Voigtlander VF101 Bokeh

[J. Smith]

I have had a VF101 for a while now and I thought I would run a roll through to see how it would do wide open. I think I like the look.

 

[petronius]

The VF101 is a nice camera and the bokeh you show here is fine. With my VF101 I used the tip shown here http://35mm-compact.com/compact/voigtlandervf101.htm to replace the original battery-holder by one CR123A.

 

[NormanFX]

The Vito C seems to have been made earlier than VF101. Mine is labeled "Made In Germany" and it does look like a Minox GL. The VF101 is made in Singapore and was apparently Rollei's answer to the Zeiss Ikon Contessa 312 rangefinder that no one can seem to find. I have the rare black version. For its worth, the bokeh of the VF101 is quite contrasty. This is the kind of pocketable rangefinder Leica should have made but didn't. I can't get over how small it looks.

 

[NormanFX]

Wein batteries can be used without need to modify the camera battery holder. So a lot of very old cameras can be rescued from oblivion. I think its great!

 

[rwintle]

The manual calls for garden-variety 1.5-volt batteries, not 1.35-volt PX625's. No need to source Wein cells or shim in hearing aid batteries or any such malarkey. Just stuff in the proper size 1.5-volt alkalines and off you go.

 

[ZeissFan]

You can make some changes to the battery cover to allow the use of a 3-volt 123 lithium cell. I've done this with the Contessa S 310 and S 312 and have never had a problem with it.

The lens is a Tessar-type, so the "bokeh" is going to be the same as most Tessars from that period.

 

[sevo]

The Vito C seems to have been made earlier than VF101. Mine is labeled "Made In Germany" and it does look like a Minox GL.

They revived that name some twenty years after the original - your Vito C is a 1980s camera. Minox GL clone to the degree that the body seems to have been produced by Balda as well.

The VF101 is made in Singapore and was apparently Rollei's answer to the Zeiss Ikon Contessa 312 rangefinder that no one can seem to find.

Not the answer, but the same camera with different branding. Rollei took over Zeiss Ikon/Voigtländer after their insolvency, and transferred production of their last design to Singapore, retaining the two names under which Zeiss Ikon/Voigtländer had projected it. The successor was Rollei branded - the XF35, which unfortunately seems to have lost all locking and safety screws to the misers in Rollei's controlling department (the nice f/2.3 Sonnar cannot compensate for its nasty tendency to lose rangefinder alignment and adjustment whenever the camera is gently patted).