Collectible cameras thread

WARNING!!!!!! Camera Geekdom exposed RAW!!!!


I recently posted pics of this camera in another user's thread, comparing it to a camera he had posted, also a Voigtlander. It seems the shutter button is the same on both cameras. His was a rangefinder, mine is an SLR.

I thought I'd describe the camera, though, because although it's a plain ol' camera to me (having grown up watching my dad shoot with it,) it's an incredible piece of kit, and an astounding bit of engineering. It's the one Dad used for all our pics while we were growing up. He got it when I was seven years old, so it's the only one I remember him using. He used this camera into the 80s, some 20+ years!

I give you the Voigtlander Ultramatic:


It's a shutter-priority auto-exposure SLR with interchangeable lenses. Voigtlander had nine lenses available for it. The mount was the same as Kodak's Retina Reflex cameras, although each vendor had a tab or slot on their mount that made the lenses not fit each other's cameras. A little careful filing is all it took for full interchangeability, though. Voigtlander's lenses ranged from 35mm f:3.4 to a 350mm f:5.6, including a 36-82mm zoom.

I have the 35 f:3.4, the 50 f:2, and the 135 f:4. I also have a horrible prism lens that Dad bought for it, from Bushnell. That lens is basically half a binocular, and has and extension ring built onto the mount that makes its focal length from 350mm f:8 to 450mm f:10, with fixed aperture.

Here are pages from a brochure listing the lenses:




What is so awesome about this camera is the fact that it's auto-exposure, with no electrons running through it other than what the selenium-cell light meter makes for itself. No batteries, no microchips, no integrated circuits. The metering is not through the lens, the meter face is that bit on the front of the pentaprism, above the lens mount. Selenium meters generate their own power from the light entering the meter, so they need no batteries.

Everything else on the camera is mechanical. Springs, gears, cams, levers, bars, rods, clicky things, spinny things, whatever.

Metering is not through the lens, but being an SLR, you view the scene through the lens, which means a mirror. The shutter is a leaf shutter which sits behind the interchangeable lens. The black rings you see in the photo are the shutter speed adjustment, from B to 1/500, with timed speeds starting at 1 second, and the aperture, from f:2 to f:22 and A. With a slower lens mounted, the aperture dial will not turn past the lens's maximum aperture. The shutter assembly contains the dials for shutter speed, aperture, and ASA. Those are part of the camera, not the lenses. The actual iris in the lens is controlled mechanically by a pair of levers in the lens mount.

A brilliant piece of mechanical wondrousness is the depth of field indication. Each lens has a pair of indicators that move towards each other as the aperture selection dial is turned towards maximum aperture. Here are a couple of shots showing them, the first with the camera set at 1/125 and f:16, the second at 1/125 and f:2. The orange pointers frame the depth of field on the focus scale of the lens.




While we're looking at the top of the camera, I'll point out the dials on top. On the left (camera right) is a filter compensation. Since metering is not through the lens, a color filter like you might use in B&W photography wold not be automatically compensated for by the exposure system. You adjust that dial to the filter factor to increase the exposure. The other dial simply spins with film advance to show you that film is spooling out of the cartridge. It pops up to become the rewind knob, and you pull it up further to open the back.

Here's a shot of the ASA setting. It ranges from 10 (the dot by the 12) to 3200. It really does nothing but adjust how the camera reads the shutter speed ring, so setting a one-stop-higher ASA is the same thing mechanically in the camera as setting twice the shutter speed. The blue lever on V, X, and M is for flash sync and self-timer. X is for electronic flash, M is for bulb flash, and V engages a self-timer for the shutter. Being a leaf shutter, the flash will sync all the way up to the fastest 1/500 shutter speed. The round connector underneath that is the flash pickup, called a PC terminal by us old-timer camera guys. A cable from your flash unit connected there. The shoe on top of the camera is not a hot-shoe; it has no electrical connection, and is just a mount for the flash.

(I have been told that setting V, and then moving away from V without tripping the shutter is all it takes to jam the shutter. No fail-safe for it. I think that's the state the camera is currently in, I cannot press the shutter release, it doesn't move.)


At the top of the meter glass you see a knobby piece sticking out. That is a periscope lens that places the setting from the shutter speed and aperture dials into the viewfinder. The viewfinder also has a dial on the left side which is the meter reading, and unfortunately my meter does not make the dial move, and it should, being a selenium cell and self-powered. So even if I had the shutter repaired, I'd not have an automatic camera unless I also had the meter replaced.

Here are some shots of the camera with each of the lenses mounted. First the 35mm, then the 50, then the 135.






NOW I get to what I think is the good part: how the damn thing works and what happens to take a picture!

