Photo-Analogue: Vito B

Showing posts with label Vito B. Show all posts

Friday, 24 December 2021

Rollei Ortho 25 plus - single roll review

Rollei Ortho 25 plus in 35mm

"Although panchromatic films are used for nearly all general photography today, we should avoid prejudice against other emulsions since they may have practical and aesthetic applications. Both orthochromatic and blue-sensitive films are usually capable of higher contrast than panchromatic film. An orthochromatic film can be quite luminous in rendering foliage in the landscape since the foliage green is rendered relatively light, comparable to our visual response; caution must be exercised if the subject contains red-reflecting surfaces such as certain rocks, tree bark, and flowers, since these will be rendered quite dark. It can also be used in portraiture, where it will emphasise skin features such as lips and freckles, and darken (sometimes excessively) a ruddy complexion."
Ansel Adams, The Negative

Orthochromatic film has seen something of an (admittedly niche) increase in popularity in recent years, most notably with Ilford releasing its Ortho Plus in both 35mm and medium format after many years of only being available in sheet film sizes. My experiences with other orthochromatic emulsions, such as Rollei ATO 2.1 Supergraphic and Kodagraph Ortho Negative film has often been one of attempting to tame their inherent high contrast to use the films for pictorial purposes, unlike the graphic arts applications that these were formulated for; other experiences with more general purpose orthochromatic camera films, such as the original Kodak Verichrome, Ilford Selochrome Fast Ortho and various glass plates, all involved using photographic material which was many decades old, where achieving any result in and of itself was far more important a consideration than the aesthetics of an orthochromatic rendering of a scene, thus negating, as Ansel Adams describes, the reasons one might favour orthochromatic over panchromatic film.

In my post on the Lomography Berlin Kino film, nearly six months ago now, I wrote of the #ShittyCameraChallenge prize I'd received (sponsored by David Walster - @196photo on Twitter), four different rolls of 35mm black and white film, none of which I'd used before. I also wrote about how I usually like to test films a little more fully before writing about them, but given the four all very different emulsions, I thought I might post 'single roll' reviews of these particular films. Towards the end of August, I shot the Rollei Ortho 25 plus with my Voigtländer Vito B. I chose this camera as I thought that its lens might be a sympathetic fit to the look of an orthographic emulsion, although this is probably too nuanced to really matter that much. Despite my best intentions, after developing the film languished until such time that I had to scan it and work over the digital images (generally, just spotting and adjusting levels). My previous use of other ortho films (as well as other slow films) gave me some idea of what to expect–or so I thought. I actually loaded the film under red safelight conditions in an attempt to get as many frames as possible from the roll, so as not to expose the start of the roll, pulling out enough film to secure the end to the take-up spool. The data sheet for Rollei Ortho 25 plus does state that "blue-green sensitivity allows the film to be handled under red darkroom lighting" but also under 'Laboratory Lighting': "The film can be processed in absolute darkness and should not be exposed to sunlight or darkroom lighting!" Presumably this refers to amber safelights rather than dark red. In the event, I got 39 frames on the 36-exposure roll, possibly not worth the extra effort.

After I developed the film and scanned the negatives, the results were more grainy than I had anticipated (for a 25 ISO film in comparison to other slow films I've used; clearly its nothing like a typical 400 ISO film). This may have been due to some overdevelopment and possibly some over-exposure (the grain is particularly prominent in the sky). Possibly some of this might be scanner noise, which I do find happens with dense negatives on my desktop scanner. I used Rodinal (as Ars Imago #9) to develop the film; possibly I should have used a higher dilution of 1+50 instead of 1+25 (the data sheet recommends Rollei Supergrain developer, not one I've ever used). Rodinal should work well with a slow film in theory: looking at other examples online, there does seem to be a range in terms of how fine the grain appears. Ideally, I'd like to print from the negatives in the darkroom, but my use of a darkroom for printing has somewhat been curtailed by the pandemic.

As most of the photographs were taken outside, often with a fair bit of sky in the frame, I did shoot a few frames with a yellow filter for comparison against those without (there was probably as much grey sky during the August of 2021 as there was blue). Generally, the sky has a 'soft' look to it, picking up more definition than I might have expected given the excess of blue light, but the use of a yellow filter does improve this: in the images below, the one with the filter really picks out the satellite dish against the darker sky on the distant building; at the same time it also makes some of the foliage lighter, with the tree in the middle of the frame appearing oddly washed out. I may have overcompensated in the exposure when using the yellow filter. I also feel the necessity of having a colour image here to really see exactly how the orthochromatic emulsion renders certain colours into tones.

