The Voigtlander Vito B is a small camera that is another great example of the high standards of the mid 20th century German camera industry. It's elegant styling really stood out when I spotted in on a camera covered table at a camera show last year. It's quite small, not much taller than the 35mm roll of film it uses and easily fits in a jacket pocket. If you handle the camera, that first thing that will you'll notice is how surprisingly heavy it is for it's size, its a very solid and well made camera.
The camera lacks a rangefinder and is scale focus only, but the lens turns smoothly. The camera was produced in the late 1950's and came in several different versions with different shutters and different lenses. A later variant had a much larger viewfinder with bright lines, which to my eye disrupts the elegant style of the camera by making the top plate much larger, giving it a more lopsided look. The only issue with my example is that the self-timer doesn't work, a typical problem with older cameras.
We recently went to the Cincinnati Zoo to see the Christmas lights, we arrived early so we would have some time to walk around the zoo before nightfall. I made a poor choice in film, using 100 ISO film. As the sky quickly grew darker I was forced to shoot the lens wide open with longer exposure times. Since there is no focus aid other than the distance markings on the lens and with the small depth of field from using the lens open all the way, I didn't really have very many sharp images on the roll. The only usable images were those I took earlier in the day.
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Bridge to zoo from parking lot
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Since it was mid-December only a handful of animals were outside, most were indoors where the light was inadequate for taking pictures. These monkeys were some of the few that were out in the cold weather.
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Zoo Christmas tree
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The Elephant house
Mid December 2011
Kodak Ektar 100 scanned with Minolta Scan Dual IIIKodak Ektaranimalchristmascincinnati zoofencemuralwinterScan1112170003
