Bessa L value,....

[Lesely61]

Hi all.
I have a Bessa T that I love and have been giving some thought to its long term survivability. One of the ideas that I have was getting a Bessa L in good mechanical shape as a parts doner as they seem to share things like the shutter, frame etc.
That being said, what's a good price to pay for a Bessa L these days? I've seen some price that Seem reasonable but I've also seen prices for the black ones that seem absurd(they usually come with the comment, 'Japanese made" for some reason).

 

[Doug]

I too have a Bessa T, and used to have a Bessa L also. I bought the Bessa L new from B&H on special for $100 as a package with the $340 25mm Snapshot Skopar. That was April 2001, and probably doesn't reflect anything like current valuation. Six years later I essentially gave away to an RFF member the lens and body together for $150, also not a realistic value. Hey, you might find someone else as silly as I! 😱

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

I had a Bessa L but I sold it when I gave up film shooting. It looked nice on the shelf but I didn't enjoy using it very much.

My old rig:
Voigtländer BESSA-L and SNAPSHOT-SKOPAR 25mm F4

Mike

 

[jsrockit]

Seems we are in the $150-300 range these days for the body.

 

[Lesely61]

Yokosuka_Mike, I was in the same situation about 15 years ago: I had to buy a Bessa L combo in order to get a 21 Color Skopar and viewfinder. I don't know what it was about using the L but I never really warmed up to it even after putting a dozen or so rolls through it. I had No problems when using it for a backpack/handle bar bag point and shoot but I just never clicked with it for some reason and eventually sold the body. Kept the lens and view finder though because it seems Much better suited to my needs than the 15 that I had(that lens always made me wonder if there is such a thing as being Too Wide?).

 

[dct]

The approach of the Bessa-L (without RF or VF) is exactly the body I needed for the ultra wides (15, 12). With the correct VF it does the composition job for the wide angle lenses far better than my Hexar RF. The latter I like mostly with 28 and 50 lenses.
As I shoot the wides all at guessed scale distance, there is no need for RF capabilities. Keep it just for this.

 

[agentlossing]

The Bessa L seems to be around the $150 mark, which, if you have inexpensive LTM lenses and the required viewfinders, is a nice deal just to have something.

 

[pvdhaar]

Well, you could do worse than choosing a Bessa-L. The late Al Kaplan (of https://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com fame, and RFF member #162) used one with a 15mm Heliar (see for instance the Wednesday October 11, 2006 entry).

 

[justins7]

I bought a Bessa L new when it came out, over 20 years ago (!). It has not aged well, although it does still work. The little lever on the shutter advance (that locks the shutter release) snapped off years ago, which means that the meter and shutter are really easy to release while it's in a bag now. The plastic battery cover is so worn that it's now hard to unscrew.
These are not particularly well-made cameras, although I did love the idea, and the light meter, originally.

I believe these share parts with other Cosina-made cameras of the era, so maybe you can use one of those for parts, if need be.

 

[Lesely61]

My apologies for the long absence, and thanks everyone for all the responses.

 

[pvdhaar]

My apologies for the long absence, and thanks everyone for all the responses.

No problem, but... did you ever get that Bessa-L?

 

[Lesely61]

No problem, but... did you ever get that Bessa-L?

I actually wound up getting two of them at an estate sale not far from here. Both were nearly new and in the box and the only thing wrong with either was that the batteries had longe since bit the dust: with fresh batteries though both worked perfectly.
As I now have a doner camera for spare mechanical parts I'll likely be putting the second one up for sale here in the near future in the hope tht a member can give it a good home and make use of it.
I also managed to pick up a spare grip for my Bessa T.