Voigtländer was founded as early as 1756 by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna. That makes it one of the oldest brands in the history of photography. Voigtländer produced the world's fastest lens in 1840, and the world's first fully metal daguerreotype camera in 1841. In that time that was revolutionary, because those were the first photographic lenses and cameras that were designed using precise mathematical models. During centuries, Voigtländer continued innovating: they launched the first 35mm zoom lens and the first 35mm compact camera with a built-in flash unit.