Vitrona

Voigtländer Vitrona (1965) VF
Serial no.: 515640
Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film (135)
Optics: Lanthar 1:2,8  50mm
Shutter:  Prontor 250  B + 1/30 sec. => 1/250 sec. + selftimer
Misc.: Rapid wind lever, built in flash with externally mounted batterypack / grip.

The Voigtländer Vitrona from 1964/65 are one of the really important milestones in the camera and photographic history. The Vitrona was the first camera in the world to offer a built-in elektron flash, a feature that are standard in almost all camera today. I have said this before, and I will gladly say it again; once again Voigtländer showed the way to the future by their innovative and radical designs.

The Vitrona were not a high-end camera, and the fact is that the specifications are not very impressive. The basis are the Vito body with a different top- and bottomcover, and the lens are the "economy" lens Lanthar, which by the way are able to produce very sharp and colourful images. The Prontor shutter only offers 4 settings from 1/30 to 1/250 sec, but all can be used for flash exposures.

The Vitrona has got no rangefinder, but the magnificent and clear Voigtländer viewfinder with brightlines, and indicators for flash "ready" and "off". On the top cover You'll find a control bulb also for the flash. As a granddad would try to explain his sceptic grandchild, this was before the microchip and before fancy integrated circuits. The Vitrona dates back in those days where capacitors, resistors, transistors and other components were welded onto a circuitboard, and actually the circuitboards take up 50% of the Vitrona batterygrip. The remaining 50% are filled by batteries. It's not an "electronic" flash, but a "Electron" flash, mind you !! ;-). The truth is, that there is no way that the circuitboards and batteries would have found room in the camerabody, and therefore Voigtländer had to design the externally mounted batterygrip. Unfortunately the batterygrip are made from rather fragile plastic, which makes a minty Vitrona a very rare bird these days. The plastic were not of bad quality at all, and my example of the Vitrona has got a mint batterygrip which are just a good as the day it left the factory, but the design in itself made it very vulnerable which You probably can imagine by looking at the pictures below.

Today the Vitrona, must be regarded as a curiosity and a collectors item more than a "user" because of it's somewhat modest specifications and qualities that really are a little outdated. I guess that anyone with an interest in flash photography with a classic analog camera would probably choose another shooter than the Vitrona. This, however, does not change the fact that the Vitrona remains one of the most important milestone in the history of 35mm photography.

Please click on the thumbnails below to enlarge, and download the Vitrona manual for free !