Bessa Viewfinder Magnification

[CTichatschke]

Hi,

After all the positive feedback I heared about shooting with a 1:1 viewfinder, I would like to try myself! As I don't wont to buy a new camera, I was wondering if I could upgrade my Bessa R2C to 1:1 with viewfinder magnification lenses. I just ordered some Nikon viewfinder adapters which fit the Bessa, therefore I could now use the Nikon viewfinder magnification palette in order to maybe swith to 1:1. First, does anybody know about the standard viewfinder magnification of the Bessa R2?

Thanks a lot,
Christian

 

[CTichatschke]

Stupid question: Would it be theoretically possible to change from 0.7 to 1 with magnifying lenses???

 

[rover]

Sure, a 1.45x ish maginfication increase should get you close to 1:1.

 

[mfogiel]

I do not have the R2, but have the R3 and R4 - I have bought the megaperls (japanese internet shop) 1.33 magnifier, and it does help to get the best out of the smallest frames on your cameras.

 

[Bluesman]

Dumb question: will a magnifier make it easier to focus a 85 or 90 mm lens on the R2A?

 

[mfogiel]

A magnifier will make it easier to focus a 85 or 90mm lens on any rangefinder I know of. When I put my 1.33mag on the ZI (pretty similar magnification factor to the Bessa R2A) the 85 framelines are much bigger, and also the rf patch appears bigger, in fact the effective base length gets magnified as well, so you end up with a close to 1 magnification, which on Bessa amounts to 39mm I think.