Praise for the Bessa L

[plexi]

Not beeing able to afford a a Leica yet(just bought a Nikon D70) for my B&W shots, I bought a Bessa L and a CV 25/4...
Wow I`m impressed of this combination, the 25mm is very sharp and the very L is intuitive to handle. so I` m seeing a R2 in my future....🙂
Anyone else using this combo?

 

[Doug]

Yes! That was my first Bessa and my first lens wider than 28mm. That is a "natural" combination, going together very well. Neither lens nor body have any RF coupling at all... and the lens has those handy (unique?) focusing click-stops. Unusual and innovative product design all-round.

At the time, I was simply shopping for some very wide-angle lenses for my old M2 and CLE, and came across the package deal for the Bessa-L body along with the 25mm lens at an attractive price. I got the 15mm at the same time, and have found it's more challenging to use well.

Note that the Bessa-T, also a radical product, has just been discontinued, and prices are VERY attractive.

Have fun... Looking forward to seeing samples of your L-pics!

 

[RML]

The L + 25/4 was my first foray into the wonderful world of rangefinders. Im still very pleased with it; it goes on holiday, on special occassions, and on outings with me, though as an addition to my Bessa R and Jupiter-8 combo.

Someday my daughter might be able to use it. It's such a simple combo, and yet so useful that I'm consider giving it to her. She's only six but she likes to carry around a really cheap P&S (it was 1.50 euro new, big as a SLR almost, and even with iso400 the photos made with that lens stink) with her for whenever she sees something she likes. She doesn't care much for seeing the prints; she just enjoys the activity. Sounds like a perfectly good reason to do photography. 🙂

 

[back alley]

rml,

i seem to have the same photo 'attitude' as your six year old.
i love the act of photographing as much as or more than the prints.

i wonder what this says about me??

btw, welcome to plexi and rml to the forum!
nice to 'see' some new faces here.

joe

 

[RML]

Thanks for the welcome, Joe.

My attitude is more like Winogrand's: I let my neg's ripen for a while before I touch them. I scan my colour neg's and I've built up quite a backlog. At first I was disappointed with myself and spent a couple of weekends catching up, all in vain. Now I just scan when I feel like it, and it did improve my appreciation of my work, and also gave me much needed distance from the shot, exactly the reason why Winogrand left his neg's untouched for years. So, in effect the activity of shooting is what I now enjoy most, the thinking about a shot, being able to find a good composition in a scene, taking the shot as well thought out as I can. And when the time comes that I eventually get to scan the shot, I've long ago forgotten all those things and can judge the shot on its merits. So, now I have two (for me) seperate aspects of my photography that I enjoy doing, all in their own time.

I think my little girl may be more advanced in the Zen of photography, though: the path is the goal, and the goal is the path. She seems to have grasped that much better than I. 🙂

 

[digitalox]

plexi,

I just got exactly the same combo a month or two ago.

Up until now I've been shooting with just a 45mm and 90mm for the last year or two, so I'm finding the 25mm quite difficult. I've shot 4 or 5 rolls but no 'keepers' yet. Its fun though, and different; I'd been wanting a wide angle for a while.

Now if I can just remember the reset the ISO setting after loading the film, I think everything will be fine 🙂

 

[plexi]

Hi Scott, I find the 25mm difficult too for streetshooting.
I`m used to wideangles(Nikon 17-35mm), but that`s mostly with nature pictures. So far after 4 rolls with the CV 25/4, I have one keeper, from the first roll...... You can see it here:
http://www.foto.no/cgi-bin/bildekri...m=0&offsett=0&foreningsid=&nomenus=&serieid=0

I used a Zorki 4K, hadn`t got my L yet.

 

[That Guy]

The L-25/4 combo was also my first Bessa. It's the perfect size, focal length, and weight for my backpack on backcountry trips (my primary reason for buying it). I've enjoyed it very much, but as long as I use it, I keep forgetting to disengage the built-in "trigger lock." 😀

 

[plexi]

Seems like the L is a lot of peoples intro to rangefinders(funny, it doesn`t even have a rangefinder) 🙂
The "trigger-lock" is a nice feature for me, as I wrap the strap around my wrist and the lever is the perfect place to anchor my thumb. My first camera was a Nikon FE2, so I`m used to this....