Camera Talk

Hi all -

I had two GAS attacks in the past couple weeks. Not sure what's going on with me. First was a Konica III. Beautiful camera, but the self timer is stuck in the cocked position. That's going to take some pondering - never have seen an on-body self timer with a leaf shutter before. Ideas? More on that as the project progresses.

Second new arrival - a Vitessa N:
Vitessa N by Scott, on Flickr

This has the 50/3.5 Color-Skopar in Synchro Compur. Needed some light work on the shutter, but everything else seems aces. The camera is in beautiful shape, with the only caveat being a very lightly engraved social in the top. Light has to hit it just right, and even then I can't make out the numbers. What a change from that time to now. People used to mark things with their socials, now they hide that number as much as possible.

Anyway, the camera is loaded up with Acros right now. Took it to a local zoo Friday, and it's going to the local Audubon preserve later this morning. We'll see how it performs. But in use the camera is very nice. Sure I'd like the Ultron, but I've grown partial to the character of an f/3.5 Tessar-type lens. This will probably get a roll of color as well.

Thanks for looking.
Scott

Both nice cameras, Scott. Sorry, can't help with the self timer problem. Every collector should have a Vitessa N. It's an icon. The advance mechanism must be lubed correctly for it to work as intended.

VERY nice.. very nice indeed.

Very well done. The Skopar is an excellent lens and I think that the Skopars in that camera might be a notch above the rest. I find the Vitessa weird, with that protruding stick (Freud would make a party with this statement). but it looks like a fine camera.

FWIW I have a working Konica III, not planning to disassemble it - but we can compare operation if you need to.

I had the L model (non-coupled selenium light meter) back in the early seventies when I was stationed on the submarine. My crew mates used to say my periscope was up when I was shooting it. It was a great little camera, and took perfect slides, but I traded it in when I got the Nikkormat. I didn't know a lot about photography back then, or I'd have kept it for when I would be on liberty in a foreign port, since it was so easy to carry in a pants pocket. Have fun with yours, Scott.

PF

As a side effect of the pandemic, I got my Vitessa back to life!
It is about the same as yours, with the Color-Skopar. I havent used it since 2009 I think.

Voigtlander Vitessa N
My only problem (which I had almost forgtten) is that the rewind knob lost the holding spring a long time ago and doesn;t stay in place.
I was thinking on using an o-ring to hold it in place; anyone had experience with that? - Yes it worked!!! I got a 3mm ID and 6mm (1/4") OD O-ring and it works just as I wanted!

Another question, how much was $99.95 in 1954?

That would be $1.00/1954 = $9.55/2020 which in your case the total is $954.82, Pablo. I think I only paid $80.00 for mine in '73, then only got about half that in trade-in value. But I couldn't pass up the Nikkormat I got in the deal.

PF

Cameras used to be expensive, it is incredible how commoditized they have become and thus sparking a popularization of photography!

On the other hand, I checked the speeds with a microphone and they are within 10% which should not be a problem with film latitude
And I used a trick I learned from Don Qualls to make the RF brighter (it involves a Sharpie)

I ran a test roll in the nearby train yard (NH Valley Railroad) and focus is good but the VF is very dim, I don;t dare opening the top and cleaning it though.

Vitessa Test
Vitessa Test

I used Foma 400 film, and all pics were at f/8-16 so I ha to wait until late to get one fully open (f/3.5)
Vitessa Test

@Scott I just made a 3D printed hood for the color skopar, the files are here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4618831



PS1:Version 2 is reinforced, has a hole for a lanyard/cord and looks better

Those are looking good, Pablo.

PF