Bessa R2 problem.. metering issue?

[Natron]

I've been using the Voigtlander Bessa R2 body I picked up for a couple of days now. I've noticed that it meters properly at every setting except 1/2 second and 1 second. At those settings, the meter reading drops to "-" (underexposure) and won't budge from there no matter what. It can be a cloudless day at noon and you'll set the Nokton at f/1.5 and 1/2 second and it'll show underexposure. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Short of trying *another* new battery, is there anything else I can look at myself?

As a second issue, I processed my first roll and was severely disappointed. Every single photo was murky and blurry. It's not that it was misfocused, it was simply that nothing was in focus. I developed a roll from my Canonet and that roll blew away every single shot from the Bessa/Nokton setup. With the Nokton's photos, what was "in focus" was beyond soft and what was out of focus was just blobs of grey. There were a few outdoors shot at about 1/250th and f/8 that have SOME detail but it's still embarrassing in those shots. Those at least look about as good as the shots you'd expect from a plastic Holga lens.

So what are my options with the Bessa body's metering? I won't pass too much judgement on the lens yet as I have two more rolls I ran through it to process tonight. We'll see how those turned out first.

 

[rover]

I think this was discussed a little while ago on the CVUG. You may want to join the group and check out the archives.

http://www.cameraquest.com/CosVoigtUser.htm

 

[fraley]

Natron, I have an ISO/shutter speed chart that shows the R2 meter works with 400 ISO down to and including 1/4 sec, with 200 ISO down to and including 1/2 sec, and with 100 ISO down to and including 1 sec. I think it's a function of the overall EV rating.

 

[rover]

Fraley, is that ISO chart on line, I was looking for one for the Bessas

 

[fraley]

Rover,

I put the R2 metering chart up on my site because I can't find where I got it originally!

http://www.usfca.edu/~fraley/r2meter.html

I

 

[rover]

May I ask,

On the R3a/R2a the AE function allows for shutter speeds as long as 8 seconds. Is that a useless function if the meter is max'd out?

 

[back alley]

meter must be changed too.
would have to be i would think.

joe

 

[rover]

If you go by the EV sensitivity, I don't know...

 

[Natron]

Hmm... I just spent some time searching the archives of the CVUG list and found threads referencing this. In particular, one noted:

"....In fact, this sudden reversal occurs when the physical
coupling between the meter and shutter/speed settings reaches its limit.
It is a "feature" of the camera. With higher film speeds the lower shutter
speeds become inaccessible for metering. The limit is found by looking at
the combination F/1.4, ISO 100 and one second exposure, which is the
ACTUAL minimum. If you use ISO 200 this "flip" will occur between one-half
second (the lowest meterable shutter speed) and one second (which becomes
unavailable). At 400 ISO you lose both 1sec and half-sec. And so on."

So does everyone else notice this at those film speeds?

 

[Doug]

Natron, the subject has come up here and elsewhere many times, and I expect everyone who tries to meter at those shutter speeds faces this issue. I have not noticed it on either of my Bessas, but only because I just don't use such slow shutter speeds!

Your focus problem is more mysterious. I'd think a first set of tests to try would be this:
1) Let a friend who is experienced with RF focusing shoot a couple of shots with it.
2) Try a different lens on that body
3) Find a different body to try with that lens.

The idea is to narrow-down the source of the problem... Good luck!

 

[Kris]

Your Bessa R2 is fine meter-wise. The meter does show 'underexposure' if you have shutter speed & ISO setting combination outside its working EV values. That is, at ISO100, the meter will decouple at B setting. At ISO200, decouples at 1 sec. At ISO400, decouples at 1/2 sec. and so on. I think it's common with mechanical cameras because my other two cameras also behave like that.

Blurry photo even at f/8 1/250 sounds weird. You didn't focus the lens at 0.9m and take photos of distant objects, did you?

 

[Natron]

Thanks for the replies guys. There's one problem.. I don't know anyone else with any rangefinder camera or lenses. No photo stores near here, either.

As far as testing the 2nd roll, I should be processing that in the darkroom sometime today. The problem is that the entire roll was shot yesterday morning because it was extremely foggy and made things look quite interesting... which means everything in the frames will be soft and fuzzy looking anyway. Oh well. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[Rich Silfver]

Oh who needs a built in meter anyway? 🙂

 

[Natron]

Ok the metering issue is resolved..

But I just processed two more rolls at home and the photos are horrid. Terrible. Now I'm wondering if either the lens or body is damaged. For instance:

Focus on a subject 6ft away. Shoot the photo. Develop the film. The subject at 6ft is a totally out of focus blob and items 20 or 30ft away are somewhat in focus but still lacking any real detail. Like I said before, the things out of focus are obviously VERY out of focus and the things actually "in focus" are... blurry.

At first, I immediately thought the rangefinder was out of alignment and needed to be adjusted. The thing is, I measured exactly 5ft from an item and set up the camera with the lens set carefully at the 5ft mark on the lens (Nokton). The rangefinder image lines up perfectly.. 100% spot on.

So what sense does this make? Is the lens damaged? Body damaged? Both were purchased used. I'm not quite sure where to go with this.

 

[ddutchison]

...the things out of focus are obviously VERY out of focus and the things actually "in focus" are... blurry.

At first, I immediately thought the rangefinder was out of alignment and needed to be adjusted. The thing is, I measured exactly 5ft from an item and set up the camera with the lens set carefully at the 5ft mark on the lens (Nokton). The rangefinder image lines up perfectly.. 100% spot on.

It sounds like the rangefinder is fine. My guess is that the lens has been "worked" on and improperly re-assembled (it's hard to believe it would leave the factory in such a state, though I suppose that is also possible). It's also hard to believe that the previous owner could have failed to notice this problem.

I would suggest that you take the camera and lens to a good technician, explain the situation, and get a written account of the problem, its cause, and cost to repair. Submit that to the seller as a basis to negotiate its return or partial refund of purchase price.

Hope this works out for you.

 

[FrankS]

Sound and sage advice.

 

[Natron]

Well I may have an answer to this problem. This showed up today. Summicron 35mm f/2 pre-ASPH.

I have a roll of FP4+ I shot with this kit today drying in the back room right now. Just looking at the wet negative strip, the negatives look much, much better already. A loupe and some scans will be the final answer in a couple of hours

 

[rover]

You dog!! Do you have a hood for that bear?

 

[Natron]

No hood. The lens just showed up today, used. It came with the front and rear caps and that's it. I'll get a hood eventually but that's a pretty pricey pill to swallow for a little rectangle of plastic.

 

[Pherdinand]

Interesting...at my door, such a lens never "just showed up". Maybe not yet.