Voigtlander Bessamatic

[yashica1943]

I have just bought a Voigtlander Bessamatic off ebay. I have always liked the look of the camera and it goes with my Vito B and Vitomatic.

This one seems to work and is very good cosmetically, except for some black spots around the lower half of the lens housing.
I suspect that extra lenses might be more expensive than the camera. (£17.50p !)

[philbirch]

A beautiful example. Yes the lenses are expensive these days. I understand they can be used on mirrorless snd DSLR cameras as they have the Deckel (DKL) mount for which adaptors are available.

This is another beautiful example of (in my opinion) West Germany's thinking. Make rangefinder cams with focal plane shutters and SLR's with leaf shutters. It pretty well limits you all ways. East Germany had the best idea. Focal Plane shutters on SLR's.

West Germany's first, for a long time, FP shuttered SLR was the Edixa, made by Wirgin, not exactly one of the big players in the 50's.

[Stephen]

The height of German design for 1960 onwards, yet shows all the failings as well, super lenses, well built, good viewfinder, very heavy weight construction, but lumbered with a leaf shutter and only it's own lenses in theory, although the mount was shared with other makers. The interior parts are complex, making service difficult.

The camera got used professionally, and was an advanced and quality camera for the enthusiast.
An oddity is the film counter, which has to be re-set manually, quite what possessed Voightlander to make it complex is beyond explanation. They changed the feature on later models after complaints.

In the 1970's and early 80's they fetched high prices as secondhand cameras, if one came in as a part exchange to the shop, it was sold the next day. The only downside is one that is jammed solid, they are very difficult to repair, but then Zeiss's models are as well.

Several Bessamatic cameras were used by members of the local camera club, and the main reason they proved to be considered old fashioned was the Pentax reflexes coming on to the marketplace.

Despite the cameras remaining affordable these days, the lenses are expensive, especially the Zoomar, one of the first Zooms offered by a major manufacturer to the public.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

The DKL mount was a good example of over engineering, and lack of full interchangeability, the German makers never intended you to swap lenses between makes, it was designed to make life easier for independant makers to supply lenses for each manufacturers cameras. Each maker fiddled with or altered the basic extras to the mount, trying to keep it exclusive.

Trouble was, the independant makers had to copy the features for each make, negating the whole idea.

The Edixa Reflex was good, if a fraction fragile in rougher use, but it had a universal M42 mount, and a decent focal plane shutter. Only high cost of West German production ended Edixa in the end.... and the comparison was not with the Far East, but with Pentagon and the Practica, produced by the East Germans at a loss, to sell mainly to get foriegn money into East Germany.

Stephen.

[yashica1943]

Yes, thanks for that. I have seen an article on the internet about how to adapt Kodak Reflex lenses to Voigtlander (or vice versa), not that I am going to do that myself!
I cannot work out if the little button to the left of the viewfinder is supposed to do anything, I assume that it is the finish to a rivet holding something in place inside. There is nothing in the instructions that mentions it.

[Stephen]

The button does nothing........
Stephen.

[mickeyobe]

Jun 4, 2015 6:52:57 GMT -5 Stephen said:

The button does nothing........
Stephen.

Then it must be a navel.

[Stephen]

With the postings on Bessamatic, it has revived my interest in them, and I have a 2x teleconvertor coming, a Camron branded version, presumably Janapese in origin.

In the article on Retina Lenses....    .... it mentions the 2x convertor from Accura solving partially the incompatability between Retina and the Bessamatic, as the 2x convertor mount on both systems.



I am uncertain if the Camron 2x make has the same dual fitting, it will need testing carefully as Bessamatic can jam on the Retina due to the notches added by the camera makers to the Compur sourced mounting.



I am still looking for a standard Skopar for mine at present, but the DKL mount convetors for mirrorless digital has wrecked the market for less expensive bargains, excepot for the sellers! The other aim is to buy a cheaper jammed Bessamatic with a Skopar lens in place, the lenses rarely go wrong unless dropped!

At present I have a Retina Reflex lens that can be used on the Bessamatic after a new notch is added to the lens flange as outlined in the artile referred to above.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Keeping my fingers crossed as to it's real condition, a "good condition" Skopar F2.8 50mm lens is winging it's way to the UK from the US...my lack of trust revolves around the price of $9.99, only £6.49 plus postage. Just have to hope it has not been dropped, or the lens is full of fungus!

Yashica 1943, have you put a film through your Bessamatic as yet?

Stephen.

[yashica1943]

Hello Stephen, I put one 24 exposure film through the Bessamatic. I am going to send it off for processing after this coming weekend because I am taking my new Nikon F80 to Stourhead this Saturday (Plus the DSLR) as a birthday treat!
I will send the two films off together to save postage.
The Bessamatic exposure meter seemed to be working but I estimated by eye that, on a very bright day it was showing under-exposure of the 200 ASA film so after a few shots I was giving it 1 or 2 stops more I should have taken my Weston, but it was a cheap ebay buy as well!!!! I do not intend to use the Bessamatic as a working camera, but will use the F80 and my OM-1 as occasional 'event' cams! Hope that your purchase is good.

[Stephen]

I have found out what the mysterious button/rivet/navel!, thingie on the back of the Bessamatic is there for....when the camera is correctly held in the prescribed Voigtlander fashion, as per their guide, the left thumb rests on it as a grip!!...stops the thumb slipping....

Stephen

[yashica1943]

I have looked into that Needs to be further to the left to be very useful...........

[Stephen]

Thumbs do vary..!..it works with mine, but is a pretty useless item really...
Stephen.

[philbirch]

German over-engineering

[Stephen]

I had a word with a friend who used to work in Camera Repairs, and he says the whole camera is over engineered, far too complex, making repairs difficult. But most damage came from dust, sand and dirt getting into the Compur shutter, plus damage from drops, they are very heavy and that makes the damage much worse. The Retina reflex shares exactly the same faults.(Also the Zeiss).