The Maligned Voigtlander Prominent (The Sporty Corvair?)

[jdos2]

These things are a touch capricious... I've one that's "apart," and one that works.

The CORRECT way (as I see it) to adjust the focus is with the screw above the film gate- with a ground glass thrown across the back, and the focusing coupling screws (all three) relaxed so that the lens/shutter/focusing mount can rest against the recessed screw. It is only at this point that one correctly adjust the infinity mark on the focusing knob with the little arrow.

Done this way, it'll be fine, Brian. Someone probably opened it up to losen the focusing mount grease- there's LOTS in there. When they put it together they might not have re-aligned the focus knob.

Good luck- I hope the shutter did indeed open, and that everything worked. The lenses have surprised me with their shapness, though I do need to re-blacken the 50mm f/1.5 and one of my (two!) 100mm 4.5's.

[Brian Sweeney]

I will let you know with the test roll. These are nice -but quirky- cameras.

[jdos2]

The Nokton is impressive. You'll want to have the focus right- it's not just bright enough, but well enough corrected. Contemporary with the CZJ 1.5 I have, though I must say that it's not hard to tell 'em apart when there are speculars in the frame... Nokton has that physical vignette to a greater degree, so the footballs are worse.

How's the edge paint on yours, Brian?

I've found the f/2 to be... Well... "Contemporary" with any others, if only a touch less bright- still sharp as a razor, and fair-to-middlin' wide open.

[VinceC]

Somewhat OT: I've never owned or used a Prominent, but a Corvair was my first and second car ... and I think I still have the rather nice second one tucked in a barn somewhere back home in Indiana. I come from a family that collects cars the way some of us here collect cameras, and the Corvairs really weren't bad automobiles. There's actually a tiny, half-crazed cabal of people who still drive the things regulary and feel as passionately about Corvairs as we do about rangefinders.

Here are a couple shots of one of my brother's Corvairs when I visited last summer. He used the Corvair station wagon to tow another car a little over 100 miles. Had a bench seat in front (remember those?), and I sat in the middle for the windshield shot.
Photos taken with my Nikon S3 and 2.8cm f/3.5 Nikkor.

EDIT: That's the trunk that's open in the front. He was loading up his tool box.

[jdos2]

That'd be a Lakewood. My favorite. I'd love to have one someday. The VW Type-III is great, but not the same. :-)

[Brian Sweeney]

Nice Corvair! If it is part of the thread header, it must be on topic.

But does the Corvair have Headers on it? My Brother's '67 Cougar did. Engine so big, he drilled holes in the firewall to change the spark plugs. 429 with twin-quads. Anyone heard that new commerical, "as we say in Germany, What the heck did you do to that car!"

Back on Topic! I, like JD, picked up two Prominent's in the space of a week or so. The first was spotless, perfect paint.

The second was the "St Vinneas" Prominent, spotted by William. He graciously picked it up for me, and sent it down. From the description, it sounded like aperture blades floating around in the lens. It was Paint Flakes, As Big as Exacto Blades! (Borrowed from Wallace and Gromit). Opened it up, cleaned it off. Got rid of the rest of the failing paint. Darkened the glass with an Sharpee. We find out today how well it worked! Rest of the paint looked good, just the surface that is exposed and in front of the aperture blades was flaking.

[jdos2]

How are the pictures, Brian?

[Brian Sweeney]

The roll came out good. The RF matches the lens diwn to the normal close distance; with the distance scale "out" the RF can get a little closer focus, but the lens travel does not accommodate it. Everything from 3.5ft to 60ft looks great!

Put in the roll from the I mdl 3, the inner shutter continues to operate. Will find out if it woke up slowly, or "snapped to".

[jdos2]

Oh, that's great!
If you want to shoot closer, the Proximeters work well...
:-)

[fatfred]

Originally Posted by jdos2

I've got to dig around- there's a specific reason that shutter is there, but I don't remember what it was- it wasn't just suspicion that the camera needed another, but absolutely, under certain circumstances, did.