Voigtländer Vito B with Rollei Ortho 25 plus - without filter

Voigtländer Vito B with Rollei Ortho 25 plus - with yellow filter

Without a filter, bright summer clouds in a blue sky do begin to blend together,giving the soft look I described as in the example below. I would have liked to have tried more of a range of filters than I did: the data sheet lists yellow, orange, and red filters: to be listed, I imagine that a red filter would still transmit enough of the spectrum that the film is sensitive enough to record.

Voigtländer Vito B with Rollei Ortho 25 plus - no filter

Some of the frames with particularly localised areas of strong highlights appear to show some halation, as in the images below. This may be due to the Vito B's lens, although this isn't something I've really noticed before and the Color-Skopar on the camera is coated. This isn't an unpleasant artefact, but worth being aware of when shooting–in so much as it may be an effect to seek out. A comparison with shooting the film in a different camera with a more modern lens might be useful here, but outside the scope of this post. Incidentally, all the photographs I took with the film were handheld, mostly outside on bright days where the 25 ISO speed was not and issue–the interior shot below was quite well lit from the window.

Voigtländer Vito B with Rollei Ortho 25 plus

I didn't use the film for any portraits, so I can't specifically relate this use to part of what Ansel Adams writes about as regards portraiture. One subject that the film might be apt for could be architecture perhaps: rendering colour into equivalent tones may not be that necessary, and the slow speed of the film is less of a consideration than any potentially moving subjects. I did take a number of photographs which featured brickwork, and it would have been interesting to see how the ortho film rendered red bricks, but these are all yellow London stock bricks in the images below (in the third image, the wall of the house in the background is red brick though: the mortar stands out quite well against the bricks and just possibly this is enhanced by being rendered by orthographic film).

Voigtländer Vito B with Rollei Ortho 25 plus

From using a single roll of Rollei Ortho 25 plus, I don't feel as though I've sufficiently tested the films capabilities: it would be useful to compare the results with the same subjects shot with panchromatic film, to try different developers, experiment more with filters, and print from the negatives, rather than simply scanning from them, as is the case with this post. It would be interesting to compare it to Ilford Ortho Plus too, a slightly faster orthographic film. Rollei Ortho 25 plus is also available in both medium format rollfilm and large format sheet film (according to the data sheet, in 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10 inch sizes) and I can imagine that it would be worth trying the film out in other sizes as well as the other approaches outlined above.

Sources/further reading
Rollei Ortho 25 plus data sheet (PDF)
Rollei Ortho 25 plus on Film Photography London
Rollei Ortho 25 plus on Blue Moon Camera Codex
Rollei Ortho 25 plus Alex Luyckx Blog
Ansel Adams, The Camera, Little, Brown and Company, New York 1980, twelfth paperback printing, 2005.

Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Voigtländer Vito B

The Voigtländer Vito B sits neatly between two camera models about which I have previously written posts: Voigtländer's Vito IIa and the Vito C series, with the Voigtländer Vito CL. The Voigtländer Vito B was produced concurrently to the folding Vito II and its successor, the IIa, and it's representative of the direction 35mm camera design would take from the 1950s into the 60s, not only in simply being a rigid-bodied version of a previous folding model, but also the general form that fixed-lens 35mm cameras would take, with greater simplicity in construction once folding 35mm cameras were discontinued: the Agfa Silette cameras, Kodak's rigid-bodied Retinas and Zeiss-Ikon's Continas are all indicative of this design direction. The Vito B was produced from 1954 to 1960 with a number of different production models, as well as the variant cameras Vito BL and the rarer Vito BR, which added a lightmeter and a rangefinder respectively. The Vito C series which replaced the B featured a less complicated loading mechanism, more plastic in their construction, and cheaper lens variants; the Vito B body itself was used as a basis for the concurrent development of the Vitomatic camera.

