A new K-mount SLR from Voigtlander

[Don Simon]

Sure, let's bury the hatchet (quite appropriate considering your screen name)

Don't worry about overreacting, I always tend to respond as if the previous poster has just insulted my entire maternal lineage... something about internet forums just makes me angry it might be because Explorer always crashes just when I'm finishing a long post.

You're right, ultimately it doesn't matter what a camera's called if it does the job well and at a good price. The Pentax MZ-M is roughly the same price as the VSL43, but then the MZ-M has a plastic lens mount. If one of my Pentax P30s stopped working I would definitely consider a Cosina, certainly over the other modern Pentax SLRs which have no shutter speed dial and many of which don't work properly with manual lenses.

I can definitely understand you defending Cosina; I'm often the same with Pentax or Minolta (which now means defending the memory of the deceased) whenever people say they can't possibly compare to a Canon or Nikon. I guess people are even sniffier about Cosina.

But then Pentax and certainly Minolta aren't coming out with any new film gear. At the same time I'd very much like to own a Bessa R3A, but since I can't afford the lenses for it in the meantime I'm on the lookout for the Bessaflex TM so I have a nice camera to use my M42 lenses on without a crappy adaptor... maybe I should become a Cosina person too.

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[Jeff Canes]

----Kobayashi bought the rights to use the name 'Voigtlander' from Ringfoto in Germany ---

I thought Zeiss owns the Voigtander trademark and licensed to Cosina?

[Wigwam Jones]

I thought Zeiss owns the Voigtander trademark and licensed to Cosina?

Zeiss sold it off years ago, and it went through a variety of owners before it ended up being owned by Ringfoto:

http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Voigtl%C3%A4nder

In 1995 Ringfoto bought Plusfoto and the Voigtländer brand.
In 1999 the popular 35mm viewfinder camera body Bessa L was introduced, made by Cosina and based on a SLR body of them
Nowadays two classes of Voigtländer products exist, the viewfinder camera series made by Cosina, and consumer cameras: compacts and digicams, produced by Ricoh, Chinon, or somewhere else in the globalized world for Ringfoto.