R4m Problems ?

[angeloks]

Hi,

I've been looking to buy a Bessa R4m for a while now. I was almost decided to order one when I read this review from BH.

"During longer exposures in outdoor daylight the light does not leak from the back but the viewfinder window. This requiers that the finder windows and focusing windows be covered. Still love this camera. Some times when winding the film the rewind lever gets jammed. It caused me to think that I had fininshed the roll of film once when I hadn't."

"Since my last review I have encontered some problems. The meter stops working when you get down to a 1/4 or 1/2 a second exposure depending on the ISO you are at. The camera back leaks light when your exposure gets to a second or more when shotting out doors in day light. You have to cover the camera or the film is fogged."

Is that light leak issue general ? I was planning to do some landscape photography with it (BTW can you put a mecanical remote in the camera ?). And what about the metering that stops working passed 1/4 s ?

Thanks,

 

[glynjones]

I've had no problems whatsoever with my R4a
As for a light leak - he must have a faulty body
As its a rangefinder the lens-shutter-film arrangement is completely seperate from the viewfinder, so any light leak is a faulty camera

Certainly the R4a takes a mechanical remote - it just screws into the shutter button, and I'd have thought that the R4m would be the same

As for metering - for anything where you want critical metering - eg, with slide film, the combination of a relatively simple meter and wide angles lenses has meant that I haven't found it all that accurate - and would use a seperate light meter. I'd say the same of my mamiya 7

With black and white negative film, usually hand held so faster shutter speeds - I've not had any significant problem

Its a great little camera and I'd thoroughly recommend one

Glyn

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Total rubbish.

Bin the 'review' and buy the camera.

I've had my R3 for two years, same body different viewfinder, and never seen these issues or even heard of them before now.

 

[itf]

I'd never heard anything like this, but my Bessa R leaks light. It leaks enough that it has ruined some photos, and I can't figure out where the leak is (the seals are all good). I'd put it down to it being pretty beaten and it's not worth fixing now. Replacing it with a Leica very soon.

Here's how it looks over two frames, in the first frame you can see it around the bush; it's streaky and washed out looking, in the second it's more obvious the vertical line that cuts off makes me think the film is affected at the side it comes out of the cassette, and with the photos affected more strongly at the bottom the leak would seem to be toward the top of the camera: