Cosina-Voigtländer

[daveh]

The Voigtländer Bessa seems quite a camera. There are, it seems, two models with a mechanical shutter,the R2M and the R3M. There is a good deal of information here: www.cameraquest.com/voigt_250.htm

One photo shows the baseplate with "Cosina Co. Ltd." stamped on it. Is this another model that should go in the "Cosina Files"?

(p.s. I looked for the original thread, but couldn't find it.)

[33dollars]

Don't know about a Cosina thread, but there is a link above on this page to "The Cosina File!"
Are these cameras that were all made by Cosina?
The Voigtländer's are made by them. As are clip on viewfinders. They also make the Ricoh 21/28 clip on view finders.

[daveh]

33, yes, I've looked at the Cosina Files. There was an original thread about Cosina made cameras which started well before I came across this forum. ears ago I saw an article that said that Cosina were the second biggest manufacturers of optical glass in the world. It looks as though they might be the biggest manufacturers of cameras and lenses. Every time you turn round there seems to be something else that Cosina have made.

It would seem that some are billed as being assembled by Cosina. I presume that means someone else has designed them but that Cosina had the tooling and manufacturing capabilities that the firm badged on the camera lacked. I further presume that the design for some models is done by someone at the badging company. I'm not sure if these questions were answered on the original thread. I'll have another look for it later.

[grenouille]

If I remember, I came upon an article sometime ago about Cosina Company. It would seem that they either bought over the name of Voigtlander or the Company, Im not sure.

Hye

[nikonbob]

Here is a link www.cameraquest.com/voigrf.htm , if you scroll down to where they talk about the metering pattern there is a paragraph to explain what happened to the Voigtlander name. I believe they also make most of the Zeiss lenses currently available except for a few very expensive ones that are still made in Germany. I have two LTM CV lenses, a 21/4 and a 28/3.5. Both do very well and the 28/3.5 appears to be very well built if you go by weight for size. Cosina is not to well known but produces some some amazing items.

Bob

[Rachel]

Here is a link to the Zeiss Cosina connection tinyurl.com/ck4j7sx. I have several of the Voigtlander/Cosina lenses that I use with my M6. They perform very well and are also very well made and, of course, much more affordable than the Leica products.

[melek]

Cosina made many of the Vivitar cameras (and still do, I believe). Cosina has the rights to use the Voigtlander name and makes all of the Voigtlander body or lenses. Cosina has carved out a very lucrative niche for itself by offering a lower-cost alternative to the Leica M.

Cosina also manufactures the bodies and most lenses (as mentioned earlier) for Carl Zeiss AG for the Zeiss Ikon ZM system. However, unlike some bodies that it made for the Vivitar brand, they are marked "Made in Japan," but do not have the Cosina brand on them or in the printed literature. That's because iin this case Cosina is merely a contract manufacturer.

Those handful of lenses are made in Germany, according to Zeiss, because of the complexity of the lens designs.