think the meter works very fine on this! I tried aiming it around today on my lunch break and it was more or less matching up with both my film and digital SLR's. Not exactly the same but close, same apertures the shutter speeds were with 1/50th of a second of the film SLR. All @ 400 ISO.

Got some film loaded in it now so all I have to do is wait out this deep freeze the great lakes region is in and go out and shoot to see if all is well or not.

Cheers!

 

[Keith]

Holy c-r-a-p!!! I think the meter works very fine on this! I tried aiming it around today on my lunch break and it was more or less matching up with both my film and digital SLR's. Not exactly the same but close, same apertures the shutter speeds were with 1/50th of a second of the film SLR. All @ 400 ISO.

Got some film loaded in it now so all I have to do is wait out this deep freeze the great lakes region is in and go out and shoot to see if all is well or not.

Cheers!

You're lucky ... mine was two or three stops out. sounds like you got good deal. If the lens on yours is a color skopar ... they are a terrific lens for colour shots.

This is out of the first roll of film I put through mine ... C41 Fuji ... and is a straight scan with no changes!

 

[VitoGuy]

Meter works!

Meter works!

Here is a pic I took of my Vito last night. Very clean little unit...

And here is the first picture I took with the 'new' Vito. I'm very surprised and satisfied that the meter is 100% functional. I didn't know if any pic would be exposed properly so I just got it 'close enough' and took the pic. Now that I know it works I'll pay proper attention to the metering.

 

[titrisol]

THE Vito CLR is great camera, I used one in the 80s (my uncle's)
You can compare it to the Zeiss Contessa's and other similar rangefinder/zone exposure cameras very favourably.