Voigtländer
Encyclopedia
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1756 and is thus the oldest name in cameras. It produced the Petzval photographic lens
Petzval lens
The Petzval lens was developed in 1840 by Joseph Petzval. It consisted of two doublet lenses with an aperture stop in between. The front lens is well corrected for spherical aberrations but introduces coma. The second doublet corrects for this and the position of the stop corrects most of the...
(the fastest lens at that time: f/3.7) 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 kinds of product that later became commonplace. These include the first zoom lens
Zoom lens
A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements for which the focal length can be varied, as opposed to a fixed focal length 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 brand to Rollei
Rollei
Rollei is a German manufacturer of optical goods founded in 1920 by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras...
. On the collapse of Rollei in 1982, Plusfoto took over the name, selling it in 1997 to Ringfoto.
Since 1999, Voigtländer-branded products have been manufactured and marketed by Cosina
Cosina
is a designer and manufacturer of cameras and lenses, and a glassmaker, based in Nakano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.-History:Cosina is the successor to Nikō , a company set up as a manufacturer oflenses in 1959...
; for these, see Cosina Voigtländer
Cosina Voigtländer
Cosina Voigtländer refers to photographic products manufactured by Cosina under the Voigtländer name since 1999. Cosina leases rights to the Voigtländer name from Ringfoto...
.
Lenses
- Skopar
- Color-Skopar
- Color-Dynarex
- Color-Ultron
- 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 35mm lens for a 35mm rangefinder. Aspherical.
- Nokton Classic 40mm/1.4 SC/MC. Single-coated (SC) or multi-coated (MC) lens, Leica M mount.
- Septon 50mm f/2
- See also: Nikon F-mount → Voigtländer