Bessa R3M/R3A review

[mc_vancouver]

I have had my R3M for a couple of months now. I am very impressed by the finish, a glossy black paint, which hasn't yet been rubbed raw, but I'm sure it will, in time. The camera felt solid. The 1:1 viewfinder is a treat, being able to keep my left eye open while framing with the right, although I have to say I still tend to close my other eye, mostly out of habit. And the meter readout is great, although in bright conditions one has to move one's eye about a little to find it, and it can disappear when the lower portion of the frame is really light. To have half-stop readings in the viewfinder, all the way to plus/minus two stops, is a treat. It appears to be accurate as tested within the narrow limits of slide film: of course it is more of a centre weighted/average reading than spot, so you have to take that into consideration when aiming the camera for a reading. A grey card is a handy thing to bring along in your bag or pocket. I like the feel of it...but:

I recently bought the T winder and I have found that the regular, top mounted film advance is now a bit sticky to return, that is, I have to push it back toward the camera body with my thumb after advancing the film, and I'm thinking this may have to do with some extra resistance the winder is applying to the advance? I will take it off next time and try it again, and add to that report.

The other negative thing was the rangefinder was slightly out when I got it, but thanks to some rather tricky manouevering inside the top of the camera, I more or less got it to accurately align at infinity. More or less: it is very very tricky to get the left to right alignment accurate simply because you have to look through the camera, then look down into the open top to get your tiny jeweller's screwdriver on the correct adjusting screw, turn it one way, look through the finder again, re-adjust and so on..

More later. I'll find those directions for aligning and post them in this forum.

 

[Andyrew]

Hi, do you have this in pdf form?

 

[Sam N]

And the meter readout is great, although in bright conditions one has to move one's eye about a little to find it, and it can disappear when the lower portion of the frame is really light.

This is the biggest problem with Bessas in my opinion, which isn't so bad. I've trained myself to put a finger from my left hand in front of the bottom of the VF whenever I'm in bright sunlight. This is a bit annoying, but it solves the problem. I find that I don't have to do this nearly as often with the ZI, although the eye still has to be positioned properly with that camera.