Voigtlaender Virtus D8 digital camera
posted Jul 26th 2006 2:08AM
If you're wondering who the heck Voigtlaender is, rest assured you aren't missing out on much. The German-based company's Virtus D8 digicam is about as forgettable as they come, sporting no standout features and a long list of mediocre specs. The only thing mildy impressive about the 8.1 megapixel camera is its compact size -- and of course its outlandish name. Essentially like every other average compact, you'll get a 2.5-inch display screen, 3x optical zoom, meager ISO settings, a 640 x 480 video mode, and an SD slot that only accepts cards up to 1GB. More realistically, we presume this is just another digicam with too many megapixels for its own good, and priced at around $430, we don't envision many enthusiasts rushing out to grab such an underwhelming offering.
[Via über gizmo]
That said, Voigtlaender makes good rangefinders, if you're into that mind of thing. They also helped to develop the RD-1, which was good if insanely priced.
Voigtlander is a German marque, but it's actually Japanese, owned by Cosina, which makes pretty good lenses - certainly for the Voiglander line of cameras - but the thing that I will be interested to hear is how the picture looks. Panasonic makes full-featured cameras with Leica glass out front that would seem to be worth buying; unfortunately, they seem to produce (comparatively) noisy, artifact-y pictures at higher ASAs. Be interesting to see how it performs...
sorry, pedant mode...
it's spelt voigtlander (with umlaut over the a).
jules.
Voigtlaender used to make excellent cameras back in '60s, i don't know if they still do... I' currently using a Voigtlaender Vitomatic I CS (Production date: 1967-1969) and it works great...
Voigtlander was a very big name in German cameras and optics from the 30's through the 60's. Zeiss purchased them in 1966, and the brand name has transferred hands several times until finally winding up with Cosina. The current crop of Voigtlander cameras and lenses, while nice, are nowhere near as nice as the original gear. The current crop is basically a modified 35mm Cosina SLR body, and is a "plastic"-type camera, not the heavy, solid-metal, all-mechanical cameras that they used to make, and Leica still makes (Leica MP).
Neat fact: Voigtlander made the first 35mm zoom lens, the f/2.8 36-82mm Zoomar, in 1959. It cost 759 DM in 1964. So you have Voigtlander to thank for all your zooms.
I've always thought that it was a mark on the once-proud Voigtlander name to have Cosina making plastic cameras, slapping "Voigtlander Germany" on them, right next to "Made in Japan".
Outlandish name, you say? From the Wikipedia:
"Voigtländer is an optical company founded in 1756 by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna and thus the oldest name in cameras"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voigtlaender
Voigtlander is still in the business of selling perhaps the best film rangefinders for the buck (and yes the only true digital rangefinder with Epson). If you are ever considering a classic rangefinder, their Bessa series has continually reinvented itself and sports many unique features that other companies (leica included) have not. Plus they make beautiful lenses for one quarter the price of Leica (but if you have some Leica, Nikon, or Contax lenses sitting around, they can all be fitted on a Voigtlander with their simple adapter ring that ships with the body). My Bessa R2 is my favorite camera I've ever owned and only hung it up when I sunk 5K into a Canon digital system.
All that said, it's too bad the point and shoot looks like it sucks. But I wouldn't completely write them off yet.
I bought it and I am very happy with this camera. It is not "plastic" like all those Chinese and has a very good presentation.