Bessa R2M advice, parts, and repair availability

J

jicolson

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I took a gamble on the evil auction site on a very attractively priced R2M, described by seller as being checked by a tech and fully working except for it missing the bottom plate. Well, it showed up last night with a jammed advance lever.

Bottom plate being off already, it was relatively easy to figure out where the issue lies- the spring that moves the advance interlock after exposure was out of position. I’m able to give it a nudge and the advance lever frees up and the shutter works fine, but I can’t get the spring to do what it needs to do to pop the lock out of the way to free up the advance lever after exposure.

Also, the listing stated (and what info I could find corroborated) that a bottom plate from a Nikon FE would fit. I bought one of those for cheap that showed up at the same time and it does not fit after all.

So, seeking advice: who all services these/stands a chance to have a spare bottom plate? Should I sell it for parts and search for another body? Does anyone know where I can source a properly fitting bottom plate? The shutter works fine, I have a feeling most techs could suss out the advance issue- and I’d love to get it working. I reached out to the head bartender via email asking about the bottom plate issue when it was in transit to no avail, as I gather that Camera Quest works on these bodies. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

J
 
jicolson said:
I took a gamble on the evil auction site on a very attractively priced R2M, described by seller as being checked by a tech and fully working except for it missing the bottom plate. Well, it showed up last night with a jammed advance lever.

Bottom plate being off already, it was relatively easy to figure out where the issue lies- the spring that moves the advance interlock after exposure was out of position. I’m able to give it a nudge and the advance lever frees up and the shutter works fine, but I can’t get the spring to do what it needs to do to pop the lock out of the way to free up the advance lever after exposure.

Also, the listing stated (and what info I could find corroborated) that a bottom plate from a Nikon FE would fit. I bought one of those for cheap that showed up at the same time and it does not fit after all.

So, seeking advice: who all services these/stands a chance to have a spare bottom plate? Should I sell it for parts and search for another body? Does anyone know where I can source a properly fitting bottom plate? The shutter works fine, I have a feeling most techs could suss out the advance issue- and I’d love to get it working. I reached out to the head bartender via email asking about the bottom plate issue when it was in transit to no avail, as I gather that Camera Quest works on these bodies. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

J
Click to expand...

As explained on our repair page, we are not currently taking on more repairs during COVID. https://cameraquest.com/repairs.htm

I doubt other make base plates are interchangable on the Bessa rangefinder bodies.

Keep a lookout for other late model Bessa rangefinder parts body on ebay.

Stephen
 
As far as I am concerned Bessas share lots of parts with other cameras made by Cosina. In the past I already swapped rear door between Bessa R and Cosina C1. If my memory serves me right the bottom plate was identical. At the first glance this should also apply to other Bessa models. Assuming that Cameras like Cosina C1 and some other models can be obtained for very little money it may be worth a try.

Nicon FE doesn't seem to be the right choice - maybe the seller confused it with Nikon FE/FM 10 which was made by cosina. What you should look for are cameras made about mid 90's. You can find a list of cameras made by cosina for different brands in the internet. Models which would be interesting in terms of spare parts are all made of plastic. You should look at the shape of the bottom plate. From what I saw ie. Vivitar v2000 wouldn't be the right match.

Cosina C1S - incl. photo of the bottom plate - Cameraquest
 
agentlossing said:
How different is the footprint of the Bessa-L? That's certainly the cheapest body you could buy to strip for its parts.
Click to expand...


10x more than cosina C1/C1S which I already used as a donor for Bessa R. Cosina used many standardized parts for their cameras. Worth a try anyway.
 
kamil_k said:
As far as I am concerned Bessas share lots of parts with other cameras made by Cosina. In the past I already swapped rear door between Bessa R and Cosina C1. If my memory serves me right the bottom plate was identical. At the first glance this should also apply to other Bessa models. Assuming that Cameras like Cosina C1 and some other models can be obtained for very little money it may be worth a try.

Nicon FE doesn't seem to be the right choice - maybe the seller confused it with Nikon FE/FM 10 which was made by cosina. What you should look for are cameras made about mid 90's. You can find a list of cameras made by cosina for different brands in the internet. Models which would be interesting in terms of spare parts are all made of plastic. You should look at the shape of the bottom plate. From what I saw ie. Vivitar v2000 wouldn't be the right match.

Cosina C1S - incl. photo of the bottom plate - Cameraquest
Click to expand...


not seeing any cosina C1’s in the states, but the vivitar v2000 is plentiful. hoping to fix the issue before springing for a bottom plate donor camera.
 
agentlossing said:
How different is the footprint of the Bessa-L? That's certainly the cheapest body you could buy to strip for its parts.
Click to expand...

good question, i unfortunately don’t have mine anymore to compare. i do have a friend with one though, i’ll see if i can borrow his and pop it open to see. it would certainly be the cheapest model to harvest interior parts from if similar but the aforementioned SLRs are much cheaper just for the bottom plate. maybe they share other components too.
 
Look for the latest models of cosina cameras. You might notice slight difference in the rear door hinfe construction compared to the mid 80's models. The bottom plate shows some differences in that area as well. As far as I remember some cosina cameras were also sold as Carena. I saw a botoom plate for Nikon FM10 on e-bay somewhere in the US. I'm pretty sure you can find the right part without spending more than 20$. I took Cosina C1S as a reference because that's what worked for me, but as mentioned before there are many different others which could work as well. The shape of the bottom plate of Vivitar v200 is a bit different - they added some material near to the grip.
 
anyone with an r2/3m/a able to pop their bottom plate off and snap a photo of what this section looks like? i can only find a photo of the R2 and it’s slightly different. would be deeply grateful.

turns out the fm10 will indeed fit it seems like with a bit of removal of the area under the lens. my roommate has one that i popped off to verify. unfortunately and unsurprisingly the mechanics of the advance mech are way different.
 
jicolson said:
anyone with an r2/3m/a able to pop their bottom plate off and snap a photo of what this section looks like? i can only find a photo of the R2 and it’s slightly different. would be deeply grateful.

turns out the fm10 will indeed fit it seems like with a bit of removal of the area under the lens. my roommate has one that i popped off to verify. unfortunately and unsurprisingly the mechanics of the advance mech are way different.
Click to expand...

Argh - so close.
Here is a near complete tear down of a R2 but no base plate pictures.
https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163802
 
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