The Maligned Voigtlander Prominent (The Sporty Corvair?)

Good work with the Prominents JD !

As for the Foton and the t-system, I learn something new each day ! Anyway so far this is the first time I've read about it being used in a still photography lens, does anybody know of more examples ?

Just curious, but it looks like Bell & Howell took a serious gamble with it...
 
Hey, don't knock the Foton, it's 1 of the coolest cameras of all time & lots of fun, too! As I posted once on photo.net, "[w]hat's not to like about a spring-powered motordrive that can be switched between semi & full auto? Having the option of blasting away @ 6 fps like a photographic Maxim gun outweighs the truly awful RF window. . . . quality glass, mechanical precision, finish, & quality of construction outweigh lack of meter. Also ergonomics of the unorthodox design are surprisingly good. If only B&H had been willing (&/or able) to incorporate a decent Contax or Leica-M style combination RF/VF [heck or even an OK Leica thread mount-style separate RF/VF], maybe there would still be an American camera industry . . ."

taffer said:
Aha ! Here it is !

Foton

Not 100% quirky though, the lens is still marked in f stops, must check my Matanle...
Click to expand...
 
BTW, although the Foton lenses use t-stops, the front of the lenses indicate the maximum aperture in good ol' f-stops. Thus, the standard 2" (51mm) TTH Cooke Amotal Anastigmat is marked on the bezel as an f/2 lens, but the maximum aperture on the aperture ring is T/2.2.

taffer said:
Aha ! Here it is !

Foton

Not 100% quirky though, the lens is still marked in f stops, must check my Matanle...
Click to expand...
 
D'oh!

I wasn't thinking about the exchange rate being that extreme, but you are absolutely right, Oscar! So it went appropriately.

Now, I'm doing holidays in Portugal in March or April. It's ALL OF EUROPE'S job to figure out how to devalue the Euro by then. I don't wanna have to pay SO much more. When first I went, the rate was like $.90 to the Euro.

You are missing some verb forms in your sig...
They did taff, he did taff, they will taff, they taffed(?) 🙂
 
Now, I'm doing holidays in Portugal in March or April. It's ALL OF EUROPE'S job to figure out how to devalue the Euro by then. I don't wanna have to pay SO much more. When first I went, the rate was like $.90 to the Euro.
Click to expand...

Now at last a REAL reason why the Euro must devaluate a bit 😀

You are missing some verb forms in your sig...
They did taff, he did taff, they will taff, they taffed(?) 🙂
Click to expand...

Yup but do I have to put there all the forms... are you taffin' me ? 😉
 
Nope JD ! If I can I'll try to make a quick escape, Lisbon and Oporto are on my list, a list that keeps growing and growing...
 
Brought the Mamiya 7 and Moskva 5 to Gaia and Oporto- wonderful light (couple shots in my gallery) and such delicate colors through the mist...

I will again have GOOD espresso (Chave d'Ouro, Boundi, or WHATEVER), Pasteis de nata, "Portugês Suave" (FUMAR MATA), and all the other things I so miss. Two months, 8 days.
 
So much has changed since this original review.
No mor smoking, for instance. Mamiya 7? Sold. Moskva 5? Sitting on the shelf, unused, vaguely neglected.

Prominent? I'll develop the latest roll of black and white tonight.
Fun. It's turned into a "beast for the long haul," just as the Leica and Universal have.
 
furcafe said:
My impression of the Prominent is that it is a 35mm camera designed by person or persons (not necessarily a committee) coming from a 1930s-40s medium format perspective, which explains its ergonomic "pecularities." If you ever seen or handled a Bessa or Bessa II folder, you'll notice similarities between many of their controls & those on the Prominent. Indeed, my opinion is that the Prominent needs more than 2 hands to work well, it needs to be mounted on a tripod!
Click to expand...

The folders were they main products before the war, so I guess the designers kept their jobs after that... 😀
 
According to the Voigtlaender book I have by Udo Afalter total production of the Prominent, from 1950-1960 was 76,664.

I always liked the camera and never had any problems getting used to it, but I tend to favor cameras with non-traditional control layouts.

To put that production number in a modern perspective, Canon makes 130,000
Digital Rebels a month.

I like Corvairs, too.
 
I'm after the Nokton. The 50's Fast 50 that I do not chave. I'll have to see abput the camera! But adapters exist to use the Prominent lenses on Nikon RF's. It will be interesting to have a Summarit f1.5-Sonnar F1.5-Nikkor f1.4-Canon f1.5 and f1.4-Nokton f1.5-Jupiter-3 F1.5 shootout. And as soon as I figure out how to adapt the Wollensak Rapter F1.5 to the Nikon or Prominent- That one too!
 
yossarian said:
To put that production number in a modern perspective, Canon makes 130,000
Digital Rebels a month.
Click to expand...

Can I ask where you found that number? I find it terribly humorous as Canon made 137,250 Canon 7 (original version, plus ~20,000 of the other two) total so if it's production over 4 years was roughly the same as a month of Digital Rebels... :bang: Just goes to show how the market has changed.

Thanks,

William
 
Well the first Prominent, from Ebay showed up. This camera is Mint with a perfect 50/1.5 on it.

All appeared to work, except the self timer. Shutter worked fine until I noticed it "looked a little funny".

Then it struck me. German Over-Engineering. It had TWO sets of shutter blades, the regular leaflet shutter was first in line and working fine. And a Second set of shutter blades controlled simply by pressing down the release. YUP. Those Voigtlander Knuckle heads figured the set of Metal Leaf Blades might not be light-tight so they put a second shutter behind it and it was stuck in a star shape. Flood Cleaned it, got them free, self timer works, slow speeds good, .... This morning the inner shutter was still sticky. So I tucked it neatly out of the way and am trusting the primary shutter is good enough. If not, some more flood cleaning.

The only other camera that I've got with a double leaflet shutter is the Polaroid 180. It's made to use ASA 3000 film. That one I can understand. I can't see anything getting past the blades on the prominent. Not even with the F1.5 lens and ASA400 film.

Anyone else: how are your Prominent's "Inner Eyelids" doing?
 
One one camera they were "slow," and affected pictures. No amount of flooding would fix 'em, so I took it apart- also, whomever had adjusted the infinity focusing did a poor job- failing to adjust the rear stop and instead adjusting the *focusing stop*, meaning that it wasn't really possible to do a good adjustment...
Again, I took it apart.

After I got my second camera (ahem): It's inner blades are fine. It's actually "very nice" in general overall shape, and takes good pictures.

I've both the f/1.5 and f/2.0 versions of the 50 for it- though my Nokton really needs to go to a shop for a complete cleaning- I need the edges of the lenses re-blackened, but alas, I know nobody that I trust to do the work and get it back together correctly.

Any ideas?

Brian, I suggest you get another, if you want to use the Prominent, or send it off to a shop- flooding doesn't seem to do much for the rear shutter, as the actuation is via spring internal to the shutter, and if that's weak... Well, you know. 50 years old, and all.
 
I have a second coming in. Is the front shutter light-tight enough to make it usable? The rear shutter is neatly tucked away and out of the "picture" altogether. All it does is act as a "blind" up until the picture is taken.

I might give it a try; if it leaks I'll get it CLA'd.
 
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