Voigtländer Vito B

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.

Voigtländer Vito B with Agfapan APX100

Voigtländer Vito B with Agfapan APX100

Voigtländer Vito B with Ilford HP5 Plus

Voigtländer Vito B with Ilfrod FP4 Plus

Voigtländer Vito B with Ilford FP4 Plus

Sources/further reading:
Vito B on from the focal plane to infinity
An overview of the Vito B series
Vito B on Camera-Wiki
Vito camera pages on Marriottworld.com
Matt's Classic Cameras on the Vito B
Vito B review on Austerityphoto
Vito B on 35mmc

Halina 35X

Halina 35X

According to the chronology on Collections Appareils, the Halina 35X was Haking's first camera, while other sources place their medium format pseudo-TLR cameras earlier, it may well be that the 35X was simply the first 35mm camera that Haking produced. The Halina brand name was used for Haking's first cameras in the late 1950s, and later became synonymous with ubiquitous, cheap, mass-produced plastic cameras in the 1980s and 90s. Haking still exists, and their website (although apparently not recently updated) lists both 35mm and digital cameras. My first new camera as a teenager was a red Halina (a 260 I think), after being given a secondhand Kodak Instamatic 25.

The Halina 35X camera that illustrates this post was acquired in the job lot which included the Praktica nova I, the No.2A Brownie, and the Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak. The Halina 35X was the least interesting of the lot, but I decided to put a roll of film through it in order to check that the camera worked. My camera was missing its badges - the red, round badge above the lens might suggest a rather well-known expensive camera maker, which the camera's general design mimics (the styling makes the camera look more sophisticated than it is) - but the name and model designation are firmly inscribed on the camera's top plate. Haking was established in Hong Kong during the post-war period, while it was still a UK colony: my camera has the non-specific phrase "Empire Made" on the bottom. Presumably this meant that it was not subject to import restrictions to the UK at the time, enacted with the object of protecting the home market against the resurgent German manufacturers immediately after the war.

Halina 35X

The Halina 35X is a manual 35mm viewfinder camera. It has a fixed 45mm f3.5 Halina Anastigmat lens in a four-speed leaf shutter with speeds 1/25th, 1/50th, 1/100th, 1/200th, as well as 'B'. The shutter needs cocking on the lens barrel (about which more below); the shutter release is on the top plate of the camera. Focus is manual, down to 3 feet. Aperture selection is on the outermost ring of the lens; it is marked down to f16, but it does turn further, possibly to f22. The aperture ring also rotates as the camera is focussed. The viewfinder has neither framelines and, naturally, no parallax correction. Frame advance is by knob, at time when the design of many other 35mm cameras had progressed to an easier-to-use lever.

Halina 35X top view

The frame counter around the advance knob needs to be manually set. To rewind the film, there's a small button on the top near the shutter release marked 'R', and the rewind knob on the user's left is a little smaller than the advance knob. The camera does feature a PC socket for flash, and an accessory shoe. The back of the camera removes entirely for loading.

Halina 35X opened for loading

My camera came with its original case and push-on lens cap - this, oddly, is transparent. The case has a plastic dome and top to protect the lens, but there's no plastic in the camera itself. What is remarkable about the Halina 35X is, for its small size, it is surprisingly heavy. The main body is cast from a fairly substantial block of metal with very, very shiny chroming to the top and bottom plate. Rather than being reassuring, this weight (and shininess) suggests a lack of care over its design.

Halina 35X with original lens cap

As with some other vintage cameras, the Halina 35X seems to have been lubricated with grease that becomes very stiff with age: the focus ring was difficult to rotate, needing a firm grip on the body and lens in each hand to turn (there are some suggestions that this was always a problem with the camera). However, the most frustrating aspect of using the camera is its counter-intuitive double exposure prevention. After the shutter release has been pressed, the advance knob need to be turned to wind on the film before another shot can be taken whether or not the shutter has been cocked. This means that if one presses the button without remembering to depress the cocking lever - or by accident (there is no shutter lock), a blank frame is the result. Even with being familiar with non-self cocking shutters, it is still easy to waste film with the 35X. This post on Filmwasters states that if one continues to hold down the shutter release after pressing it without cocking the shutter, before winding on, it is possible to then cock and fire the shutter.

Halina 35X with Ilford Pan 100

I shot half a roll of Ilford Pan 100 to test the camera. The lens provides fairly heavy vignetting, and, based on just the few photographs I took with the camera, uneven illumination across the frame too. For some subjects of course, such as the image below, the vignetting from the lens may add something in terms of atmosphere or character, but it's not necessarily something one might want on all frames.

Halina 35X with Ilford Pan 100

Combined with the vignetting, there is also a falling off of definition away from the centre of the image - and, although the lens is described as an Anastigmat, the out-of-focus areas away from the centre of the image do seem to show some astigmatism. On the small sample of photographs that I shot with the camera, although a triplet, the lens behaves more like a meniscus or doublet - some of which can still perform well at small apertures. Oddly, just two of the three lens elements are coated.

Halina 35X with Ilford Pan 100

In a blog post on the Halina 35 X, Kosmophoto asks "Is this the worst 35mm camera ever made?" No doubt it isn't, but the Halina 35X is badly designed, and frustrating to use. There's not much to recommend the camera - and there are many other entirely mechanical compact viewfinder cameras that one could chose for a better experience of shooting, and to provide better results. The post on Filmwasters already referenced states that the Halina 35X is "loose" and "un-camera-like": "it gives the feeling that it must be a facsimile of a camera, rather than an actual camera. This sounds weird, but when you have one in your hands you'll understand. It is both familiar and alien at the same time." It almost suggests that the designers of the camera had seen detailed drawings, photographs, and descriptions of contemporary 35mm cameras - without ever have actually used one. To sum up, on a page which is more a passing comment than a review, Rick Oleson describes the Halina 35X as a 35mm Hit camera.

Halina 35X with Ilford Pan 100

Halina 35X with Ilford Pan 100

Sources/further reading:
Halina_35X on Camera-Wiki
Collection-Appareils (French)
Kosmofoto's page on the Halina 35X
Halina-35X on John's Old Cameras
Filmwasters review of the Halina 35X