Voigtländer

Voigtländer is an optical company founded in 1756 by Johann Friedrich Voigtländer in Vienna and thus the oldest name in cameras. It produced the Petzval photographic lens in 1840, and the world's first all-metal daguerrotype camera (Ganzmetallkamera) in 1841, also bringing out plate cameras shortly afterwards. It set up a branch office in Braunschweig in 1849, moving its headquarters there later. The company issued stock in 1898, and a majority of the shares were acquired by Schering in 1925.

Schering sold its share of the company to the Carl Zeiss Foundation in 1956, and Zeiss and Voigtländer integrated in 1965. In 1972 Zeiss/Voigtländer stopped producing cameras, and a year later Zeiss sold Voigtländer to Rollei. On the collapse of Rollei in 1982, Plusfoto took over the name, selling it in 1997 to Ringfoto.

In the late 1990s, Cosina licensed the rights to use the Voigtländer name, and the names of Voigtländer lenses, for its own products. From 1999 it has used these brands for its lenses and camera bodies with Leica rangefinder thread and bayonet mounts, classic Nikon and Contax rangefinder bayonet mounts, as well as M42 (Praktica/Pentax) thread mount single-lens reflex (SLR) bodies, and lenses for M42, Nikon, and other SLR cameras. In Europe, Ringfoto markets these as well as cheaper film and digital cameras with the Voigtländer name.