What happened to Bessa R2?

[stric]

Hello,
Recently I noticed that Bessa R2 is not around as a standard offer from Cossina. When it was released it was highly prised as an improvement over Bessa R. I thought it was a very nice RF camera. What path is Cossina taking with these new R2A and R3A ? From fully meachanical to semi-auto models? I like Bessas because of the absence of automation, thier exceptional rugedness and great lenses.
Have R2s had any significan problems that perhaps led to the end of their production?

 

[aizan]

nothing wrong. it was just replaced. i'm wondering if it's the end of the line for the r-series. what more can they do?

 

[Frank Granovski]

Really? It's the end of the line? Are they still being made since Ikon production started?

 

[jlw]

I doubt if the Ikon has anything to do with it; that's just a contract job for Cosina, and (so Huck has told us) isn't even the same chassis under the skin.

I think it's more likely that the R2 went away because it has few parts in common with the R2a, which has a similar feature mix but different rangefinder optics, controls, body covers, and shutter. It wouldn't make sense for Cosina to maintain separate parts inventories for two cameras that basically would be competing only with each other for sales, especially when their price points are about the same.

And if they could only retain one or the other, it would make much more sense to retain the R2a, which DOES share most of its parts with another current-production model, the R3a (basically they're the same camera with different finder magnifications, sort of the same thing Leica used to do with the M2 and M3 models.)

 

[jlw]

i'm wondering if it's the end of the line for the r-series. what more can they do?

Spot metering, more framelines, greater low-light meter sensitivity, improved visibility of wide-angle framelines, longer RF base... shall I go on?

 

[aizan]

but can they do that while keeping the price the same?

 

[Kragmeister]

The Copal square mechanical shutter that Cosina was using was discontinued. Only option was to go electronic or drop the R-series cameras.

 

[nrb]

The end of it all will only happen when you won't find film anymore...