Bessa R. To buy or not to buy... that is the question.

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Spyderman

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Hi guys,

I know this question has been asked over and over again. But it's quite a dillemma for me.

I have a Canonet and a Zorki 4, but I'd like to have a Bessa R. I can have a new Bessa R with 2.5/35 "C" and case for $ 480 including shipping from USA to Slovakia.

The question is: is it a big difference from Zorki or Canonet?
I will have the 35mm + 2 FSU 50mm lenses. Isn't the 35 too close to 50 ?
Or should I buy a 4/25 for an extra $ 50 and shoot with 25 and 50 ? But the 25 isn't RF coupled...
In future I would like to buy a Jupiter 2/85. So with the 35 and 85 the framelines will be a great improvement, but how about the 50 compared to Zorki?

PS: Just tell me to buy it 😉
 
Spyderman said:
Hi guys,

PS: Just tell me to buy it 😉
Click to expand...
There you go: BUY IT!

Nothing wrong with a Bessa+CV35 combo. Projected framelines (35/50/75/90), exposure meter, easy loading.. The 35 arguably makes most use of the 0.68x finder real estate..
 
Ditto....get it! You won't have to worry about it breaking down everytime you use it, unlike the FSU bodies. Dont get me wrong the Zorki is a fun camera to have, but for reliability sake, a great viewfinder,etc you can't go wrong with the Bessa R.
 
Buy it. The combo at CameraQuest can hardly be beat.
Besides, you can alsways buy the 25/4 later.

IMO the Bessa R is an improvement over the Canonet and the Zorki. A 35 is different enough the be used together with a 50.
 
The biggest difference is the bright viewfinder. The Zorki is pretty good, but the Bessa R is better. It is *much* better than the Canonet. The Bessa R is a nice camera. Also, I have seldom seen used Bessa R's that go for much less than new. So assuming you bought it and hated it, you would be able to recoup much of your investment by selling it.

I'm very pleased with mine. I'll be selling off nearly all my cameras shortly, but I'm keeping the Bessa R.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
I bought one a year ago and I've been pleased with it. It just put off the inevitable though, I was lusting for an M6 and finally bought one. Now the poor Bessa only sees my Elmar 90/4.

Buy it! The use you'll get out of it is worth the cameraquest price for sure. And about the 35 lenses, I find that its as wide as I need to go usually.

-Mitch
 
I have no confidence in the RF mechanism of the Bessas, which means I don't expect to focus the Noctilux nor a 135/4 nor a 90/2.8 with the precision as found on the M3 (or a Kiev). The 85/2 I have yet to try. It also seems that the RF image has less pop than the Leicas.

But who cares? If you are using anything else then there should be no problem. I tried the 50/2.8 on it wide open and it is spot on.

BUY IT.
 
the thing about the customs worries me a lot. I found that in slovakia it's 6.7% on lenses, and 4.2% on cameras. That means about $ 20 of the $ 400. Pretty bad. That makes it more like a $ 500 total (with shipping, money transfer)...
 
Spyderman, I don't want to advocate illegalities on the public forum of RFF...but I'm going to do so anyway... Why not buy used, from a trusted RFF member, and ask them to fill in the customs formulary (a label marked CN22 where you need to fill in a description of the item and what it's worth) and mark the package with a worth of $50?

Or if you buy used, why not profit from your countries recent joining of the EU, and buy taxfree within Europe?
 
wyk_penguin said:
I have no confidence in the RF mechanism of the Bessas, which means I don't expect to focus the Noctilux nor a 135/4 nor a 90/2.8 with the precision as found on the M3 (or a Kiev). The 85/2 I have yet to try. It also seems that the RF image has less pop than the Leicas.

But who cares? If you are using anything else then there should be no problem. I tried the 50/2.8 on it wide open and it is spot on.

BUY IT.
Click to expand...

I hear a lot about how difficult it is to accurately focus a 90mm lens on a Bessa R, and I've been shown mathematics that seem to say that a 135mm f4 is completely out of the question.

Nevertheless, I have photos I have taken with both 85mm f1.9 and 90mm f2.8 wide-open at minimum focus distance, as well as 135mm f3.5 photos taken inside of 10 feet away, and they are razor sharp and clearly focused where I intended.

Could be just luck, I suppose. Still, I seem to be able to do it at will.

Doesn't that seem odd that the people who express doubt that they can focus 90mm and 135mm lenses on a Bessa R don't have one - the people who do seem blithely ignorant of the 'facts' and manage to focus both lenses anyway?

However, I still agree with your conclusion - nice camera & lens combo, good price and 'bang for the buck'. I recommend it as well.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
BUY IT

the Bessa is a different breed of camera from the Canonet.. you'll end up using the Bessa the majority of the time, but you'll still want the Canonet for those more 'casual' situations where you might not want to take a more sophisticated (ie, expensive) camera

personally, the 35 is too close to 40 IMHO.. but I love the 40mm FOV, and the 35 is also excellent.. you'll want to have the option to use it on the Bessa.. next, I'd say add the 25 to go wide.. but you can do that in a month or in a year
 
JoeFriday said:
BUY IT

the Bessa is a different breed of camera from the Canonet.. you'll end up using the Bessa the majority of the time, but you'll still want the Canonet for those more 'casual' situations where you might not want to take a more sophisticated (ie, expensive) camera
Click to expand...

I didn't want to give the impression that the Canonet is not a nice camera; of course it is. Also - quieter shutter. This can be an advantage in certain situations as well.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Get the Bessa R- I had one and I sold it...

I regret that I did. Color me stupid.

The viewfinder is difficult to beat in that price range. There's a universe of very nice used LTM lenses to be used with it.

A good kit? Bessa R, 2.5/35 CV, Jupiter 8 and a Jupiter 9. I bet you will shoot mostly with the CV lens and the Jupiter 9. And you will be doing so very economically.
 
I'll join the unanimous recommendation of BUY IT! I think of the Bessa-R as a poor man's classic M6 with screw mount.

Joseph
 
Buy it

Buy it

Just got mine and I'm in love.

As for focusing longer lenses. A friend of mine living in the uk gave me this advice. She uses her bessa all the time. I have not tried this yet but I plan to.

She bought a cheap ($6) acrylic lens 1.5x magnifying glass. Cut down the plastic lens to fit over the viewfinder/ rangefinder. She says this gives a longer effective baselength, and means the framelines for a 90mm now fit a 135 (90x1.5=135). Dont know how acurate this is as I haven't tried it yet.

Regardless the Bessa is a great camera, and I find I can slip it with a j-8 into the pocket of my cargo pants.
 
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