Longest practical lens on Bessa L

[danielnorton]

I understand that the Bessa L is most often used with the wider lenses due to the scale focus, but does anyone use their L with a 35 or 50 with success?

 

[raid]

For many years, people have been using cameras that do not have a rangefinder and that force the user to guess the distance. Typically, the lenses were 45mm-50mm. So, using a 50mm lens on the Bessa L is not even a challenge. If you start using a 90mm lens with the L, it would be a harder task. Maybe if you can use the smaller aperture settings and guess the distance well, you may get successful here and there, but it will be difficult to get consistently sharp focus.

 

[dostacos]

well the farther away from the subject the larger the lens you can use.... if you KNOW infinity is the distance then dead center of the largest viewfinder ya got and take the shot. 😀

now where can I find a nice 400MM viewfinder?

 

[xayraa33]

a 50mm lens with a max. aperture of f 2.8 or f3.5 should pose no difficulty in scale focusing with some practise on the CV L. this was done all the time on the very early Leicas with the 50mm Elmar or Elmax lens.

 

[danielnorton]

Industar 50

Industar 50

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth springing for a 50mm view finder as I have a zorki 4 with an Industar-50 f/3.5 (thanks max) and a 4K with a J-8 (thanks Kim) on the way to me, I thought maybe the Bessa L might be a good option with this lens as well when I feel like an internal meter might be handy.. is it worth $100+ to get a VF and use this lens or should I save and get a CV wide that comes with a VF for this camera? GAS :bang:

 

[xayraa33]

I'm trying to decide whether it's worth springing for a 50mm view finder as I have a zorki 4 with an Industar-50 f/3.5 (thanks max) and a 4K with a J-8 (thanks Kim) on the way to me, I thought maybe the Bessa L might be a good option with this lens as well when I feel like an internal meter might be handy.. is it worth $100+ to get a VF and use this lens or should I save and get a CV wide that comes with a VF for this camera? GAS :bang:

you can use an FSU 35mm finder (KMZ) with a mask taped to the front to approx. the view of a 50mm lens. it will be cheaper than a real 50mm finder.

 

[danielnorton]

hmmmm

hmmmm

you can use an FSU 35mm finder (KMZ) with a mask taped to the front to approx. the view of a 50mm lens. it will be cheaper than a real 50mm finder.

now that is an interesting idea, one question though, how would I know how much to mask off? has anyone tried something like this before?

 

[aterlecki]

is it worth $100+ to get a VF and use this lens or should I save and get a CV wide that comes with a VF for this camera? GAS :bang:

Why not try one of the Russian turret finders? It has separate finders for 28, 35, 50, 85 & 135mm. I use mine on a bessa-T and it works great. Quite a bargain when compared to individual finders as they can be had mint for about $45-50.

 

[danielnorton]

Why not try one of the Russian turret finders? It has separate finders for 28, 35, 50, 85 & 135mm. I use mine on a bessa-T and it works great. Quite a bargain when compared to individual finders as they can be had mint for about $45-50.

I was actually just looking at those on ebay.. are they really large? I didn't see any images of them on a camera..

 

[aterlecki]

I was actually just looking at those on ebay.. are they really large? I didn't see any images of them on a camera..

Not too bad. About 4.5cm from base to top. The turret casing diameter is about 3.5cm.

 

[rbiemer]

I was actually just looking at those on ebay.. are they really large? I didn't see any images of them on a camera..

Here is a shot of mine on top of the Zorki. And the Jupiter 9 85mm/f2 lens.

 

[pvdhaar]

I'm one of those who think that a 50mm on an L is stretching things a bit to far. For two reasons:

I've used a Minox 35 in the past, it's a scale focussing camera with a 35/2.8 lens. When there's plenty light, there's no problem, you'll use f8 and have sufficient DOF. But when the light gets lower (typically indoors), and you have to go to 2.8, then all of a sudden the DOF at closer distances gets really shallow. I've had mixed results in getting this right. From this, I find that 35 is about the max.

Then there's the albums my parents made in the 60s with a scale focussing 45mm Agfa. There are some shots in there that are completely in focus, but the major part is just a tadd off. As these photos were not enlarged as much as they are today (smaller than 8x12cm instead of 10x15cm/4x6" or larger) you could get away with this. Now of course, this could be due to bad mastering of the guesstimation technique, but the real question is, is it possible to do better for larger enlargements? My conclusion: 45mm is too long for guesstimation.

Of course, everybody is different, and you may be able to do what I can't...

 

[Dingo]

I once shot with an L and a CV28/3.5 without a viewfinder, real fun because ... you know.

 

[danielnorton]

universal viewfinder

universal viewfinder

thanks rbiemer that doesn't look too bad as far as size and actually looks pretty cool I think I'll grab one and even if the 50 doesn't work out on the L I'll be ale to use the finder on my zorki when I spring for a J-9

pvdhaar not sure how well I'll do, my only scale foucs camera is a half frame and while those look pretty good, I rarely blow those up bigger than 4x6 and it has a 30mm I believe..

Dingo, no finder at all might actually improve my work 😀