Voigtlander Vitessa T
On the heels of its successful Vitessa L, Voigtlander engineers and designers set about to make a camera that would compete more directly with the Leica M series of rangefinders. The Vitessa L had been an impressive performer and the images stood up to anything produced by any other camera company. Unfortunately, the Vitessa L didn't have interchangeable lenses, so users were forced to use the few variants of the 50mm lenses that came mounted to the camera. In an effort to make inroads into the higher end market, Voigtlander designed the DKL mount for the new rangefinder - designated the Vitessa T.
The Vitessa T hit the sales floors of camera shops in 1957 and if you were a user of the Vitessa L, the right hand shutter release and the left hand combi-plunger to advance the film and reset the shutter felt just the same. The unique design of what was known in Germany as The Leuchtturm, or The Lighthouse, was still popular with photographers who enjoyed the fast-paced style of shooting it allowed.
With the addition of different lenses, however, Voigtlander needed to design a viewfinder that would work with a camera body designed for 50mm focal length lenses. Their answer was a set of nearly opaque viewfinder that had framelines for the 35mm f/3.4, 100mm f/4.8, and 135mm f/4 DKL-mount lenses that Voigtlander offered. With these viewfinders, users of the camera kept both eyes open and the framelines from the viewfinder were superimposed into one image in the photographers brain. With a little bit of practice, it became second nature to keep ones eyes open while shooting and the results were most definitely worth learning a new trick.
With a build quality that was as good as anything on the market and lenses that perform just as well today, the Vitessa T deserves a place in your hands and in your collection.
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