Voigtlander 1956 Ad for the Vitessa L camera
Toronto. On the eve of being absorbed by the mighty Zeiss organization, Voigtlander marketed a number of cameras featuring their lenses plus some unique operating features. The series called Vitessa from the 1950s was one such series. The earlier versions are easy to recognize with their odd long plunger to wind the film on to the next frame. Most used a bellows and a “barn door” mechanism to protect the bellows and lens when the camera was not in use.
This page 78 ad from the 1956 LIFE magazine, April 2 issue, shows the Vitessa L version of the camera. And 1956 was the 200th anniversary of the founding of the company as well. Voigtlander billed itself as “the world’s oldest camera company”. A few years later it was bought by Zeiss and became a branch of the mighty company.
