Makers · Germany
Voigtländer
Founded 1756 · left photography 1972
Voigtländer was founded in Vienna in 1756 by Johann Christoph Voigtländer, making optical instruments. In 1840–41 it built and sold the Petzval portrait lens with an all-metal daguerreotype camera, the first commercial camera designed for a calculated lens.
The firm moved to Braunschweig, Germany, in 1849. The Carl Zeiss Foundation took control in 1956, and camera making ended in 1972.