What new Voigtlander RF or SLR product would you like to see?

[MartinP]

Feeling in a silly mood so.... cropped-sensor (woohoo, half-frame) sized digital black-and-white only, M-mount camera. No bayer-array and no anti-alias filter with a switcheable ir-filter, also no swing screen on the back. Ideally with very useable results to, say, above 3200iso. Viewfinder about 0,72 or a little larger. Plus, of course, the wider lenses to get the best from the format. Battery should be some standard size and the body should have dual-card slots for flexibility and redundancy. The camera would be unique and could lead to a colour version too I suppose, based on economy of scale if nothing else, but based on the wow-factor of the black-and-white version it would have some cachet attached.

[Juan Valdenebro]

I wish we could see one more 35mm film Bessa body: a portraiture Bessa...

One made for tele lenses (not too long ones), with parallax, with a big patch, 3 uncluttered framelines... Maybe 75 - 90 - 135... Sometimes I think the only way to do it would be including 50, but that would make it lose viewfinder size for longer lenses... So, better to bet high and make a new, specialized tool... I'd buy it, and with meter and AE I'd even do some street: just focus from a certain distance... And of course, a great tool for classic portraiture... Close to an M3, but new, and with some more features...

Cheers,

Juan

[nico]

Originally Posted by nico

...and what about an affordable panoramic camera like the Xpan?

Originally Posted by nico

... a dream camera, for me, would be a digital remake of the beautiful Vitessa with a fast 35or 40mm fixed lens ...

I was digging through this thread to see what were my "desiderata" in past years and I found two post I dropped in 2008.
The first one is still a in my wish-list, the second one is making me think about the fuji x100 ...

[nico]

Originally Posted by nico

...and what about an affordable panoramic camera like the Xpan?

Originally Posted by nico

... a dream camera, for me, would be a digital remake of the beautiful Vitessa with a fast 35or 40mm fixed lens ...

I was digging through this thread to see what were my "desiderata" in past years and I found two posts I dropped in 2008.
The first one is still in my wish-list, the second one is making me think about the fuji x100 ...


P.S. I beg your pardon for quoting myself ... not very elegant!

[Ken Smith]

Updated glass replacements for the venerable Voightlander Bessa & Perkeo series of folding cameras. As in - I'd like to see a modern shutter/Color Skopar replacement for my Bessa II 6X9 folder.

Personally I think they've pretty much covered the little format genra pretty well. And the world needs another digital camera like it needs another version of HIV or VD.

[Shade]

I would hope they will release a 35/1.4 asph. Or a 50/1.2 asph. Make their own "character" lens, and I'd be very happy.

[RanceEric]

How about a 50 f/1 and/or 35 f/1.4 for Nikon RF mount?

[rogerzilla]

A small 35/2 in black and also silver chrome, the best quality they can make (like the Heliar). Leica's Summicron is now too expensive for almost anyone, even used, and the Summarit is only available in black. The Zeiss lenses aren't quite right - the 35/2.8 is too slow and the 35/2 is too large and blocks the finder.

[jsrockit]

Originally Posted by rogerzilla

The Zeiss lenses aren't quite right - the 35/2.8 is too slow

I wish other manufactuers could be so wrong...

I'd like to see some fast lenses without focus shift and distortion... but I won't hold my breath.

[NLewis]

How about a Bessa that uses a 4:5 format instead of a 3:2 format? You'd get about 45 shots per roll and it would do verticals better.

[ssmc]

With the passage of a few months I'd like to add something completely different to my previous request:

How about a non-folding Bessa III / Fuji GF670 with interchangeable lenses? The usability, look and engineering of the new wide version got me thinking about this (IMO the -W is just unreal). I imagine (dream of) a body for <$1500, or at least no more than the Ikon, plus 45, 70, and 100mm lenses , with clicks at every half stop so you can really use it in manual mode. On 6x7 this would give 23mm, 36mm and 52mm 135-format equivalents (horizontally) which is a nice geometric spread of focal lengths, should not overtax the existing RF respect to accuracy, and would not duplicate the existing versions.

An 85mm equivalent for portraits would end up at 165mm which would probably require a redesigned RF mechanism with a longer baseline for greater accuracy. Then again it would give the only real competition to Mamiya who have the interchangeable-lens MF rangefinder all to themselves at the moment.

Bring it on!
Scott

[Joosep]

Originally Posted by Roberto V.

90mm f/2 would be great. I feel 75 is too close to 50.

Eyeye captain !

[Erik van Straten]

I would like to see (and have) an M mount 35mm-50mm f/2.8 "zoom" lens. A kind of Tri-Elmar, but with only 2 focal lengths and a bit faster.

Erik.

[time]

I would to have very simple r2a-d. A plain r2a without grip added with simple digital back. The sensor should be fullformat. No need for many fancy digital features. Brass black paint or chrome.

[c.poulton]

How about a limited version nokton 35mm f1 2 v2 in silver?

[buzzardkid]

A Voigtländer extinction meter!


I've just picked up a pre-war Brillant and it has a clip-on extinction meter for the viewing lens that projects EV-number in a circle and shows dots around it. Last dot you can see is the EV-number that you should use. There's a table attached on the camera that mentions the correct combo's of shutter and aperture.

One can be seen here


Having an extinction meter to go with meterless camera's would be real nice. Not necessarily the clip-on type shown above...

[thegman]

A more affordable medium format range finder might be cool, the Bessa III is wonderful, but too expensive for many.

Maybe a compact would be nice, along the lines of a Contax T3 or Nikon 28Ti, small metal build etc.

[Leigh Youdale]

Well, I have two wishes.
1. A Bessa R(6?) that has frames for 25/28/35/50/75/90. At the moment the R2 only goes down to 35. If I had that I could do without my M6 and my R4A as all lenses but the extreme wides I occasionally use would be covered in the one camera body. Maybe the size of the 90 frame would be too small if a 25 was accommodated - in which case I'd settle for 28 as the end of the range.

2. Someone else suggested a revised Bessa III W with interchangeable lenses. I'd like that too and then I wouldn't need to cart round three Rolleiflex!

[jsrockit]

An => 1.4 lens the size of a 35mm elmar.

[MarkoM8]

A new 50mm f/1.1 nokton or even f/0.95..

[thirtyfivefifty]

Small, affordable, good quality/performance 35mm f/2 & 50mm f/2 lenses in M-Mount. Zeiss ZM equivalents are too big. Leica M equivalents are too expensive.

[dazedgonebye]

+10...this was the one really annoying aspect of using the R3A.

Originally Posted by Sam N

There really needs to be a better meter readout on the R2A/R3A. It's almost useless in sunlight. I end up having to put my finger in front of the bottom of the VF to see what the reading is.

Ideally, the readout LEDs would be on a black bar at the bottom of the viewfinder so that they could be seen in any light. A needle would be nice too, but might be too hard to see in the dark.

---

As for lenses:
An affordable and small 28/2 in M-mount. Barring that, a 28/2.5 or 2.8.
A 75/2 for under $400.

[jsrockit]

Originally Posted by MarkoM8

A new 50mm f/1.1 nokton or even f/0.95..

Why would they do this? What would you expect them to add to the 1.1?

[Happy_french_chemist]

A bi-focal lens : 35/50 (I would love 21/50 but it would be pretty impossible)
This feature was common with pocket plastic compact cameras.
I don't expect a bright lens f/5.6 is OK if it does its job correctly !

[Jockos]

A 21mm f2 lens.

There's no way in hell I could ever afford the 21 'lux and f2 should be bright enough for a lens this wide. Perfect for indoors available light, and street photography at night.