I acquired this tank of a camera in the spring of 2011 from my favorite seller, David M. in California (I've bought several lots of film, a lens or two, and 4 cameras from him, most recently the Canon IIF2), and while I haven't used it as often as I'd like yet, I'm sure it'll get plenty of action in the years to come.
The VI-T is a rangefinder camera that takes LTM or M39 (you say tomato...) lenses. What sets it apart from other Leica-like cameras is its solid construction and the unique trigger feature for film advance.
There's a very nifty article from the Cameraquest site about this line, which is linked at the bottom of this page.
February 2012: I hadn't used this for a while, and was considering the possibility of selling it, but I wanted to use it again before making up my mind. I put my Jupiter-8, 50mm, USSR-made lens on it, and shot a roll of "Memories" brand 200 speed film (a lot of which I bought from the same guy, David M., coincidentally) and self-developed it in a Jobo C-41 Press Kit that I got for Christmas 2011. Not a bad kit, that. The square-crops are mine, done more for artistic effect than anything else.
Anyway, I'm leaning more towards keeping it after seeing the results here.
The VI-T is a rangefinder camera that takes LTM or M39 (you say tomato...) lenses. What sets it apart from other Leica-like cameras is its solid construction and the unique trigger feature for film advance.
There's a very nifty article from the Cameraquest site about this line, which is linked at the bottom of this page.
February 2012: I hadn't used this for a while, and was considering the possibility of selling it, but I wanted to use it again before making up my mind. I put my Jupiter-8, 50mm, USSR-made lens on it, and shot a roll of "Memories" brand 200 speed film (a lot of which I bought from the same guy, David M., coincidentally) and self-developed it in a Jobo C-41 Press Kit that I got for Christmas 2011. Not a bad kit, that. The square-crops are mine, done more for artistic effect than anything else.
Anyway, I'm leaning more towards keeping it after seeing the results here.
