Wallace Koopmans Artlog

Every so often I try out a camera that results in an epic fail, this Ranger 35 meets and exceeds that. Its a cute little camera with all kinds of design touches and markings.

It is the sort of cheap camera I expect you could once have ordered from the back of a comic book. The shutter nominally provides 1/25,1/50,1/100,1/200 of a second as well as bulb and the aperture ranges from f3.5 to f16. The focusing is strictly via zone and unfortunately my camera doesn’t appear to be anywhere near accurate. Out of a roll of 24 images I think there is one that I would deem to be completely in focus and that must have been accidental. So its more an object to look at than a camera to produce anything worth seeing.

There are certain cameras that are things of beauty and some that are functional and the Voigtlander Vitessa is all that and more. The most unique attributes of this camera are the way the lens pops out of the barn doors like a cuckoo clock’s bird and the film advance plunger. The plunger not only advances the film it also sets the shutter so you are ready to go for your next exposure. The rangefinder focusing is done with a rear thumbwheel much like the Fujica 35 SE an arrangement that I feel is better than turning the front of the lens as is done with most other rangefinders. The lens itself is a very good 50mm f2.0 Ultron with 6 elements. I found it to be plenty sharp and to create gratifying images.

Every aspect of the camera is well made making it a pleasure to look at and use.