Voigtländer Vito III

I decided to acquire this Voigtländer Vito III recently when I came across its listing on ebay at what seemed a reasonable price.  The seller was a photographer who had made pictures with the camera.  He said the camera showed some minor signs of use, but everything worked properly.

   I was pleased to find on receiving the camera that the seller's claims were largely justified.  There is a little brassing on the lower side and a couple corners of the covering will need to be glued down.  The viewfinder could benefit from a cleaning, but it is usable, and the coupled rangefinder is accurate.  The Ultron f2/50 lens is clear, the shutter seems accurate, and the controls work smoothly.

These pictures from the camera were made on a roll of Kentmere 400 which I exposed at a stop slow for processing in PMK Pyro.  The early morning light in the riverside forest was a little on the dim side. 

The light was a better the next day during a stroll through Old Town. 

The images from the camera lived up to my expectations.  It will take some time, however, to get used to the unconventional placements and operation of some of the controls.  Focusing is accomplished by turning the knob on the top-left of the camera which also contains a pop-up rewind key.  The viewfinder window is to the right of center, so parallax must be allowed for in the opposite direction from that required by most of my rangefinder cameras. 

The placement and operation of the aperture, the shutter speed ring and the cocking lever are quite similar to those controls on my Vito II, one of the first cameras I acquired when I got back to shooting film about twenty years ago.  The Vito III is quite a bit larger than the Vito II, but still quite compact and pocketable when folded.  I'm thinking it will be fun to carry both together, one loaded with b&w and the other with color.

CLA in a can

I checked the operation of my Retina Reflex before taking it out for a shoot.  To my dismay, I found that the aperture stop-down mechanism was sticky.  With the Retina Reflex you need to advance the film and cock the shutter to bring the mirror down so you can see through the lens.   To test the operation of the shutter and aperture you set the speed to 1/500 and the aperture to f22, and when you release the shutter you should briefly see the aperture opened to its smallest setting before the shutter closes.

What I saw, however, was that the aperture was only closing down to about f8 before the shutter action was complete.

It seemed likely that some congealed lubricant and dirt on the aperture blades was interfering with sequence of events leading to proper exposure.  The problem with the Retina Reflex is that you can't get clear access to the shutter without completely disassembling the camera.   That is more of a repair job than I was prepared to undertake, however, so I decided to just try to resolve the problem with the application of some judiciously applied electronic contact cleaner which I picked up at a local auto supply store.

It is possible to get limited access to the shutter and aperture blades on the Retina Reflex by just removing the front lens group.  I set the shutter to the B setting so I could hold it open and get at the aperture blades underneath.  With  the aperture set to f22 I shot a couple short squirts of the cleaner onto the aperture blades, and worked the shutter open and closed several times which carried the black scum out onto the surface of the blades.  I then scrubbed the blades gently with some cotton q-tips until they looked clean.

I let everything dry thoroughly overnight and cleaned the the lens surfaces.  The shutter seemed to be working fine, so I took the camera out the next day loaded with a roll of Kentmere 400 which I shot at 200 ASA for processing in PMK Pyro.

I won't be surprised if I have to perform this operation again some time in the future, but I'm happy for now to be able to use the Retina Reflex again as it is one of my great favorites.