Good tip! Just tried it. You push the little button (red one), than push the plunger and when it is in the down position you releas the little button. Then the plunger remains down. Interestingly two of my copies does not need this, the plunger remains put without the red button trick.
Boy, he lost a lot of hair in the last five years. To clarify a couple of initial remarks in the video. The meter on the T never had a cover, and no Vitessa ever had strap lugs. Lack of lugs was the norm with many German camera makers into the 1950s. To make a T, you take an L, add a cold accessory shoe on top to hold the accessory lens viewfinders, then gut out the bellows and lens covering trap doors, and add a solid front mount and an interchangeable lens system. Why do it? The Vitessa started around 1952. Six years later, it was old school and loosing sales. It was the most expensive non-SLR Voigtlander ever made, so it just ended or needed an overhaul. Converting to interchangeable lenses was the overhaul, and easy to do since they already had the lenses for their existing SLR models. And very good lenses they are too. The T shows an effort to lower cost to produce. The industry leading heavy metal panels and chroming of the body are thinner and look a bit cheaper. The camera seems a bit lighter. Forgiven if you note that the Vitessa is made out of complex castings and a complex film advance mechanism which could not be afforded today. However, that cost to produce carried into the price, which was still high. Kodak offered a competing rangefinder model (Retina IIIS) which also shared lenses with an SLR almost identical to the Vougtlander models, offered a wider range of lenses, cost less, and looked sexier. Actually, the T model and its lenses sold well in the US, and they were fairly common on the used market until the late 1980s. I could have bought the basic camera and 50mm lens with case for about $100, and the remaining thee lenses with cases for maybe another $150. One time, I nearly did so, but by then my lust for Vitessa had waned, to my later regret.
One of my Vitessa T has the cover. The other two not. The previous owner put a piece of black tape to this cover, I guess to protect the lightmeter. Indeed it indicates other values than the other two. In fact this may be correct values, whereas the other two are 2 LV too optimistic. (Ofcourse I removed the cover before comparing.) Now the question is, is that a cap or is it a light dome for incident metering?
Dear Lex, I look forward to subcribing to your channel and enjoying the countless hours of quality content I'm positive a great mind such as yours will produce. Please know that I do these reviews for fun, for adults who want to have a good time with these old machines, and I avoid coming off as stuffy or doing shill reviews like that famous Ken guy.
