Voigtländer

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The title of this article contains the character ä. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Voigtlaender.

Voigtländer is an optical company founded by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna in 1756 and thus the oldest name in cameras. It produced the Petzval photographic lens in 1840, and the world's first all-metal daguerrotype camera (Ganzmetallkamera) in 1841, also bringing out plate cameras shortly afterwards. It set up a branch office in Braunschweig in 1849, moving its headquarters there later. The company issued stock in 1898, and a majority of the shares were acquired by Schering in 1925.

Over the next three decades, Voigtländer became a technology leader and the first manufacturer to introduce several new products which later became mainstream in the market. These include the first zoom lens (36-82/2.8 Zoomar) in 1960 and the first 35mm compact camera with built-in electronic flash (Vitrona) in 1965.

Schering sold its share of the company to the Carl Zeiss Foundation in 1956, and Zeiss and Voigtländer integrated in 1965. In 1972 Zeiss/Voigtländer stopped producing cameras, and a year later Zeiss sold Voigtländer to Rollei. On the collapse of Rollei in 1982, Plusfoto took over the name, selling it in 1997 to Ringfoto.

In the late 1990s, Cosina licensed the rights to use the Voigtländer name, and the names of Voigtländer lenses, for its own products. From 1999 it has used these brands for its lenses and camera bodies with Leica rangefinder thread and bayonet mounts, classic Nikon and Contax rangefinder bayonet mounts, as well as M42 (Praktica/Pentax) thread mount single-lens reflex (SLR) bodies, and lenses for M42, Nikon, and other SLR cameras. In Europe, Ringfoto markets these as well as cheaper film and digital cameras with the Voigtländer name.

[edit] Lenses

• Ultra Wide Heliar 12mm f/5.6. Widest lens currently available for a 35mm rangefinder. Aspherical.
• Ultron 28mm f/1.9. Fastest 28mm lens for a 35mm rangefinder. Aspherical.
• Nokton 35mm f/1.2. Fastest production lens for a 35mm rangefinder. Aspherical. Slower than Leica 50mm f/1.0 Noctilux.
• Nokton Classic 40mm/1.4 SC/MC. Single-coated (SC) or multi-coated (MC) lens, Leica M mount.
• See also: Nikon F-mount → Voightländer

[edit] External links

• Voigtländer page on Camerapedia
• Voigtländer 12mm lens review

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