Bessa R2A or R4A

[ruilebreiro]

Hi,

I intend to buy a R2A or R4A, to start my rangefinder adventure road, because I use mainly 24-50mm, and at first I intend to use 35mm, maybe in the future add a 28mm.

In Bessa world, I thought the obvious choice would be R4A, but now i'm not so sure.

I mean, using mainly 35mm (and eventually 28mm) wouldn't i have more focus accuracy on R2A? Because in R4A, the 35mm frame comes w/ the 21mm one, so it's kind of very "inside".

Would love to ear your opinion on this.Thanks,
Rui

 

[newfinder]

I have an R2M mainly because I ware glasses, R3's 1:1 finder is not for me.
But like you said, I also like the 35mm view, it is the most 'natural' view for your eyes(of course 50mm is also good). I recently got a 21f4 with VF; R4 does provide me a more convenient 21mm view without VF; but as we are shooting mostly on 35, R2 should be the choice. And I don't think there's too much difference on focusing accuracy if R4 uses 35mm lens.

I've attached a comparison(not by me) picture FYI.

 

[Doug]

Having frames "inside" is useful because then you can see around the outside. 🙂 You can see stuff moving into the scene before it gets there, helping you time the shot, but it helps arrange composition in other ways too. This is a typical RF advantage over an SLR.

If you use a 50mm a lot then the R4 might not be the ideal choice, but the finder is certainly workable. If the 50 is the longest you use, and you often use 25, 28, and/or 35, then the R4 is a fine choice. This camera is unique; there's not been an RF before with such wide framelines built-in.

If you mostly use 50, 75, and/or 90mm then the R3 is clearly a better pick (and a great companion for an R4; get both!), and the R2 is in between, an all-round average choice.