A 'beater' Bessa R...

[BJ Bignell]

I'm toying with the idea of getting a second body, but don't want to splash out for a new R... I've checked around eBay, but everything is "MINTY" and "LIKE NEW IN BOX" and other such drek. 🙄

Does a 'beater' Bessa even exist? Does everyone treat their camera like a baby? Am I the only one who is willing to abuse the camera?

Anybody out there have a beater Bessa, and maybe willing to sell for cheap? Even if you're not selling, let's see some pictures! Somebody must have a Bessa with some scars and war wounds to show off. 😀

BJ

 

[einolu]

I not sure if the bessa is really made to be a beater. you can try, but I think you would get rangefinder aligment problems and stuff like that. I have a zorki 1, and that can take a serious beating. the rangefinder is so simple there is no way you can knock it out of aligment. Grab that and a turret finder and you have yourself a great little (actually with the turret finder it would be quite large... and like all cameras forged out of steal, its heavy...), and rugged camera.

 

[back alley]

now that i think about it - i have not seen a beater bessa!

say that 5 times fast....

 

[BJ Bignell]

Rather than 'beater', how about 'ugly'? I'm know an R won't take a lot of hard abuse... it'll take some, though. I learned the hard way! 😱

 

[back alley]

put a wtb ad on photo.net with the top price you're willing to pay.

that's what i did when i was looking for a collapsible 50.

anyone want to buy a collapsible 50?

joe

 

[back alley]

i just had a thought...how come yer looking for a second body?

joe

 

[BJ Bignell]

I'm looking for a second body for the trip, one for colour and one for b&w. I don't know if I want to have to change film midroll when I change my mind about how I want to portray something. That, and I've probably got a bit of GAS... 😱

 

[RML]

I don't pamper my cameras at all. They've been in the scorching heat of southern India dusty and hot Gobi desert, freezing wintery Mongolia and have been exposed to rain on quite a few occassions. But keeping my Bessas in the body part of the ever-ready case keeps them in pretty good shape.

 

[simonankor]

My Bessa's taken a bit of a beating... the paint comes off pretty easily but no specific wounds to show. No problems with rangefinder alignment yet *knock on wood*

But it's not getting used so much now that I have the P...

 

[sockeyed]

Hi BJ,

It depends on how much you want to pay. I've got a Bessa R that's certainly not in beater condition. In fact, it looks really good. I sold it to a fellow RFF member, but when I shipped it to him, it must have been bumped in the mail b/c the framelines got knocked slightly. I say slightly because I can't notice the issue unless I really think about it (they are just a hair crooked). Anyway, I'm planning on taking it to my technician to see what he thinks. I may consider selling it if you're interested. I don't really need a Bessa R, R3A and L! (Although I sure love using the R from time to time).

 

[Yamatama]

Could you keep me posted on what your technician says? I have the same problem with the framelines (they seem tilted) and no one I spoke to came up with a solution.

Cheers

rene

 

[BJ Bignell]

sockeyed: How do you mean 'bumped'? Are they offset to one side (up-down or right-left) or are they rotated/tilted?

 

[sockeyed]

Hi Yamatama - here's an article on how to adjust the framelines on a Bessa R:
http://www.pgallery.net/cvp/99.html

BJ - I think that they've rotated very slightly clockwise. I say 'think' because I can't really tell. To be honest, functionally it has no effect on my ability to take pictures with it or frame my images properly. It was enough of an issue for a buyer to return it to me - he tested it with a tripod and found an issue. If you are interested, I could mail it to you and you could have a look. We're both in Canada, so shipping's not a problem. I was hoping to get $175 US for the body with the original box, manual, cap and strap but am open to offers. Let me know what you think. You could always try the adjustment in the article I've mentioned above.

 

[BJ Bignell]

sockeyed: I'll consider it. I had my sights set lower than that; I'm really looking to do some bottom feeding, I think. 😀

 

[sockeyed]

No worries. Good luck!

 

[Yamatama]

Sockeyed, I know the site (it's not working right now BTW) but it's mainly about adjusting the rangefinder horizontally and vertically. I couldn't find anything on adjusting the framelines. I guess I'll have to find another repairshop or try to live with it. Problem is that I take a lot of landscape shots and I find horizontal horizons pretty essential.

Cheers

Rene

 

[BJ Bignell]

sockeyed: I've agreed to buy a beater from Chaser at a bottom-feeder price I liked. Thanks again for the offer, though.

 

[dilu]

Rene, I have that problem too. So I wrote a long report about it,
but it was written in Korean, and I can't translate it into English perfectly.

Here's some advices from my own experience.
What I found is that one will have to open the top-panel of the camera if you want to touch the frameline. I was afraid I can't do it by myself. and it seems that there is no repair-shop which can handle this problem in Korea. So I gave up correcting it mechanically.

All I can advise you is that you'd better to take a lots of test-shots.
And as I experienced, the VERTICAL frameline is more reliable than the horizontal one.

 

[Yamatama]

Dilu, Thanks for the advise. I've been busy calling the last few days and I seem to have found a Voigtlander dealer who's familiar with the problem. He came up with a couple of reasons for the lines to be tilted. A loose mirror was one of them and that makes sense to me. I'll let him have a try at it.

But: if anyone has any tips on how to approach this particular problem, please share them with me.

Cheers

Rene