As you're looking through the viewfinder composing your picture, the shutter is open and the lens is at maximum aperture. Remember, the shutter is behind the lens, in front of the mirror! So when you press the shutter button, the following sequence of events happens:

The shutter closes.
The mirror is lifted.
A light door behind the mirror is lifted to expose the film.
The aperture is set mechanically by some cam/lever/black-magic stuff from the meter, or if manually set, from the aperture ring.
The shutter is opened, timed, and closed.
The aperture is reset to maximum.
The light door is closed to seal the film compartment
The mirror is lowered back into place
The shutter is locked open for viewing.

This is all mechanical, with no power source other than springs. How the metering system adjusts the aperture I actually do not know, but obviously whatever power that action needs comes from the light cell. I do know that it positions a cam that a lever follows and passes the setting to the lens link. Quiet would not describe the action of this camera. It had a distinct sound, with a two-part click-CLUNK as the mirror raised and lowered.

A later version of this camera, the Ultramatic CS, had TTL metering and required a battery for the meter. It also did not drop the mirror or lock open the shutter after exposure; those actions happened at film advance, so the viewfinder was dark until you wound the film for the next frame. Apparently the instant-return mirror was a reliability issue.

There was another SLR line from Voigtlander called the Bessamatic, which has a better reliability record, but they were not automatic cameras. They used match-needle metering to set exposure, and you adjusted shutter speed and aperture until a pointer rested on the proper place on the meter dial in the viewfinder. The Bessamatic used the same lenses, though. Similarly, there were two versions, a selenium-cell, and a battery-powered TTL meter.

Oh, yeah, nearly forgot. Here's a picture of that Bushnell monstrosity:


It was NOT sharp at all, and had horrible chromatic aberration. I remember Dad whining about what a waste it was when he bought it, but I would wager that it was not expensive and he was just hoping for better. But to show how bad it is, here are a couple of shots of the nearly-full moon a year or so ago. The first is with my 70-300 Nikon lens on my then-owned D5000, and the second is with the Bushnell mounted on the D5000 via an adapter ring I got on eBay that allows me to mount the Voigtlander lenses on my Nikon cameras. They are cropped the same so the moon is "larger" in the second one, seen at 450mm, but I don't think any further narration is needed....




Every year or so I debate sending the thing off to get it working. Unjam the shutter and replace the meter.

[Clarkson] How hard can it be??!?!??! [/Clarkson]

But it's probably going to run at least 250 dollars, could easily be more. Having the camera working would be awesome, but not something to replace other things the money could be used for.

Like eating, and having hot running water and electric lights.

Great post.

Having now bought 4 SLR bodies and 2 rangefinders, all in varying states of condition there is something tactile about them.

I suppose its like paper books, watches and old cars. We have a lust for them, not because they are superior but because they give us a warm fuzzy feeling, of holding a part of history, or as Wfooshee has a personal link, something that brings back memories.

My dad has always had cameras and I've always had an interest in photography but not enough for me to recall the cameras he used, and now I whish I had paid more attention. I know he had a Canon and an Olympus film SLRs.

Thanks for the insight into the camera and history. That Bushnell is a monster.

Post up! We can make this a collectibles thread!

That's such a nice collector's item.
Nice write-up, too.

Got the boys together and took some group photos.

Instead of writing about the Vitessa, I thought I'd show you! Click on the Youtube logo to go there to watch it, so you can take to full screen and set it to 1080. Video was shot with my D7000.



As for focusing, the rangefinder superimposes a small diamond-shaped image in the center of the viewfinder, turning the focus wheel until the images match sets focus on the object being matched. See the projector screen in these images:




(I took the through-the-viewfinder images by pressing the lens of my D7000 right up to the viewfinder.)

My dad bought this camera new in 1952 while he was in the Navy. This was the camera repaced by the Ultramatic in post #1. My first Christmas after high scholl I begged and begged for a 35mm camera outfit, and Dad handed me this and said to see what I could do with it. Oh, yeah, he gave me his light meter, too, since the camera didn't have any metering. Lens is Voiglander's Ultron 50mm f:2, and what I read tells me that this is one of the nicest 50s ever made. I don't have the test equipment to prove that, but I've never seen anything through it I would complain about!

I must tell you that a fully manual camera with a handheld meter will teach you some things about how these things work! Set the film speed on the meter, take a reading, match the shutter speed and aperture on the meter's scale, set the camera, compose and focus the picture, and trip the shutter. It would work with electronic flash as well as filament bulbs, and being a leaf shutter would sync to its maximum speed of 1/500th second. The flash shoe was not a hot-shoe, the flash is triggered from the PC terminal on the side of the lens.