The Voigtländer Vito B is not a rare camera, and there are many resources and discussions on the camera available online: perhaps the most comprehensive page on the Vito B is on from the focal plane to infinity which draws together resources from many other sites and books as well. The most obvious difference in the production variants of the Vito B is in the viewfinder: the camera was given a larger viewfinder in 1957, but it seems the small viewfinder model was continued all the way through the production run. The larger viewfinder required a larger top section to the camera, which many commentators online consider to negatively affect the aesthetics of the camera, despite being no doubt easier to use, especially for wearers of spectacles. The small viewfinder version of the camera is pretty compact for a full-frame 1950s 35mm camera: less than 12cm side-to-side, 7.5cm deep, and 7cm high. The other main production difference between models is in the lens' maximum aperture, with the Vito B being offered with both f3.5 and f2.8 50mm Color-Skopar lenses. The f2.8 lens appears to be rarer than the f3.5. My particular camera is of the small viewfinder variant with the f3.5 Color-Skopar, which seems the most common version of the Vito B.

Voigtländer Vito B with original box

There were other differences: the Vito B was provided with either a Prontor SVS or Pronto shutter, with the shutter speeds on the Prontor SVS changed between the older-style intervals (1/2/5/10/25/50/100/300) to new (1/2/4/8/15/30/60/125/300); there's also a rare model with a top speed of 1/500th on the shutter. The last variant is that later cameras were provided with an EV scale linking the shutter and aperture together. There were some small cosmetic changes too, such as the detailing around the eyepiece, though these are relatively minor. My Vito B is one with the new-style Prontor shutter speeds, and the EV scale; the serial number of the lens dates it to 1958. Its features identify it as a Type 126/96 in Voigtländer's own model code. Its focus scale is in feet, which marks it as an export model, and it came in an original Vito B box, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Voigtländer. The camera is in very good condition, possibly due to having been kept with its box for the past sixty-something years, with just a little wear on the printed numbers on the film reminder dial, and a small amount of tarnish on the camera's bottom plate.

Voigtländer Vito B top plate

Having previously used the Voigtländer Vito IIa, and then the Vito CL, there was much about the Vito B that was immediately familiar. It bears greatest similarity to the Vito IIa, and it's possibly not inaccurate to describe it as the rigid-bodied version of the folding camera. Like the Vito IIa, it's relatively compact for a 1950s 35mm camera; the general body shape, with its rounded sides, inherited from the Vito II feel good in the hand, while it feels entirely and confidently solid in its construction. The camera's ergonomics are fairly standard for a 35mm camera of its date: the shutter release in a (with threaded cable mount) is in a small recess on the top plate, with a rapid advance lever, operated by the user's right forefinger and thumb, and focus, shutter speed and aperture adjustment are all concentrated around the lens, operable with the user's left hand. The viewfinder is on the left of the body from the user's perspective; this is extremely simple, as it doesn't provide any framing or parallax marks.

Voigtländer Vito B

The lens focuses down to 3.5 feet (or possibly a little closer: the barrel turns beyond this mark a small amount, which might equate to 1 metre on a metric scale). There are marks of a circle between 60 and 12 feet, and a triangle between 12 and 9 feet intended for quick guess focus for distance and group shots respectively. Around the focus ring is a depth of field scale with an elongated diamond mark to indicate focus position on one side, and aperture selection on the other. Behind the aperture markings are a series of red numbers which are the EV scale, linking aperture to shutter speeds, which is the ring nearest to the camera body.

Voigtländer Vito B - bottom plate

The camera's bottom plate has a 3/8th inch tripod socket (my camera came with a 1/4 inch insert already fitted, the frame counter setting ring, and the latch to open the camera back. This is a small curving lever which normally fits flush to the camera bottom; flipping this up, with a turn, this opens the camera, the panel below the film cassette opening a full 90º and freeing the hinged back to open. This opening means that loading a 35mm film cassette is easier than some cameras: it simply slides into place onto the rewind crank. The take-up spool on the other side of the camera is a smooth drum with a single slot, wider than most; this can be rotated by hand to locate the slot, or turned with the advance lever, which has a pleasing audible ratchet sound. Closing the camera is a reversal of the steps to open it, first closing the camera back, then second pushing in the hinged bottom panel, and thirdly and finally rotating the small latch lever and folding it flat. This hinged panel is the only part of the back with a foam light seal; in my camera, this is in very good condition for being over sixty years old, and presumably original. Notably, the Vito B needs a film running through it to cock the shutter, but to test the camera, it is possible to turn the sprocket wheel inside the camera to check whether the camera is fully working.

Voigtländer Vito B with back open for loading

The frame counter has to be set manually and it counts down rather than up. There's a serrated wheel with the frame numbers on which runs around the lens-shutter unit on the body, which can be rotated by hand in either direction from a small cut out section on the camera's base plate. There is a curved sprung bar next to this, presumably to prevent it being accidentally turned, although in practice, this is very easy to do. The frame numbers are upside down if one looks at the camera straight on: when using the Vito B, these are designed to be read by simply tipping the camera up while held for shooting.

