Pre-war Bessa — No serial?

[xxloverxx]

Absolute beauty, and everything seems to work fine (just finished the test roll). Only missing the 645 mask and…the serial number?

It looks beat-up enough that I don't believe it's a fake. Auction ended at £16 on eBay, if anyone's wondering…and £21 shipping :bang:.

Still trying to get used to 1) the Brilliant finder (which is anything but, really, apart from the genius design that makes it work both vertically and horizontally) 2) the slow lens 3) the 4 (really 2) shutter speeds.

The focusing ring has both meter markings and category markings on it (Porträt, Gruppe, und I mean and Landschall). The sports finder is the kind without glass — there's an extra pop-up for 645 and a slide-up mask for the same purpose (to be used together).

I have a document with serials and years of production, which is why I want to find the serial…if anyone could give me the approximate year, it'd be just as great 🙂

 

[rxmd]

Yours is a pretty low-end model with a relatively simple Gauthier shutter. Nobody would bother faking that.
I had the same, except with a f6.3 Voigtar, also with no serial number.
Pictures were pretty dreamy, look good on contact prints, but get underwhelming pretty quickly when enlarging.
What you read as "Landschall" should be "Landschaft", landscape.


Bessa Is with Voigtars were made between 1932 and 1938 for what it's worth.
Maybe with the low-end models they didn't bother to put serials on the lenses.
The lens is the only thing that's numbered on Bessas anyway.

 

[Sparrow]

Some do ... this bought in 1934 I understand ... actually pretty good now it's clean

 

[xxloverxx]

Thanks for the info all 🙂

 

[emjo]

Perhaps it is stamped on the plate just below the shutter assembly as in my early Bessa here: http://jabcam.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/voigtlander-bessa-f6-3/

 

[xxloverxx]

Nothing on the plate. I thought it might be there but I shone a torch onto it and there was nothing.

I actually just realised, cleaning the lens, that I had the 645 mask in all along. Good thing that was just a test roll to test for focus/light-leaks and not something like a vacation roll…ugh.

 

[xxloverxx]

Anyone have any idea on how to dismantle the lens so that I can clean the haze? Or should I just return it?

Edit: Nevermind, since I have an Isolette on the way I'll just return this one.