This camera is a joy to use. I don't even want to think about the mechanical complexity of that plunger working the film advance and cocking the shutter, and being latched down when the lens is folded and latched. The shutter release button has its own magic, since it not only trips the shutter, but releases the lens latch when the camera is folded. The camera is 61 years old, and everything on it works just as smooth as silk. The shutter speeds are a little long, I'm pretty sure. Springs and escapements get tired after a while, I suppose.

I've posted elsewhere a couple of images I've taken with this camera, and I just ran a roll of Velvia 100 through it that's not back yet from processing. (I'll add some of those when they get back.)

I used this camera for 2 or 3 years, then I bought a brand new Canon AE-1 from a friend of my sister, and went all "modern," with built-in metering and auto-exposure .

My film finally came back, so here are some of the shots I ran through the Vitessa during the summer. Fuji Velvia 100P.

The local airport, with available light from the windows and skylights.


A scene at my local state park in late afternoon light.


Fishing pier, also very late afternoon


Woops! Forgot to stop down after shooting a low-light area. Stupid manual camera..... (Not stupid photographer!!! Definitely not....)
I kind of like the effect, though!


More what that should have been....


My daughter and granddaughter. This was a very long available-light exposure, handheld, about a half second. I mean, ISO 100, for cryin' out loud! I did correct the color during scanning, but not as much I expected to need to.


Another granddaughter, again available light using the front window of the restaurant, but not nearly as long an exposure. I couldn't make out the rangefinder image very well and missed the focus just a bit. I also left an awful lot of empty at the top..... *sigh*


This film really likes full sun!


Projected, this slide shows detail in the blacks, like bark on the tress, etc. I can't bring that out when scanning without blowing the whites into another Universe. Proof that digital sucks (for dynamic range, anyway...)

Shoot slide film, for maximum control of actual exposure. Prints from negatives get adjusted by the processor for whatever they think is the "best" picture, regardless of your intent when shooting.

If you've been shooting digital, with 4-digit ISO settings, get used to working with VERY low ISO numbers! I shoot slides with Velvia 50 and 100 speed films. They look wonderful, but ISO 50 is certainly different from 800 or 1600 on the digital!

If you need faster film, you'll have to shoot prints, whether color or B&W. Expect to get "snapshot" results unless you end up doing your own darkroom, too.

Looking up that camera, it looks like a capable beast, although a metal, vertical-travel shutter ought to do better than 1/1000 second. Metering, but no auto-exposure. It also looks a little bit clumsy in that metering is activated by a button separate from the shutter button. You meter, adjust the shutter or aperture, then use the shutter. That means metering is not actually done at the moment of exposure

wfooshee

Shoot slide film, for maximum control of actual exposure. Prints from negatives get adjusted by the processor for whatever they think is the "best" picture, regardless of your intent when shooting.

If you've been shooting digital, with 4-digit ISO settings, get used to working with VERY low ISO numbers! I shoot slides with Velvia 50 and 100 speed films. They look wonderful, but ISO 50 is certainly different from 800 or 1600 on the digital!

If you need faster film, you'll have to shoot prints, whether color or B&W. Expect to get "snapshot" results unless you end up doing your own darkroom, too.

Looking up that camera, it looks like a capable beast, although a metal, vertical-travel shutter ought to do better than 1/1000 second. Metering, but no auto-exposure. It also looks a little bit clumsy in that metering is activated by a button separate from the shutter button. You meter, adjust the shutter or aperture, then use the shutter. That means metering is not actually done at the moment of exposure

Click to expand...

What is slide film? I am a noob, I also have never used a DSLR.

Well, maybe we're a little ahead of ourselves. Sorry.

Regular film like everybody thinks of when they run down to Walmart (or wherever) is for prints. It's color negative film. You can get black-and-white film, too, for black-and-white prints. That film is also negative. On the film, light areas are dark, and dark areas are light. Film starts clear, and exposure to light makes it dark, which is why it comes out negative.

Photographic printing paper is also negative, so projecting the negative onto the paper gives you a positive image. When you get your film processed, you get the negatives cut into strips, and a stack of prints. That's what 99.99999% of film has been since 1960-something.

Slide film is not negative. It reverses the process and produces the same light and color that was exposed. When the film is processed ir looks just like what was photographed. The processed film is cut into individual frames and mounted in cardboard or plastic squares which can be projected onto a screen. The film may be labelled as slide film, or color reversal film. It will have to be sent off to be processed, your local 1-hour photo store can't develop slides.

The disadvantage of slides is that you can't pass them around and look at them like you can a stack of prints. You need a projector and screen, or a film scanner that can put them onto the computer.

The disadvantage of prints is that you have no control over the final color and exposure adjustment. When the prints are made in the lab, the machine scans the negative and its little computer brain decides what needs to be done to make it "right." Sometimes that "right" is nothing like you intended.

So if you're starting, stick with prints, just to make sure you know how to run the camera. Try slides later on.