So a Voigtländer VF is a Zeiss-Ikon thats really a Rollei sold by Voigtländer, but made in Singapore by Rollei ? Hmmmm. (?).

As far as i know, the development of the  VF-series began around 1970 and continued to the late 70's. The VF-series included the VF 101, VF 102, VF 35F and VF 135 some of which bears a remarkable resemblence with the Zeiss-Ikon compacts of the time (wink wink), such as the S 312.  All the same I decided to show the VF in the Voigtländer section, because that's were visitors would most likely look for it. Right ?.

It seems like the development of the VF 101 probably began when Voigtländer was Voigtländer, and continued under the wings of Zeiss-Ikon. Finally it was put into production, but at the Rollei factory in Singapore. If You forget about the Voigtländer name, and the Color-Skopar marking on the lens, it actually seems to be a 80/20 Rollei  / Zeiss-Ikon camera. The rapid advance lever in plate metal are typically Rollei, and so are the hinged film pressure plate and the back that slides completely of "Rollei 35-style". The back cover lock and bottom mounted rewind lever also have a distinct smell of Rollei to them.  But what about the lens then ?. Well, I really don't know.. I know that it's basically a Tessar-type, and probably is a branded Zeiss-Ikon Tessar with Color-Skopar markings.

But apart from all this guessing, the fact remains that the VF 101 are a very nice camera indeed. It's quite heavy, and seems to be well built. The finish are a few ticks above average for compact 35 mm of the time. The lens boasts a built-in sunshade, that slide back and forth on the lens barrel.  If you want to fiddle about with all kinds of manual setting, this is not a camera for You.  The VF 101 has got an aperture preferred auto function  only, but with both the aperture, and shutter speed shown in the viewfinder. A simple knob on the front switches from "Auto" to "Flash" mode, and the rangefinder are the double image superimposing type. Og yes, You actually get to do something manually on the VF 101; You are allowed to focus !