Voigtlander Bessa R3A - faulty LED display?

[Dave S.]

While shooting in aperture priority mode with my Voigtlander Bessa R3A the LED display in the finder does not always light up. In other words, it wont indicate the correct shutter speed when I press the shutter release button half way.

Is this normal? Is there some trick as to how to use this feature? Maybe I'm doing something incorrectly?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

FYI: I bought the camera body and lens (a Voigtlander Nokton 40/1.4 MC) from two different RFF members in the classifieds here. Both camera and lens were in used condition.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Tompas]

No, that's not normal.

Theory 1: batteries may be low. Does the the camera fire?

Theory 2: you may look through the viewfinder with your eye slightly off to the left or right. The shutter speed then seems to disappear. At first I found that annoying, but I quickly got used to it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dave S.]

Thanks for your reply Thomas. In response to your questions: 1. Yes, the camera does fire. Nevertheless it is possible it could use a new battery so I'll try that. 2. Yes, I may be looking through the viewfinder incorrectly, I'll be sure to try and straighten that out. Thanks again for the tips.

-Dave S.

 

[samcomet]

Dave, I have had the same problem(s) and the same two solutions....according to the manual if the batts are low the indicator will either blink slowly or not glow at all; also if your eye is off centre you will not see the LEDs. I used to hold the back of my hand up close to the viewfinder to aid "locating" my eye relative to the eyepiece to find the LEDS against a dark background. I have now trained myself to find it straight away. Hope this also helps. cheers, sam

 

[EthanFrank]

If its anything like my R-D1, you'll need to wind on before you can meter.

 

[Tony Whitney]

LEDs

LEDs

I find that with a Minolta CLE that I have (and love), the LED readout index disappears if you don't line up your eye properly in the viewfinder eyepiece. I've trained myself to line things up as soon as I set up for a shot. I have an R3A too and find it's a lot better in this regard than the CLE. Cheers...Tony W