Bessa R - opinions on reliability

[jrong]

I just picked up a Bessa R in mint condition from Ebay, with a Nokton 50mm lens, also in mint condition. It was a bit of an impulsive buy and I've been a little leery of reading warnings on the internet now about the infamous rangefinder calibration problem in these cameras, as well as the so-called "unreliability". Are these criticisms fair?

If anyone owns a Bessa R, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know what you think of your camera, any quirks etc. that I should know about, and so on.

I'm a little bit obsessive about build quality, but don't really want to spring for a Leica. I have a small collection of Contax SLRs and love the way they feel, but would also like to have a rangefinder w/ different lens characteristics, just for variety.

I'm also on the hunt for a good 35mm lens for this - is the Color-Skopar the way to go? I don't have a huge amount of $$ to spend either.... I've got way too many cameras for it to make sense, but then again, who says this hobby has to make any sense? 😉

Cheers,
Jin

 

[jrong]

Manolo, that's too kind!!! I'd love to.... I should get my Bessa R in the post by the end of this week or next week.

Just read the thread about wide open vignetting on the Nokton 50mm as well. Agggh!

Jin

 

[bmattock]

I've had my Bessa R for over a year now - no problems at all during moderate use. I never had a rangefinder alignment problem, and build quality is up to my expectations. I would recommend the Bessa R without hesitation to a friend. I use mine with Canon and other 3rd-party LTM lenses, as I'm very cheap. Haven't had a problem with any of those, either.

Enjoy your new Bessa R!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[tetrisattack]

I bought a used Bessa-R from BH and they shipped it cross-country without knocking the rangefinder out of alignment. The camera is reliable enough, but I initially thought my meter was malfunctioning in dark scenes -- turns out it just drops to "-" below a certain EV, rather than give an unreliable rating.

I feel quite comfortable about taking it into public fountains, the beach, local bars, on hikes, etc.

I've got the 35mm color-skopar classic which is quite a lovely lens, though I'm looking to sell it in favor of the 1.7 for the speed and DOF. The classic is quite sharp. Shockingly so, maybe, even.

Don't be suspicious about this little camera. It really IS that good.

 

[childers-jk]

I have the Bessa R with a Jupiter 8. I love the camera, and it worked very well for me on a recent trip. I would recommend the Bessa R to anyone. I don't have a 35mm lens, so I cannot comment on that, but the J-8 is awsome.

Jeff C.

 

[RML]

Get the R! The deal on Cameraquest is unbeatable (and you support RFF too if you click the link from here).

My R has been exposed to heat (souther India in the hot season; 35 to 40 C), to cold (winter in Mongolia -30 to -35 C), to wet and dry and every climate in between over the past 4 years. She's still operating as smoothly as it did the very first day.

Whatever lens you get, at least get the 👎ever-ready case! The botoom part of the case will protect the body against bumps and bruises and forms a nice grip.

 

[captainslack]

Bill let me use his R once and I found it to be a very nice camera. In fact, I almost decided to buy one instead of the T I ended up getting.

A lot of people complain it has a cheap feel, but I disagree. To me, at least, it felt like very solidly made little camera. Great viewfinder, too!

 

[sockeyed]

i have to rant a bit about the Bessa R, or the US Postal service. I had a Bessa R, and loved it. It was a ton of fun to use, and the 35/2.5 lens is gorgeous. I recently sold it to a fellow RFF user when I replaced it with an R3A. When he got it, he found the framelines to be crooked, which certainly wasn't the case when I had it, and he has politely asked me if he could return the camera in exchange for a refund, which I will do. I have contacted Stephen Gandy about repairs to the framelines, and he quoted me $145, which is about $30 less than I sold the body for. So you can imagine my frustration. The camera was in its original box and well-padded with foam material. The US Postal Service or Canada Post must have really beat it up. And I guess that the Bessa R can be a bit fragile. Again, it was a great camera to use, just beware that it has a weak point and is sensitive to shipping abuse.

