I've been considering the purchase of a Visconti pen. They are beautiful!

I have been confused by the differences between the Opera and Voyager lines.

Can anyone provide me with some information about the differences between these two lines?

Hi Vince!

Since nobody else has jumped in here, I'll give it a shot.

I have been looking at Visconti a lot lately. I really like many of the materials they use, and some of their designs are really cool. As far as I know the Voyager is an old model - not current production. The Opera is a current model. I lean strongly towards the Voyager due to two personal preferences - the clip and the section. I really don't care for the look of the clips on their current production models. But the clip on the Voyager is quite attractive! My preference. The section on the Voyager is resin, while it is metal on the Opera. I am not a fan of metal sections. Again, my preference.

There are a number of their current production models I would love to get, if not for these two things. The Opera is a great pen, and a great looking pen. I just can't get past the clip and the section. And for the money you'd have to spend to get one of these pens, you should be pickey and get what you want.

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but it might lend some insight. Good Luck! And if you are unsure, buy both!

Scott.

I have a couple of examples of both pens so I'll try
My Opera's are the "Opera Club" variety and I have one in "Summertime yellow" and a second in "Honey Almond" both with the 14K medium nibs.
My Voyagers are the older ones: I have a Kaleido in "Sunshine orange", a Voyager club in "Honey Almond", and a Midnight Voyager which is , of course, black. All three have the 18K two tone nibs in medium.
All pens are cartridge/converter filled which I always use with converter

Physically, the Voyagers are taller, girthier pens than the Operas but lighter. The Operas have metal sections and barrel ends as well as wider metal cap bands and more substantial clips than the Voyagers - all of which adds up to more weight in the hand in a smaller package. This is especially true of the caps. As a result, if you like to post your pens, you will notice that the Opera feels as if the cap is lifting the nib away form the paper more than the Voyager - even though the Voyager is a much taller pen when posted.
The Voyagers have plastic sections ,or sections made of the same material as the barrel, which gives the feel of more even weight distribution, capped, uncapped or posted, even though the pen is physically larger.
The colors are gorgeous - even the black.
The summertime yellow opera has swirls of reds and blacks in a perlescent orange background which is just stunning.
The honey almond pens are swirled with whites and pale yellows in a off-white/yellow background. You should note that this color is notably semitransparent (which is hard to appreciate in on line photos)
The sunshine orange Voyager is another different splash of oranges in a slightly less transparent background than the almond.
All my Visconti nibs have been great writers pretty much right out of the box. That includes the fines, which I have on a couple of Visconti LE's.
Either way, I don't think you can make a bad choice here.

I don't think anyone mentioned the Opera is a square shaped pen from their "squaring the circle" line. I like the look. Although I'm not a fan of metal sections, they don't bother me or effect my decision on buying a pen. I have 3 Opera Clubs by the way. I did own a Voyager, didn't really care for it. Too long posted, too light of a pen, and even though I wanted one for a long time before I got it, I couldn't wait to get rid of it. Mine was a medium and wrote way too wide. It didn't do anything for me. The Opera's on the other hand, are a little heavier and I like a heavy pen. One of the few pens I post by the way and I think the weight and control is perfect. And besides, I like the shape of the Opera. Mine all write super from the box, 2 fines and a medium. The medium is not as broad as the medium Voyager I had. The resin on the Voyagers are pretty nice and carry down to the section. I've yet to see an ugly one. They are no doubt an eye catching pen but pens are very much a personal item.

I believe that the nib, the feed, and the filling mechanism are exactly the same for both models.

I'm not so sure about that.
There are a lot of Voyagers currently for sale on E-bay with 14K monotone or two tone nibs but my older ones all have 18K two tone nibs. The nibs are physically the same size though, if that's what you meant.
All the Operas I've seen so far seem to have the 14K nibs. I have yet to see one with an 18K.
The feeds do look the same in both pens and as for the filling system, well a c/c is a c/c. The newer Visconti converters do have a lot of fancy metalwork on them whereas my older ones have a more traditional plastic look. The only way you can tell the older ones are original to the pens is the fact that they are threaded to mate with the sections.

Can somebody post a picture of a Voyager? Pretty please....

Erick

I've owned one of the original lapis blue voyagers from about 1993 - 1995. Having owned the pen for over a decade: (1) it needed a plunger seal fix; and (2) two new clips because the steel or other material providing the spring tension corroded and caused the clip to fall off.

Although the voyager has been a pretty good pen, given the chance, I would not purchase one again because of the clip problem.

Best regards

Here is a nice site with beautiful pictures of the Visconti models - old and new:

http://www.airlineintl.com/visconti/

mehitabel