Voigtländer Vito B - detail of frame counter

To rewind the film after shooting a small lever located on the left of the body below the rewind knob releases this when pulled backwards, and the knob springs up. The knob isn't as easy to use as a more modern flip-up rewind crank lever, but it's easier than many other rewind knobs that I've used. There is a film reminder disc set into the top of this, running from 6 to 200 ASA and the DIN equivalents, and some letters in red (presumably for colour film only) for daylight or tungsten negative or reversal films.

Voigtländer Vito B - detail of rewind knob

The EV scale on the Vito B gives a (fairly) full range from 2 to 18, although in practical terms, the dial will not quite reach 3; at a shutter speed of 1 second, the f2.8 lens might just reach 2. The EV numbers could be read from a light meter and set on the camera. What the EV scale linkage allows the user to do is switch easily between a range of shutter speeds and apertures which will all give the same equivalent exposure. On the Vito IIa, the EV scale has an arm connected to the aperture ring with a small sprung pointer that connects to a set of teeth around the shutter speed ring, which needs to be disconnected from these teeth to change the EV setting. The EV setting on the Vito B is rather simpler: there are two small metal grips either side on the lens to help turn the scale, which rotates both aperture ring and shutter speeds together. Pushing in the grip on the user's left allows the aperture ring to turn independently of the shutter speeds. The EV ring gives a the lens more of a tapering look: in earlier versions, the shutter, aperture, and focus rings have a much clearer set of steps from wider to narrower around the lens.

Voigtländer Vito B - lens and shutter detail

On the shutter speed setting ring, the 'B' setting is marked in green, with the whole numbers 4/8/15/30/60 following this also in green. This allows for calculating long exposures, with 'B' as 2 seconds: although the shutter speed ring does not turn beyond 'B', if one reads off the corresponding apertures, this gives the correct long exposure (not accounting for reciprocity law failure, of course, and the user then has to disengage the EV coupling to select the desired aperture for the long exposure). The shutter does also have a V/X/M selector, with V for self-timer (it's generally not recommended to attempt using the self timer on old Gauthier shutters) with X for electronic flash and M for flash bulbs. There is also a PC socket for flash almost hidden underneath the lens, and a small stud to support the lens and keep the camera level on a flat surface.

The real draw of the Vito B is the Color-Skopar lens. Voigtländer's original Skopar was an iteration of the Carl Zeiss Tessar; the Color-Skopar was a revision of the Skopar for colour photography after the war (I have, typically, only used the Vito B with black and white film). Describing the 'look' that a lens produces is, I think, frequently reliant on personal interpretation as much as identifying any form of specific characteristics. However, there is something in the images the Color-Skopar produces: the definition in the busy scene below does feel subtly distinctive, without wishing to read to much into the photograph (obviously the use of black and white is in itself sufficiently allusive to colour interpretations of how 'classic' the lens renders the scene).

Voigtländer Vito B with Ilford HP5 Plus

The Color-Skopar does suffer from some vignetting when shot wide open as can be seen in the image below (and in some of the other examples on this post: I mostly shot with the Vito B over December and January, which days of heavy overcast skies, frequently needing wide apertures for hand-held shots). However, the vignetting is not unpleasant, and the sharpness does not diminish appreciably into the corners as with less well-constructed lenses. The lens accepts 32mm push-on filters, a common size especially in the 1950s, and so I have filters and lens hoods which already fit the camera. Like the Vito CL, I've also found the top from a plastic 35mm film container fits as a lens cap.

Voigtländer Vito B with Ilford FP4 Plus

In use, I found the linked EV scale not as troublesome as that on the Vito IIa (unfortunately, I no longer have the Vito IIa to directly compare the cameras side by side), and it was fairly simple to ignore. I am also used to composing with small viewfinders (the smallest I regularly use being the Baldalux), which for contemporary users may be off-putting. I didn't always get the focussing right in all the photographs I've shot in the Vito B at closer focus, partly due to using mostly wide apertures hand-held with available light, so a rangefinder on the accessory shoe would help. The Vito B is one of the better post-war compact 35mm viewfinder cameras around, and, although I'd shot with the Vito IIa previously, and so have used a camera with a Color-Skopar lens and should have been prepared for the quality of the results, these were still better than I had anticipated: as indicated above, the Color-Skopar lens is the reason for using the Vito B today.