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VoigtländerVito BL

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Camera rarity (Not rare. Votes: 5)

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1956-1957. 35mm viewfinder camera. Starting in 1957, bright-frame viewfinder.

Voigtländer: Vito BL camera

Camera featured in these collections: zjerke-emael HWCollectables ClaraDenolf tomidery motto27 mtu71 bill339 Nino rebel530 gabgio Blesaster Steen hell_se camerasofyesteryear frankeikremphoto Ger atarget3 CCC Zoloto dcherau

Camera is in these wishlists: sarkioja

Camera sales and other sources with added premiums,
converted and inflation-adjusted prices:
Date
Condition Price
 2021-05-18
 B
 $20
 2021-05-18
 B
 $39
 2021-04-27
 B
 $4
 2021-02-10
 B
 $20
 2021-01-20
 B
 $21
 2020-08-13
 B
 $33
 2020-07-28
 B
 $90
 2020-02-27
 B
 $20
 2019-10-24
 B
 $2
 2003-02-28
 B
 $74
 2002-01-01
 B
 ~$60
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by bill339 » Sat Apr 20, 2019 3:08 pm

The Voigtlander Vito BL was introduced in 1956 with a natural viewfinder and last produced in 1957 with a bright-frame viewfinder. This 35mm camera is fitted with a 50mm f/2.8 Color-Skopar lens in a Prontor SVS shutter or a 50mm f/3.5 Color-Skopar lens in a Prontor SVS shutter. The camera has a die-cast alloy body covered in leather; metal parts are finished in satin chrome and black enamel. The camera also has a Single action film advance lever, apertures of 2.8 or 3.5 to 22, an un-coupled selenium light-meter, an accessory shoe, flash socket, and shutter speeds of 1 second to 1/300 of a second plus B. To fire the shutter without film you have to rotate the film sprocket inside the camera. This loads the shutter for release. The meter is either a Bewi-Automat or a Bertram (both made by Ernst & Wilhelm Bertram), and there are significant differences between the two meters.
The Bertram meter has no provision for sensitivity adjustment according to film speed. Instead, the EV scale is changed via a small knob on the back of the camera top-plate, which rotates a drum. Each EV scale on the drum is assigned a letter ID, and an engraved table on the top-plate must be used to look up the letter setting for film speed. This table covers speeds from 6 to 200 ASA (but once again, there may have been range variations?). The table also includes DIN and WES film speeds (Weston Film Speed ratings - found on Weston exposure meters, and were sometimes referred to by film manufactures as third party speeds). There is a window in which a needle pointer deflects to indicate an EV. This needle overlaps EV zones along its length, so the correct reading is made at the red tip of the pointer. EV zones are alternating black and white bands, where black zones have numbers and white zones do not. The EV reading was manually transferred to the lens settings. The Bertram meter was fitted to the later camera.
The Bewi-Automat meter had no pointer needle. There was a dial on the top plate with an ASA or DIN film speed ring. A button on the back of the camera top-plate activated the meter and had to be pressed for at least one second before releasing slowly. This caused aperture and shutter speed dials to rotate and align on the meter dial, and show appropriate exposure combinations, which could then be manually transferred to the lens settings.

Bertram Meter.png[/attachment]
Bewi Meter 2.jpg
Attachments
Bertram Meter.png

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