The Voigtländer Vitessa 105 is a clone of the Samsung Fino 105 SE. It is a 35mm film camera of the mid-range series. It was
first released in the early 2000s when the digital market became a real market.
It has a moderate wide angle to tele zoom that covers 38-105mm in a very small body. There was a date version. There is nearly no technical information about the camera. It has quite a variety of
modes. The data were taken from the manual of the Samsung camera.
Voigtländer is probably the oldest optical company in the world. It was founded in 1797 in
Vienna, Austria, by Johann Christoph Voigtländer. If you are interested
in the pre-WWII history of the company, please have a look at this page (opens in a new window).
Voigtländer was re-opened after the WWII. In 1956 Voigtländer and Zeiss-Ikon, another well reknown pre-WWI and II
company, came together under the roof of the Carl Zeiss Stiftung
(Foundation). They worked together, had different factories, but also
made cameras with both brands on them. In 1971 the Voigtländer brand
was sold to Rollei (Zeiss Ikon closed all camera production in 1972).
Under the Rollei reign Voigtländer mainly made Rollei models which were
slightly simplified and sold at a lower price. All production was soon
moved to Singapore. Nevertheless the Japanese cameras had more success
on the market and the Singapore factory was closed in 1981. Until 1997
there were no Voigtländer cameras anymore.
In 1997 the Ringfoto group aquired the name rights and since then sells branded
analog and digital cameras under the Voigtländer name, as well as
lenses and digital frames. They kept the name rights within Germany to
sell branded cameras, but they also sell Cosina Voigtländer products.
Since 1999 a part of the Voitländer name belongs to Cosina. They make new Voigtländer cameras and lenses.
So this camera was sold by Ringfoto in the early 2000s. The choice of
the name is very unlucky. There was a beautiful high quality Vitessa
camera in the 1950s. Then there was a Zeiss/Voigtländer 126 cartridge
camera towards the end of the 1960s with the Vitessa name. And then
there was this model.
Its main features are:
38-105mm F5-12.7 lens, 6 element in 5 groups, autofocus with focus lock, min. focus 0,8m Electronic shutter, 1/300-1/3, 1-60s (!) bulb mode Size 113x64x42, Weight 220 gr. including battery, film and strap 50-3200
ISO, automatic DX coding, automatic film advance, special
modes: bulb, infinity
mode, red eye reduction, self timer, portrait zoom, consecutive shoot, 4 flash modes
Camera
front closed and long strap. The flash is set automatically. Flash
guide number only ~12.
Camera on. The lens moves automatically to 38mm.
Camera
back. Viewer with LED for flash and AF. On/off button. Film type window. The lens set to wide position, 38mm. Battery compartment on the left edge, takes a CR2 battery. Lens moved out to its tele position, 105mm.
View
from above Mode button, flash mode button. Mid roll rewind. LCD
screen (flash off set, focal length shows for a second after setting). Shutter
release button. Wide/Tele buttons.
View from below. Tripod socket.
Film compartment.
This
camera is easy to use.
Autofocus is responsive and works well. Putting a film is easy as well,
you drop the film, tear the film leader a bit further than usual (as indicated) and that's it. The
camera winds it automatically. It has a variety settings if needed,
the menu is very easy to access on a big clear LCD screen.
The pictures are sharp, the lens isn't luminous. It's
a good point and shoot camera
with a moderate wide angle zoom lens, good picture quality, nice
finish in a very small pocketable body. It sets the flash on from
start, but there is a flash off mode. There are some special modes
which are quite
unusual: Bulb means shutter open as long as you press the shutter,
limit 60s. Continuous shooting mode is rare as well.
