A Wartime tale of a Voigtlander Bessa

[brainwood]

I spotted this on the BBC website,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-30613338

Its a tale of camera discovered in a German bunker by a British Royal Marine, part of the force liberating the Netherlands. It came complete with a roll of exposed film...

Makes you wonder what some of the cameras we have sitting on our shelves have 'seen' in their lifetimes

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Pretty cool article (little simplified on the historical side but still nice. Better then the hoax article about the camera dug up in the Ardennes that popped up last year. )

I actually came into the possession of the same model Bessa a couple of months back. Was planning to shoot a roll of film through it at a some WW2 living history event 🙂

 

[Solinar]

That my friends is a proper "Voigtländer Bessa" rather than a Cosina built camera with a badge.

It looks to be in surprisingly excellent conditions 80 years after having changed owners. Notice the location of the shutter release lever.

Best Regards,

 

[Muggins]

Notice the location of the shutter release lever.

That lever sticking out of the folding front? Blimey, I knew the 1930s was a ripe period for bizarre and awkward shutter releases, but that's a new one on me!

Adrian

 

[citizen99]

That lever sticking out of the folding front? Blimey, I knew the 1930s was a ripe period for bizarre and awkward shutter releases, but that's a new one on me!

Adrian

It may look 'quirky', but I actually find it very nice to use. For me, it lies conveniently under the left hand index finger when holding the camera in landscape orientation. It gives a smooth direct action to the shutter - better than many main-body mounted button releases 🙂. And, it retracts smoothly into the front when that is folded away.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

It may look 'quirky', but I actually find it very nice to use. For me, it lies conveniently under the left hand index finger when holding the camera in landscape orientation. It gives a smooth direct action to the shutter - better than many main-body mounted button releases 🙂. And, it retracts smoothly into the front when that is folded away.

I quite agree. I have a couple of these myself. One rather worn example with Voigtar and Prontor shutter that is in good working order, and another nearly mint example with Skopar and Compur Rapid that needs some aligning done to the front and some attention to the shutter. I've run a few rolls through the former and it handles pretty well. The shutter release is just fine.
Cheers
Brett

 

[Muggins]

Now that is interesting to hear. I've several German cameras with ill-planned shutter releases from this era - Welta Perle, Certo Dollina, Kodak Six-20 C - which make me think that working out how to trip the shutter was pretty low on the designers list of priorities. It sounds as though the Bessa's designers were drinking from a different fount of inspiration.

Incidentally, the craziest shutter release of the lot that I have encountered is rather later and English, on a Kershaw 450:
Kershaw 450 shutter release by gray1720, on Flickr

Adrian

 

[citizen99]

...
Incidentally, the craziest shutter release of the lot that I have encountered is rather later and English, on a Kershaw 450.
... Adrian

Yes 😀! I'd wondered whether I should mention that as well; I've also got one of those, and, again, it works very well for me. It responds well to 'squeeze' operation, thumb on side of deployed door, first finger on the release, easy to minimise camera shake 🙂.

 

[Muggins]

Maybe I should get it out and try that. Are you holding the door in your left hand?

Adrian

 

[citizen99]

Maybe I should get it out and try that. Are you holding the door in your left hand?

Adrian

Yes, the left hand, I should have thought to mention that.
BTW there are plenty of 450 pictures in the Kershaw group on flickr, just in case you haven't already come across them 🙂.

 

[oftheherd]

I spotted this on the BBC website,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-30613338

Its a tale of camera discovered in a German bunker by a British Royal Marine, part of the force liberating the Netherlands. It came complete with a roll of exposed film...

Makes you wonder what some of the cameras we have sitting on our shelves have 'seen' in their lifetimes

I found this thread interesting enough that I took the liberty of posting your link to a martial arts forum called Martial Talk. It sparked some interest there and on of the members posted some further links on the unit and Mr. Thompson.

Below are a link to the thread I started, and member Tez3's two links on the unit and some of its members. I thought it was fascinating reading.


http://www.martialtalk.com/threads/captured-camera-goes-back-to-where-it-was.117156/

http://www.47commando.org.uk/Documents/PZC_24_July_2010.pdf

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/Royal+Marine+Commando+Units/47RM+Commando/

 

[brainwood]

Thanks for further links oftheherd they paint a vivid picture of the night of the raid