 

[nwcanonman]

I've been using my Bessa R for over 2 months now, and LOVE it! I've used the J-8, J-9, Industar 50 and the CV 35mm Skopar lenses, really love the 35mm C. I've had not problems with it, although the rewind feels stiff when used, I'm convinced it's because the film plate keeps in tight (uniformly sharp images). I've never felt that it was "cheap" feeling, just a great little lightweight RF.

 

[jrong]

I'll have to see if Royal Mail do the same to my Bessa R! 😉 I'm crossing my fingers that all will be well.

Thanks for the thoughts, looks like the folks here have better experiences with the Bessa R than the people on photographyreview.com, which made me apprehensive in the first place!

Cheers, Jin

 

[VetPsychWars]

Your framelines might not be off. If you look through the viewfinder in anyways crooked, they'll seem to be off, but they're not. I have to because I'm left-eyed.

Tom

 

[Fred]

Hopefully all will be well, people generally moan when the get a problem, these same people may not praise an item when all is well.

The CV 35 classic is known to be very good and small/light also. I'm trying to resist a purchase myself as the 28 Skopar is a little gem.

 

[Fred]

That is I've got the 28 Skopar and it's tiny. The 35 Skopar is only slightly larger.

Have fun.

 

[Sonnar2]

The shutter of the BessaR isn't 100% working but stil enough for the money. It happens to me that I fired and the shutter didn't worked, I need to turn the camera at 180° at high format picture taking. Weird. Also it happens that the TTL-metering seems to produce too dark, or too light slides 10 pieces in a row - quite sure this wasn't my fault, but not reproducable.
So it's not a LEICA (or a 40 year old Canon) but cheaper and more lightwight. I did some 30 films within 2 years with it. My BessaL shutter once get stucked half the way - 5 year old camera. In total, I would say they are reliable cameras. Maintainable from knowledged people as well.
my oppinion, Frank

 

[Doug]

The Bessas don't have the same build quality as Leica, but then they're not at Leica prices either. For that matter, Leicas may have defects too! I expect and hope that the coming Zeiss-Ikon RF will have the legendary Zeiss quality at affordable prices. If so, this would suit me very well.

On the other hand, Fred is right that people air their complaints much more readily than praise! So guess what we hear most of? 🙄

I'm sure you'll enjoy your Bessa-R... There are LOTs of 35mm lenses from which to choose, of all vintages and speeds and prices! And whatever screw-mount lens you choose, it is easily adapted to an M-bayonet camera if one should pop up in your future.

 

[RML]

In addition to my previous post, and perhaps a little superfluous... I've shot hundreds of rolls with the camera. And I really mean hundreds. Perhaps as close to 1000 over the past 3-4 years. Of those 1-200 were shot in southern India and in Mongolia under all kinds of weather conditions. I wouldn't recommend ditching the R in the water but otherwise it's a beast. I now have the R-D1 but I'll keep the R as a backup to it.

 

[chug]

I like my Bessa R. I have the CV 35 C type lens on it and it works wonders, but sadly I havnt used it to much since I have been on this place. Being on these forums makes you go out and buy tons of other cool cameras and I find it hard to use each one all the time. But overal, its a nice camera and works well. As long as you look after things, they wont get broken 🙂 I like my cameras to be nice and shiny 😀

 

[newspaperguy]

One more hurrah for the R... mine has bounced around in the cubby of my pickup for nearly a year, cushioned in an old 'navy' watch cap... works great. (J-8, H-103 l/d, 85/2 Nikkor).

Happy user,

Rick 😀

 

[Justin Low]

I bought a black R from CQ about two years ago; I had problems with the RF right out of the box. It cost me S$80 to have it tweaked locally. I sold it shortly after for a Nikon FM3a.

About a year ago, I purchased a R2 from Hong Kong, and have been using it regularly till at least April (when I got my CLE); never had a problem with it (except for the space between frames being in the middle of a sprocket hole).

 

[Iskra 2]

One more hurrah for the R... mine has bounced around in the cubby of my pickup for nearly a year, cushioned in an old 'navy' watch cap... works great. (J-8, H-103 l/d, 85/2 Nikkor).

Happy user,

Rick 😀

I've been thinking about an L but wasn't sure it could handle the ride in my truck. Glad to hear it passes the "Truck Test" 🙂 like my other old stuff. 😀