Summitar at the summit

[vdonovan]

A few photos from last weekend's climb of Mt. Reba with Bessa R and Summitar 50(what I now think of as "The Bessatar") in tow. One advantage of Bessa R over Leica III for trips like this: Bessa is MUCH LIGHTER.

A little flare for you:

 

[Marc-A.]

Very nice pictures. I love your "Bessatar"! 🙂

 

[Big Hairy Bee]

Very nice! I hear snow shots are tough to meter. I wouldn't know firsthand living in Phoenix though...

 

[rtphotos]

vdonovan,

Nice images. Does the summitar collapse into the Bessa R? That would make it a really compact and light package. 🙂

rt

 

[payasam]

rt, the "second shutter" of the Bessa will probably prevent the Summitar from collapsing.

 

[terrafirmanada]

Nic photos, looks like a good kit. Glad someone out there is tracking it up.

 

[mr_phillip]

Nice shots – a good Summitar is a wonderful thing.

rtphotos, from the top of my head, I think the Summitar collapses into the Bessa R ok, although some other collapsable lenses do cause problems.

 

[vdonovan]

When I got the Bessa R I did some web searching about collapsing the Summitar. I asked Steve Gandy at Camera Quest and he responded very kindly with a qualified "maybe".

So I made a small slipstick and measured the collapsed lens from the top of the threads to the base with the focus at infinity. Then I made a similar measurement of the camera to the outermost protrusion of the external shutter. It seemed to me that there was about 1/16th of an inch to spare.

I tried it carefully and it worked! With a caveat: the Summitar has flanges on the barrel that lock it in place when extended. When extending or collapsing the lens these flanges can scrape the paint on what looks like a protective guide above the light sensor inside the Bessa. As a result the inside of my Bessa is no longer "mint" but has "light scratches". There are no visible scratches on the Summitar.

So don't collapse it if you want to preserve your body or lens in mint condition. Go ahead if you want a great shooting setup.

 

[rtphotos]

vdonovan,

Thanks for the info on collapsing the summitar into the bessa-r.
rt

 

[spiderfrank]

Nice shots, the second one is wonderful !!!

I've a Bessa-R and a Summitar too, I don't like to scratch the inside of my camera, so I keeop the lens extended, It's enough small for me ...

Ciao
Franco