Bessa R prices rising?

R

regularchickens

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A recent check of some ending bids for Bessa Rs on the 'bay shows several north of $300, with one even over $400. This meets and exceeds what I'd come to regard as "normal" for a used price of an R2, even. What's going on here?
 
This sounds alarming.. I`d better pick up a bessa for my self some time soon... (But alas, it is stil far less than prices if used Bessas in my country.. Recently I saw an L (!) body without any accessories for more than 300$...)
 
I'm glad that I bought a spare body.
Reason for rising prices are simple: It's just the best Leica screwmount camera ever build, and it's no longer available new.
 
I'm always amused when cameras panned as "cheap junk" go on to become cult objects. The RF's of the 1970's are an example. I enjoyed the R that I had, and the light weight, but they have certainly had their share of problems. The R2 and subsequent cameras have been much better (The R2A is my favorite).
 
I'm buying CV screw mount lenses with adapter in order to use them on both my Bessa R and R2A.
I believe that the first production of CV projects (ASPH ones like Ultrons and Nokton 50/1.5) suffer less from focus shift than the latest projects (40/1.4; 35/1.4; 28/2)..

Also these lenses are raising in price.. :)

Rob.
 
Now this is going in the right direction of convincing my wife I did NOT buy too much gear; I didn't BUY it: I INVESTED in it :D !

Do the more "modern" Bessas (R2x, R3x, R4x) also get a higher price in general ?

Stefan.
 
I've noticed this too, and yes, the other Bessa models are seemingly selling for more. These things happen w/ certain cameras, then they go back down in price. Have no idea why.

I used to dislike the original Bessa R's, but now they're one of my favorite cameras. They're dead reliable and suffer mostly from irritating quirks (slanted frame lines, misaligned RF, loudish shutters, dig into your back when you hang them on a strap, etc). But in the end they have a great meter and bring home the shots time after time, and $300 is dirt cheap for a metered camera that takes Leica glass.
 
The Bessa R is basically (chassis, mechanics) the same camera as all later models, although common sales talk that later models were "improved". In some cases (rewind crank) this "improvement" was quite questionable.
 
Sonnar2 said:
The Bessa R is basically (chassis, mechanics) the same camera as all later models, although common sales talk that later models were "improved". In some cases (rewind crank) this "improvement" was quite questionable.
Click to expand...

I don't know about the Bessa R (never had one in my hands); I do have a R2, and the R3A en R4A, and there is a noticable difference between the R2 and the others mentioned; the R2 makes clearly more noise, a bit like a Olympus OM-1 (a SLR !); the R3A and R4A feel more polished, more sophisticated. I agree on the rewind crank though: I really like the one on the R2: it looks better and _is_ better

STefan.
 
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