I was thinkin' Corvair- as in auxiliary gas heater, Spyder turbo, &c. :-)
Yours is apt, too. I thought you had one previously, Brian? Are you just gettin' back into 'em for the Nokton?

You mentioned in another post about giving some how to pointers on realigning rangefinder. I have a very early Prominent that I recently inherited. The focus seems to be off a bit. Noticed most on close up indoor shots. The lens attachment/shutter ring is slightly askew, leans a bit to the right. Not sure how to correct that. I recently sent the camera off to get the shutter repaired, missing a few leaves, had the x-synch plastic replaced as well. Everythign working great except focus. Not quite perfect yet. Any advice/info would be appreciated.

[wlewisiii]

You might want to also ask this over at http://nelsonfoto.com/v/index.php in the classics forum as Brian Sweeney hangs out over there these days.

It's an interesting camera, to be sure.

William

[raid]

This is a very interesting thread. I had to go through ebay to reach this thread!

Raid

[raid]

I have just sent my Prominent for repair. The shutter release does not work properly.

Raid

[eIII]

I love this camera.

Sure, ergonomically it is a bit quarky, but the nokton is as wonderful as the German build.

My style of photography is leisurely wondering around and taking pics of whatever. Rarely am I on a mission. The Prominent fits this style perfectly.

I was fortunate in getting mine. Moving my Grandmother into a nursing home I found it tucked away in a drawer, pristine. Researching it I found this forum and discovered rangefinders, so it is the gift that has kept giving.

A few pics in profile and flickr, but I have not updated in forever.

Raid, I saw you got one recently (on another forum). Once you get it going I know you will love it!

[raid]

Originally Posted by eIII

I love this camera.

Sure, ergonomically it is a bit quarky, but the nokton is as wonderful as the German build.

My style of photography is leisurely wondering around and taking pics of whatever. Rarely am I on a mission. The Prominent fits this style perfectly.

I was fortunate in getting mine. Moving my Grandmother into a nursing home I found it tucked away in a drawer, pristine. Researching it I found this forum and discovered rangefinders, so it is the gift that has kept giving.

A few pics in profile and flickr, but I have not updated in forever.

Raid, I saw you got one recently (on another forum). Once you get it going I know you will love it!

Yes, I bought one with two lenses; a 35mm/3.5 and a 50mm/1.5 with the Prominent. I got the set for very liitle money along with a 35mm/100mm Voighlaender finder and a lenshood. The camera needs to be repaired and I mailed it off already.

Raid

[jdos2]

It's STILL a good camera. After all this time it's seen two G2 kits, two Leica M kits (including a Noc and MP!), and others.

Funny, the ones that stick around.

[shutterlab]

jdos, thanks for not one but TWO great posts on this cool little camera. I just got one, but have not had much of a chance to work with it, since I am still learning my way around a recently-acquired Contax III (sinful self indulgence in both cases, I know). I would welcome your thoughts since the last longish post on what you think of it , and what you are using it for now. Thanks.

[Robert Kildare]

I've shot a good bit with a Prominent, and I've found the 35mm Skoparon to be the sharpest of the lenses available. I shoot on the street with it by zone-focusing. That gets around the squinty-focus problem. Put a Turnit finder on top, and you have a super-clear viewfinder that can be preset to compensate for parallax at the same time you are setting the scale focus. If you don't want to spring for a Turnit, you won't find the Prominent's viewfinder useless if you only use it for viewing and don't try to focus with it.

Of the normal lenses, the Ultron impresses me as the best. The Nokton is great for certain effects and is useful in dim light, but it's too low in contrast for my taste. Of course, use a contrasty film with it and you get great results.

The 100mm lens for the Prominent cannot be accurately zone-focused, so you are thrown back on that damn dim viewfinder. Because of that, I use lenses in the 100mm range on SLRs only. Even with a Leica M3, I find focusing the longer lenses to be unnecessarily slow.

That said, the Prominent gives great results with the shorter lenses: razor sharp with warm colors and high resolution of detail: a special and especially pleasing look in your pictures.

