Which Bessa to buy

I used XA for night street and it was not sufficient. Only for well lighten parts and with next to the tripod exposures.
Honestly, pushing film to 3200 due to the street shooting at night is the last thing I would use AE for. To me "A" for street shooting is due to normal day and to have perfect exposure while walking shadow/sun street sides and have AE convenience. This is where AE shines. This is what I noticed from Bessa "R_A" models users. Perfectly exposed negatives during normal light shooting. I enjoyed it with Oly XA as well.
While for night street shots I always do M mode on digital cameras or measure with external light meter the incident light or spot meter with iPhone.
But J3 and 1/30 also works at night with HP5+, if on FED-2. :)
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I decided to pull the trigger on a R3A that I saw on the bay for $400.00. Fingers crossed my FSU and Canon LTM lenses all work well with it. Cant wait!
 
I have a Bessa R and I think it is the best bang for the buck among all interchangeable-lens rangefinders.
 
Pick up a Bessa L and plunk a 25/4 Snap-Shot on her along with the Brightline finder. It was my walk around camera for several years. I got really good at guessing which of the click-stops for focusing was best (remember you only need to accurately guess those).

At first I was hesitant about it being too wide, but the lack of distortion and sharpness won me over.

That set up was VERY lite weight and easy to carry on a thin neck strap.

B2 (;->
 
Having had (and now sold) a couple of M-mount AE cameras, and having had (and gifted) a Bessa R, I would say that there is little difference for the 2. The metering in the R is straightforward, in your vision indicators that allow quick adjustment. It's not like an SLR with "what you should" and what you are - and the AE cameras tend to be that way as well - it's simply "you are right", "you are high" or "you are low" - it's very quick to adjust and you can meter one area then shoot entirely another. Or quickly meter a region and set for the average, or meter once and shoot knowing that getting a bright light in the metering spot, or out of the metering spot, won't affect anything.

I would caution a little with the screw mount though. It's easy to think it makes little difference with screw mount lenses. I have now owned and used 7 Leica-mount cameras - 4 screw mount and 3 M mount - and with a decent handful of lenses all screw mount. For my use I'm more than happy with the screw mount cameras but the M mount makes lens changes super fast and easy. If you want to swap 35 to 50 and back during use then an M mount is a real advantage. If you like to choose a lens and leave it at that for the session it makes no real difference.

I've never had an issue with adapters, which have either been branded and come with a lens I bought, or unbranded bought over the net. I use chromed brass adapters not aluminum.

The R is a more plastic camera than the more modern descendants. That never bothered me, it does bother some.

Good luck!
 
I have an R4A and love it. I like wide and super wide angle lenses, so the 21/25/28/35/50 frame lines work well for me. There are advantages to the RxM Bessa's but I've never had issues with batteries in this camera. I keep a spare set of 357's in both of my camera bags so that I'm covered if the batteries die.
 
Missed the boat on this post but very happy to see you pulled the trigger on an R3A. I absolutely love mine and it works perfectly with my Jupiter 8, never had any focus issues. The 1:1 finder is a joy to use and I shoot a 35mm lens 99% of the time. Just use the whole viewfinder as the frame lines and it'll quickly become natural to you.
 
Thanks for all the input everyone. I bought a R3A the other week and got it this weekend plus the grip and M adapter. Havent shot with it but it seems that my Jupiter 3 focuses correctly on it. So far absolutely in love. Aperture priority and iso 3200 with the Jupiter is going to be perfect for shooting at night!

One complaint is that the front window of the viewfinder is quite hazy. Its a $150 fix or a weekend of being brave and doing it myself. Anyone have experience taking the top off a R3A, anything I should be wary of?
 
RobinWinter said:
Thanks for all the input everyone. I bought a R3A the other week and got it this weekend plus the grip and M adapter. Havent shot with it but it seems that my Jupiter 3 focuses correctly on it. So far absolutely in love. Aperture priority and iso 3200 with the Jupiter is going to be perfect for shooting at night!

One complaint is that the front window of the viewfinder is quite hazy. Its a $150 fix or a weekend of being brave and doing it myself. Anyone have experience taking the top off a R3A, anything I should be wary of?
Click to expand...

I removed my R's top plate to do some cleaning when I bought the camera. The Bessa is really neat under the top plate, everything is built in a straight forward way and I think it is easier to service it in comparison with vintage cameras like Canon V/P/7, etc.

The frame counter window fell off after I got the camera for a couple of days. After removing the top plate, I glued the frame counter window back in place, and used a piece of transparent tape to double secure it. It is a fairly common problem for R, I don't know if it is the same for R*A.

I followed this link when disassembling:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157518

It's not an R3A but I believe they are all similar cameras.
 
Thoughtful design

Thoughtful design

I took a chance and ordered an original CV Bessa-L case in black.
I'm happy to report it fits perfectly the Bessa L camera body and
25mm Snapshot Skopar lens with CV 25mm viewfinder attached.

Chris
 
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