Voigtlander Bessa II Focusing Help

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sinisaostojic

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Hi RFF fellows,

Recently I got lucky and purchased Bessa II in top condition. After being used to Leica M viewfinders, I have found the Bessa's viewfinder very small and rangefinder patch hard to see. I have shot a roll of film, and have half the shots where I have missed the focus.

Just wondering is there any third party attachments to improve focus accuracy or if you have any other ideas, please let me know.

The camera is in great condition, without light leaks, good shutter and lens and would like to use it more as it has a huge film size. The only downside, so far, appears to be focusing.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers,
Sinisa
 
I don't find my Bessa II rf patch difficult to see, which makes me think perhaps the rf window needs cleaning? Either that or perhaps you're expecting too much - it's not as clear and contrasty as an M2, even when it's clean.
 
Thanks for your feedback Lynn.

Not sure if I was expecting too much, but would just like to be able to focus with reasonable accuracy.

When you refer to rf window cleaning, do you literally mean external rf window?
 
The focusing patch on mine is quite bright. It's possible it's just a cleaning issue, which would be great, but it's also possible that the mirror is desilvering, which is a more complicated problem. One quick and dirty way to increase visibility of the spot is to put a small dot of black in the middle of the VF front glass. Some cameras actually have this sort of thing from the factory - it works remarkably well. I use a small dot from a Sharpie permanent marker.
 
Definitely clean the windows for the RF spot, inside and out, this can make a big difference if they are getting grotty.
 
Cleaning the RF window has not had a significant improvement on the visibility of the RF patch. I have to add the in a good contrasty light, visibility of the patch is not an issue at all. I assumed the RF needs to be brighter and better defined.

After shooting and developing another roll, I think the problem might not be in the visibility of the RF patch and have suspicion there is a problem with the lens itself and how it focuses. Any photo shot at a distance of say 10m at f8/f11 is well focused, obviously with large DOF, while photos shot close up at 1m and wide open appear to shift the focus passed the subject that was focused on.

Any ideas what might have caused this and how to get it in order?
 
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Could be a few things. A spacer could have been left out by someone who had the shutter/lens assembly off, or the front standard could be out-of-square with the film plane. Since the Bessa II is front-cell focusing, it could also be that the front element is not positioned correctly.

My standard procedure with folders is to remove the shutter/lens assembly, check the standard is square using a plunge micrometer down to the backing plate at several points around the perimeter of the opening, then reassemble and collimate the lens for infinity. Normally, this is sufficient and will get the focus correct at other distances as well.
 
Leica M's have the best rangefinders of any camera made. Comparatively, every other rangefinder is junk. However most old RF's are also degraded from age. I managed to get a military packed RF guts for my old Pacemaker Crown Graphic, at least 10x brighter than the original one was.
 
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