The Voigtländer Brillant is a range of pseudo-TLR cameras, and later true TLR cameras, taking 6 × 6 cm exposures on 120 film, made by Voigtländer from 1932.
Famed Hungarian-Dutch photographer Eva Besnyö used a Brillant for her early work.
Introduction
The first Voigtländer Brillant was released in 1932. This early model had a metal body which resembles a TLR but it is functionally closer to a box camera, since it cannot be focused in the viewfinder. It uses 'zone-focusing' for which one has to estimate the distance to the subject. To assist this estimate, three situations are marked around the taking lens: Porträt, Gruppe and Landschaft (i. e. Portrait, Group and Landscape). While TLRs of the same period have a rather dim ground-glass viewfinder, the Brillant has a so-called brilliant finder made of plain glass.
Brillant V6
The Brillant V6 was introduced in 1937. It featured a body made made of bakelite, a polymer, and introduced an accessory compartment for an exposure meter or filters. The V6 continued the three-point zone-focusing system introduced on the original Brillant in 1932. The V6 also introduced a film advancement lock and automatic frame counter on the side of the camera. This ensured even spacing of frames along the film, and allowed photographers to close a shutter over the red frame counter window for use with panchromatic films.
The Brillant V6 was offered with the following lens and shutter combinations: