Voigtländer Vito BL

“I am Lonely” Said Vinnie the Voigtländer Vito BL – by Andrew Morang

By / / Photos & Projects / 12 Comments

Vinnie, the little Voigtländer Vito BL camera, shares shelf space with his friend, Spottie, the Honeywell Spotmatic.

Both feel a bit neglected. After all, one can only use so many cameras in rotation. 35MMC readers will remember that Spottie took an outing recently. Vinnie was jealous. Although well over 60, Vinnie is still a sturdy, well-built little fellow. He is strong and rigid, and has a fine 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color Skopar lens. This is a unit-focus 4-element lens, Voigtländer’s masterful 1949 revision of the classic Tessar formula. This may be one of the best of these post-war 4-element lenses, and it benefitted from being coated. The refined lens and the precision of the entire system contributes to Vinnie’s excellent optical output.

Virus in Vicksburg – a quick overview by Andrew Morang

By / / Photos & Projects / 8 Comments

The coronavirus has caused almost unprecedented disruptions to commercial activity around the world (I wrote “almost unprecedented” because the great flu influenza of 1918 caused similar confusion and disruption to the WWI generation). Worldwide, the 1918-1919 influenza may have killed over 50 million people, many of whom were in India. Read The Great Influenza: The …

Virus in Vicksburg – a quick overview by Andrew Morang Read More

Voigtländer Vito BL Review – Compact Excellence – by Andrew Morang

By / / Camera History, Scale Focus / 22 Comments

Reading 35mmc can be dangerous to the pocketbook and can lead to GAS (no, not flatulence, but gear acquisition syndrome). I read several glowing articles here about Voigtländer cameras. I never knew much about the company because, as far as I recall, no family members or friends had any of their products. But I kept reading about their precision and optical excellence. For the last couple of years, I almost stopped using my digital Fuji and have been using 35mm film instead. And although I have a Leica IIIC, Leica M2, Yashica Electro 35CC, and Pentax Spotmatic at home, one can never have too many classic 35mm cameras at home (right??).

Scroll to Top