BLAST FROM THE PAST: Voigtländer Ultramatic

John Wade discovers unexpectedly early automation in a 35mm SLR

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LAUNCHED 1961

PRICE AT LAUNCH £152 5s 9d (approx £152.28)

GUIDE PRICE NOW £80-120

Shutter-priority automation is often thought to have started with electronic cameras in the mid-1970s. But here’s shutter priority, using a selenium cell meter, from more than a decade earlier. Speeds and apertures can be set manually with rings around the lens, and as the aperture ring is turned, pointers move towards and away from each other around the focusing scale to indicate depth of field. Turn the aperture ring to its ‘A’ setting and it is only necessary to select a shutter speed from 1-1/500sec. The aperture is set automatically. But it’s all a bit complicated.