Voigtlander Vitomatic IIa

This Voigtlander Vitomatic IIa, which I recently acquired, has some interesting features. It is what I think of as a typical Voigtlander – compact, very heavy for its size and with a set of controls that make good sense when you get used to them. This model has a built-in meter (no battery needed) and a feature I have not see before, an adapter to convert it into an incident light meter. This is a tiny piece of plastic that, miraculously (?) had survived held into the inside of the ever-ready case by a piece of elastic.

It is a match needle system on the top of the camera. Fairly standard, but the tweak is that it is possible, if one’s eye is in the right position, if there isn’t a finger in the wrong place, and if the light is OK, to see a reflection in the viewfinder, so exposure can be adjusted when composing the image.

Exposure is set by adjusting the aperture ring, which is coupled to the meter.

Then, rather than set the shutter speed independently, you turn the rear knurled ring, with arrows pointing to shutter speed and aperture until you have the combination of aperture and speed that you want. Once the muscle memory is developed, and you turn the ring you think you are turning, it is a neat arrangement. Focus, of course, is the front ring.

Inserting and film is again what I think of as standard Voigtlander with a double door to make inserting the cassette easy.

Having loaded the film, you turn frame counter to F (for 36 exposures) and then wind till it shows 36, when you are ready for the first shot. A warning here. I lost 2 or 3 frames because I did not realise that if the rewind mechanism is out, as shown below, the shutter will not cock, and you will not know you are in a position to shoot.

Why such a silly mistake when it seems obvious that this needs to be pushed down (the little catch on the left releases it)? I wanted to check that the film was actually winding on, and thought this would be more obvious if I left it out.

One quirk of the Voigtlander Vitomatic IIa is that, to avoid accidents, you cannot fire the shutter or wind on unless there is a film in it, which makes testing a potential purchase difficult.

What of the results? I have not done any systematic test, though I tried to use a good range of shutter speeds and there were no obvious issues with the density of the negatives. I haven’t tried printing them (as in darkroom) which would be the real test, but scanned them using a Sony A7R3 and a macro lens, now my preferred option, which will have compensated for any over/under exposure. The film was Kentmere 100, developed in ID-11 at 1+3 dilution. It may have been a tad over-developed because it was too hot to keep the tank at a constant 20 degrees. I tried to develop at room temperature and adjusted the time accordingly, but I think the temperature still varied a little during development. The grain bothered me on some images, so I have applied noise reduction in ON1 to some, though not all the images.

First, some seaside images in South Wales.

Next, a picture of a band playing at a local farmers’ market.

And finally, a couple of flea fair shots.

Overall the Voigtlander Vitomatic IIa a very usable camera – more usable than the Vito B that I inherited – because of the much brighter viewfinder and the built-in metering. These shots don’t show this, but I decided the rangefinder was reasonably accurate, though the patch that needs to be aligned is a bit small. It will be more than the “single use” camera that some “bargains” turn out to be. The limitation of the roll to me was the Kentmere 100, and my seeming inability to keep the horizon level. I have had results I am happy with in the past from this film, but the grain seemed obtrusive on some of the shots on this roll. For testing an unknown camera I chose the cheapest film in the fridge. But I probably need to try reducing the developing time a bit.

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