Voigtländer Vito III (1950)

The Vito III shared the top plate and rangefinder assembly from the Prominent but featured a compact folding body which differed significantly from the earlier Vito II which remained in production. Instead of a side hinged front door like the Kodak Retina, the Vito III had a bottom hinged door, helical focus, and a faster 6-element 50mm f/2 Voigtländer Ultron lens. The Ultron lens on the Vito III would be similar to the 50mm f/2 Ultron on the Prominent, but would not be interchangeable. If you valued portability and cost over changing lenses, the Vito III was the better choice. Clearly, people did not value the smaller and more portable model as the Vito III was produced for a much shorter period of time than the Prominent. The Vito III disappeared from Voigtländer catalogs in 1954 whereas the Prominent continued to be offered, and even had a successor model, the Prominent II released in 1958 which stayed in production for a couple more years. With the incredible variety of cameras produced over the past century and a half, it would be impossible for me to pick a favorite camera model. If I were to think about which company consistently made some of my favorite cameras, I might have to say Voigtländer as models like the Superb, Vitessa L, and Bessamatic have consistently been near the top of my favorite lists. Film Type: 135 (35mm) Lens: 50mm f/2 Voigtländer Ultron coated 6-elements in 4-groups Focus: 3.5 feet to Infinity Viewfinder: Coincident Image Coupled Rangefinder Shutter: Synchro-Compur Leaf Speeds: B, 1 – 1/500 seconds Exposure Meter: None Battery: None Flash Mount: ASA Port with M and X Flash Sync Weight: 643 grams

Condition

Used (normal wear)

Type

Camera