I recently picked up a Voigtlander Vitessa-L with a 50mm/f:2 Ultron lens (great little rangefinder), and am trying to find filters for it. I have the lens shade, and it seems to be 35mm-inside diameter press-on. Does this correspond to a series size, or has any company other than Voigtlander made filters in this size to anyone's knowledge?

Also, does anyone know how to decipher Voigtlander part numbers? Other filters seem to have numbers like "302/41" which corresponds to a filter (I assume 302 designates the color) of 40.5mm size or "309/32" for 32mm filters, but my shade for the Vitessa-L, which came in its own box marked "Vitessa" is labeled "125/20," but it is definitely not 20mm. If I try to find original Voigtlander filters, should I then look for ones labeled "xxx/20"?

I might have a custom adapter made eventually, if nothing else turns up (S. K. Grimes makes a very clever slip-on filter adapter--www.skgrimes.com), but since I bought this camera primarily for its compactness, I'd prefer to go with filters that fit directly.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), November 07, 2000