[jdos2]

It's the only film 35mm I have left, selling all the others for the Digital maw. I /emph{still} prefer it over any others.

I find the f/2 50mm to be better in contrast, but still not as biting as modern glass. I strongly suspect my Ultron would be better if I had the lens taken apart and reblackened- as the edges of the lenses are visible and bright- the paint has bubbled.

I like the 100mm. I took my viewfinder apart and though not "bright" is "bright enough."

I still use the close up kits, too, but them on my M8 these days, for which they are (I feel the price on e-Bay going up!) PERFECT, even allowing the rangefinder to be fairly accurate at such close distances.

Thanks for bringing back up this thread. I owe a rangefinder from a dead Prominent to a fellow Rangefinder Forum member. I'll try to send it off this week.

[EJinNH]

I recently found this site. It's nice to know that after all these years I'm not the only one who appreciates the Prominent's build etc. My Dad bought a new Prominent with three lenses and lot of other stuff from the PX in North Africa in the 50's while he was in the Service. I was born in 63' and it's the camera that he used to take all our family photos with during my childhood. He usually took slides. I remember that that camera seemed like the perfect machine to me. Made with perfect fitting parts and perfect finish. As a kid it felt like a solid block of engineered metal a real jewel and still does.

When I was around 15 or 16 he bought a pentax P&S and since he had not picked up the V in a while I came to take it over. I went through film as money allowed never doing my own processing so it was quite expensive. I have since gone though more than a few cameras but as an amature it has been impossible to duplicate some of the results that the Voightlander Prominent and Nokton 1:5 lens produced in those early years. I ramdonly take it out but am not versed in the tricks of the trade for indoor work so other automatic cameras have been needed if only for family candids. The Flash bulb unit he purchased was the weak link in the system as well as a light meter that didn't work all that well. I alway used the inverse rule or somthing like that that was taught to me when I shot out side bracketing my shots. Any way I still have it (not having used it in a while)and think I'll take it for a spin sometime soon.

For me, the tough part was alway in seeing though that small finder. I wore large glasses(still do) and that was not a good combination with the V Prominent. Were I to find a way to use that Nokton on an affordable rangefinder with a good finder not to mention a meter I think I would pick it up a lot more often. I have to keep reading about these adapters I guess. Well thanks for all the great stuff written about the Prominent. I've enjoyed reading and learning about the Prominent all over again.

[lisa]

I recently bought a prominent I off craigslist and am trying to figure out what size filters it takes...I've read a couple different things on the web--317/49 screw in, but the manual says 47mm push on. I have the ultron f/2. Anyone have experience with which filter size it uses?

[furcafe]

I believe the Ultron takes the same size filters as the Nokton, either the screw-in or push-on you described (push-on is usually easier to find in my experience).

Originally Posted by lisa

I recently bought a prominent I off craigslist and am trying to figure out what size filters it takes...I've read a couple different things on the web--317/49 screw in, but the manual says 47mm push on. I have the ultron f/2. Anyone have experience with which filter size it uses?

[Brian Sweeney]

The 50mm F1.5 Nokton uses the same screw in filters as the Polaroid 180 and Polaroid 195. They are the only screw in filters that I've ever seen go into these lenses. It is a wierd ~44.75mm or so.

I have the UV filter for the 180 on mine right now. And the Shade for the 180 works great with it as well.

[lisa]

I believe the Ultron takes the same size filters as the Nokton, either the screw-in or push-on you described (push-on is usually easier to find in my experience).


Quote:
Originally Posted by lisa
I recently bought a prominent I off craigslist and am trying to figure out what size filters it takes...I've read a couple different things on the web--317/49 screw in, but the manual says 47mm push on. I have the ultron f/2. Anyone have experience with which filter size it uses?

so, it takes both the 47mm push on and the 49mm screw in ?

[Brian Sweeney]

It does not take a 49mm screw in filter. It will not take a 46mm or 44mm screw in filter, either. I've tried. It uses closer to 44.75mm.