Johann Christoph Voigtländer would die in 1797 and the company would pass onto his widow and three sons. Voigtländer held state-owned patents from the Austrian government which granted them exclusive rights to produce these instruments, so its likely they were the only company making them. In the 18th century, Voigtländer was a maker of scientific instruments such as navigational tools like compasses and astrolabes. While ownership of the company has shuffled and been reorganized a couple of different times over the years, the Voigtländer brand is not only the world’s oldest optics brand, it is one of the oldest brands in any industry in the whole world. Voigtländer was founded by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna, Austria in 1756. History A postcard celebrating Voigtländer’s 200th anniversary shows a sketch of Johann Christoph Voigtländer. Lens: Color-Skopar 50mm f/3.5 coated 4-elements After this model was discontinued in 1954, the “Vito” name continued to be used by Voigtländer in a variety of compact 35mm cameras through 1971. It was a well built and popular camera that competed directly with the Kodak Retina and AGFA Karat which were both German designed folding 35mm cameras. When the Vito II was released, it could only accept standard 135 format cassettes. Later models were updated to accept perforated film via a feeler shaft for film transport. The first Vito did not use standard 135 format 35mm film, but instead was designed for unperforated paper backed 35mm film similar to Kodak’s 828 format. The Vito II was the successor to the earlier Vito model which was introduced in the late 30s as Voigtländer’s first 35mm camera. This is a Voigtländer Vito II 35mm folding camera which was in production from 1949 – 1954.

Voigtlander camera serial numbers