The third Voigtland Vitessa - good news, bad news, worse news

[melek]

I located the third Voigtlander Vitessa.

The body is in good shape. But uh oh ...

With a pile of about 15 bins and boxes, I had no idea of where the lens was. It turns out, it's in my office in some tool containers.

This is the Color-Skopar, a very good Tessar-type four-element lens. This should be simple, but then I notice that the aperture remains wide open, and the shutter seems to be open, too.

The container holds the shutter AND aperture blades. This should be fun, I'm thinking sarcastically. Plus, there are some other parts that I no longer recognize, because it's been more than a decade.

I'm glad that I have the other Vitessas so I can use them as a reference. If you've never replaced aperture blades, it's a tremendous exercise in patience and a steady hand. Luckily, this has just five blades, instead of the 11 in older lenses.

Finally, the original owner was kind enough to scratch an ID number onto one of the barn doors in an amateur manner.

[PFMcFarland]

That's always a bummer about the number scratching, but it was pretty common in the military where you had to put your ID number on everything, even your personal items just in case one of your mates took a fancy to it.

PF

[melek]

I had this problem with record albums. Guys would borrow them and never return them. I began to stamp my records. I also loaned fewer of them, because they would come back with scratches. In the days of vinyl, that was aggravating if you thought yourself to be a true audiophile, which I did at the time.

That's always a bummer about the number scratching, but it was pretty common in the military where you had to put your ID number on everything, even your personal items just in case one of your mates took a fancy to it.

PF

[titrisol]

Sounds like a challenge, that is the only VItessa I have and after CLA is a lovely camera
I have to say for a pocketable camera, people in the old days must have had very large pockets!

[scott]

I only once reset an 11 blade aperture. My hands aren’t steady enough anymore. Good luck with that!

[melek]

Scott, I once redid a Leica Summitar and when I had them all seated, I realized that Leica used two different sets of blades that you had to alternate. I had to dump them onto my table and start over.

[PFMcFarland]

Sounds like a challenge, that is the only VItessa I have and after CLA is a lovely camera
I have to say for a pocketable camera, people in the old days must have had very large pockets!

Before I started filling out my jeans even I could get a Vitessa in my pocket. I need to get the slides I shot with an L model back in '72 scanned to show how nice it was. Never should have traded it in, but as a Navy E-3 it was the only way I could afford a Nikkormat FTn with the 50/1.4.

PF

[GrahamS]

Good luck, Mike. It's worth the effort.