Voigtlander Brilliant F/7.7
The first camera I ever owned was a Voigtlander Brilliant F/7.7.
No no, I’m not that old. When my parents moved to our new house back in the early 1980’s we found it lying in a pile of junk left by the previous owners. At age 7, I was beginning to pester my father constantly whenever he had his cameras out, so I think he decided this was a great (and cheap) way to get me my own camera. It served me well for a few years, until I hit my teens and forgot all about photography. And if memory serves me correctly I spent many an hour in my fathers darkroom helping develop photos from it, and got at least a few good ones.
Well I was digging around in some old boxes the other day, and under a pile of magazines what should I find, but my old box camera. I pulled it out, blew off a ton of dust, and reminisced about my childhood. Then I sat down at my PC and got down to finding out just how old it really was. Made around 1932 apparently, which makes its condition a bit more understandable. I even found a manual for it online at butkus.org.
A bit rusty and dirty all over, most major parts appear to be okay; though it seems that the shutter speed dial is a bit rusted, and unfortunately the shutter itself appears to be stuck open, only ever closing when you half depress the shutter lever. So I guess I’m going to have to take the front lens mechanism apart and see what I can do. I’ve never done this before; and though this camera does seem to be very simple, I am a bit worried that I won’t be able to get it back together again. So if anyone out there has taken this particular model apart before a little advice would be nice.
(No Ratings Yet)Tags: Cameras
May 6th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
I have just found a Voigtlander camera similar to yours in an old house. I believe it is a f=7.5 brillant. This camera is in absolutly new condition and everything seems to work. Do you have any links that will take me to info on these cameras such as film availability, years of manfacturing, identification of models. I will go to the link that you provided for manuals and look around there. Thanks for posting your info, it has been helpfull.
Gerald
May 6th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Well, the one I had, and as far as I know all of the brilliant range, use standard 120 film which you should be able to buy at any photography shop as it is the standard medium format film.
As for when it was made, 1932 was I believe the first Brilliant (the f7.7). I’ve never found a concise list of the models that followed, with just the original 7.7 and then the V6 and Focussing Brilliants in ‘37 & ‘38 being mentioned regularly.
http://www.rolandandcaroline.co.uk/voigb.html has a decent amount of information. Some other sites I bookmarked:
http://homepage.mac.com/mattdenton/photo/cameras/v_brilliant.html
http://www.cosmonet.org/camera/brilia_e.htm
Unfortunately the Voigtlander that exists today is not the same company, with it’s name being bought and sold several times over the last 50 years, so they wouldn’t have any info.
May 27th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
I’ve just got myself the original version, with non-focussing Viewfinder. Did you get any further with the restoration?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/callumalden/sets/72157594146576642/
May 27th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Wow that does look in good condition.
Unfortunately I haven’t yet gotten around to doing the reconditioning. Procrastination is my middle name.
January 9th, 2007 at 9:55 am
[...] Well it has been over a year since I last mentioned this little camera of mine. Back then I promised to take the front shutter mechanism out and attempt to fix it, and have been putting it off ever since. [...]
April 25th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Check that the camera is not set on “T” shutter speed position first (on my Brillant that is the rightmost position of the selector). If that is the case, what is happening with the shutter is probably normal and you should not fix anything…