C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Voigtländer Vito IIa (1955) is a compact folding 35mm camera produced in Braunschweig, West Germany, representing the mature evolution of the Vito compact line. Building on the successful Vito II (1950), the IIa introduced a larger, brighter direct-vision optical viewfinder — the most visible improvement — along with the Prontor-SVS shutter in place of the earlier Prontor-S, giving a more complete speed range and self-timer function.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
View profile →C41
Kodak UltraMax 400 is a versatile consumer-grade ISO 400 daylight-balanced color negative film with T-grain emulsion, delivering warm Kodak colors, fine-for-speed grain (PGI 46), and wide exposure latitude. Currently in production and available globally as a single-roll and multi-pack.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
The refined Vito — a pocket-sized folding 35mm from Braunschweig at its most polished, combining the Color-Skopar 50/3.5 with a brighter viewfinder and Prontor-SVS shutter in a body that slips into a jacket pocket.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm (24×36 mm) |
| Mount | Fixed (non-interchangeable) |
| Years | 1955–1960 |
| Lens | Color-Skopar 50mm f/3.5 |
| Shutter | Prontor-SVS leaf: 1s – 1/500s + B |
| Flash sync | M and X sync |
| Meter | None |
| Exposure | Manual |
| Viewfinder | Direct optical (bright, enlarged vs Vito II) |
| Focus | Scale (feet and metres) |
| Battery | None |
Voigtländer had been making cameras in Braunschweig since 1840 — the oldest camera manufacturer in the world by date of founding. The Vito line, introduced in 1939, was Voigtländer's compact consumer 35mm range, designed to compete with Zeiss Ikon's Contax and the growing mass market for folding 35mm cameras after World War II.
The Vito II (1950) established the postwar design: a simple folder with scale focus, Prontor shutter, and Color-Skopar lens. It sold well throughout Western Europe and North America. The Vito IIa (1955) was a refinement rather than a redesign — the enlarged viewfinder addressed the primary complaint about the Vito II's small, dim finder. The Prontor-SVS shutter upgrade added the self-timer and refined the body layout.
The Vito IIa sold through 1960, when the non-folding Vito B and its selenium-metered sibling the Vito BL effectively replaced the folder form in Voigtländer's compact line. The Vito brand continued through several more iterations, but the compact folding format was gradually abandoned as consumers preferred larger-bodied cameras with built-in meters.
The Vito IIa embodies West German camera engineering at its compact best — a genuinely pocketable manual 35mm with a first-rate lens that requires no battery and involves no electronic complexity. For street photographers and travellers today, it offers a reliable, lightweight tool that produces excellent results when the photographer handles focusing thoughtfully. The Color-Skopar's quality at close range and in daylight is comparable to much more expensive contemporary lenses.
Fixed Color-Skopar 50mm f/3.5 (Tessar-type, 4 elements), non-interchangeable. Accessories: push-on lens filters (Series V), accessory viewfinders for supplementary focal lengths (not applicable to fixed lens), ever-ready case, M and X sync flash attachments. No close-focus mode beyond the minimum marked distance (~1m).
C41
Kodak ColorPlus 200 is an affordable, consumer-oriented daylight-balanced color negative film at ISO 200. Known for warm, slightly muted color rendition, fine grain, and wide exposure latitude, it is currently in production and widely available in Asia and select global markets.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →Voigtländer Vito IIa
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