Old 6x9 Voigtländer Bessa with history and problems

[matti]

I got this old Voigtländer Bessa from my grandfather. I like the history of it. He worked as a seaman and just after the war went through the Kiel canal where he bought it from a german who hadn't had butter for some years and wanted one kilo for the camera. My grandfather nicked two kilos from the galley and since then the camera has taken a lot of pitures of my mother, when she was a kid.

My grandfather gave it to me last summer when he noticed that I was using my Voigtländer Bessa R2 and I shot some pictures with T-Max 100.

I suppose it is one of the cheapest variants of the day with an Anastigmat, Voigtar 1:6,3 and speeds of 25-125. And, as you can see in the picture of my grandfather, it shows a lot of problems:

- It flares in the middle.
- Vignetting seems severe.
- The shutter speeds seemed to be off, as I it was quite overexposed. (I changed the curves a bit in Photoshop.) Or this might be due to light leaks, I don't know.
- And I can not even get the frame level, probably the small finder that you look into from above wasn't adjusted level.

It has both a red window in the back (that is open all the time) and a yellow window that can be opened with a little lever from inside the film chamber. Anyone have a clue what this is?

This was a sunny day, so I'll try to shoot with it when the light might be a bit more forgiving some day and see if I can get better results. Maybe I'll even try to clean the lens. There seems to be a bit of haze or dust in it. And maybe tape over the film counter wholes in the back.

Sorry if this is OT, as it actually doesn't have a rangefinder.

/matti

 

[Todd.Hanz]

That's a great story to go with this camera. I like shooting these old folders and have a couple myself, if your interested in repairs see this guy: http://www.certo6.com/index.html.

good luck,
Todd

 

[ZeissFan]

That's a great story about the camera. I believe the flare in the photo is the result of a dirty lens.

Very likely, because of the age of the camera, it could benefit from a general CLA (cleaning, lubrication and adjustment). The vignetting probably is a characteristic of the lens. Stopping down should help, although at f/6.3, it's already stopped down to begin.

I'm not sure of the purpose of the double windows in the back.

 

[nzeeman]

windows are used to see number on the back of the roll of film. so you can know how much to wind it.
😉

 

[David Goldfarb]

A double window on a 6x9 camera usually indicates that it once had (or if you're lucky--still has) a 645 mask. With the mask in place you would wind the frame to the first window, take a shot, then wind the same number to the second window to take the next shot. Some of the Bessa 6x9's had this. For 6x9, you probably want the hole on the left side.

I agree that the camera just needs a general CLA to get the shutter running properly and to clean any haze from the lens.

 

[matti]

Thanks for the help, everyone. Maybe I'll talk to someone here in Sweden or send it to the guy at the certo6-site.

I agree that one window is for 6x45 But why is it yellow?

/Matti

 

[David Goldfarb]

No idea why it would be yellow, but it shouldn't matter much. Maybe one of the windows was replaced at some point, or if it was original, maybe it made it easier to write the instructions (as in, "use the red window only for 6x9 and open the yellow window when using hte 645 mask").

 

[matti]

Just an update: It was really easy to disassamble the lens and clean all the surfaces. Now it looks perfect! The haze is completely gone. I tried to check the focusing with tape and loupe. It seems fine at infinity, but is hard to check for other distances.
Anyway, I put a roll of Tri-X 400 in it, so we'll see how that looks.
/matti

 

[ZeissFan]

If the window is for 6x4.5, it might be yellow as a visual reminder. Or perhaps the original red window fell out and someone stuck the yellow window into it. I have an older Bessa, and it has two red windows.

You really only want to collimate the lens at infinity. As far as a lens is concerned, infinity is a definitive point when rotating the lens (or front cell) in its mount. Once you have that set, you should be fine with other distances, as long as the markings on the lens are reasonably accurate.

If you have an SLR, a much more accurate method of collimating a lens involves the use of an SLR and a telephoto lens (zooms are fine). Here are some instructions [ http://elekm.net/zeiss/repair/collimate/ ]. I've used the tape on the film plane, and while it gets you close, it's nowhere near as accurate as using the SLR method.

Good job on the rest of it. I hope it works out great for you.

 

[matti]

So now it is clean!

Here is the first shot:
It is sunflowers in my garden.
(Ok they don't look so sunny this time of the year, but the birds like them...)

See that the reflections in the windows doesn't cause too much flare.

Taken with Tri-X at 1300 developed in Tmax. (I wanted to use small aperture to be able to nail the focus with this beast...)

/matti

 

[matti]

As you can see I still don't know how to use the viewfinder correctly! (but I kind of like that randomness.)
/matti