Which lenses do you use with your Bessa T?

[rover]

Black L's are pretty hard to come by but I think I can find a T. I am looking for a small (leica ltmish sized) black body to park my CV 21 on. The L would be a great fit, but a T will do the job too. A T will also me more useful with it's RF. If I get around to buying some external finders (I only currently have them for 21 and 28mm)...... what lenses do you have success with?

 

[Scarpia]

I use as my primary lens on my Bessa T a Taylor, Taylor and Hobsob Cooke Amotal F2 50 mm (2 inch) with very good results. That lens is older than you Rover. Best regards.
Kurt M.

 

[rover]

Thanks Kurt.

I bet half my gear is older than me, most of it runs better than I do too.

 

[BillBingham2]

Never had a problem with any of these

CV 15/4.5
25/4
35/1.7
40/1.4
75/2.5

Nikkor 85/2
105/2.5

Leica 21/2.8
35/3.5
35/2
90/4
90/2
135/3.5

Komura 135/2.8 (not tested wide open close up, outside it’s great)

Canon 135/3.5

B2 (;->

 

[hth]

I have used Pentax 43, CV 50/3.5, Hexanon 28, 90 and 21-35 on my T without any problems.

/Håkan

 

[raid]

I have tested 12 50mm lenses on it, plus about 8-10 telephoto lenses plus the wide angle lenses. All worked well. I miss my Bessa T.

Raid

 

[rover]

I think I bought the last new black T on the planet today. My intent is to use it with my 21 CV, and will see how I get used to the separate VF use. I ordered a 50mm finder too.

 

[Twigs]

Mind telling me where you got the T? I have been looking for a T for a while now, still no luck.

 

[rover]

Both Cameraquest and Photo Village have them in stock, silver only at this point. I traded emails with Stephen Gandy and Rich Pinto this weekend and today called to relieve Rich of his last black T.

 

[Twigs]

Thanks! I guess I forgot to mention I want the T in black. 😀

 

[anabasis]

I have had good luck with my 21 CV and 35 Nokton. The "T" is easy to focus which is helpful with the 35 wide open.

JCA

 

[Benjamin Marks]

I use them with fast glass - 75/1.4 90/2 50/1. RF is spot on and the results are great with these lenses because of the T rangefinder's long baselength. And after all, the main reason to own these lenses is to be able to use them wide open (or nearly so). In my experience, at f16, the differences between various 90's performance are marginal. It's wide open that the reasons for owning such fast glass become clear. I actually bought two T's because I think they are such a great value. I use an inexpensive Kiev turret finder for framing.

 

[Burkey]

I use both my 40mm Nokton and my CV 75mm on my "T". A great camera and a wonderful second body to go with my R3A.

 

[Nando]

I use all the lenses in my sig with the T and they all work great. My T is my only camera body. Very easy to focus with. I decided on getting a T mainly for its low cost (this seriously backfired once I developed somewhat of a fetish for viewfinders) and because my eyesight is not the greatest anymore due to an injury. The 1.5x magnification in the rf and nice big external viewfinders help in this regard.

As for viewfinders, I have dedicated viewfinders for all my lenses. I find dedicated viewfinders are much better than multifinders. Having a multifinder is handy however and can save you money.

If you were to get a multifinder, I recommend the TEWE finder or a similar clone. Its nice and bright and the image zooms as you increase focal length. I have a TEWE, a Leitz VIOOH and I also had a Russian turret finder, which I sold after gettting the TEWE. I prefered the TEWE for its clear optics and that it has tick marks for adjusting to lots of focal lengths. Mine has markings from 35-200mm. Some have 28-135mm or or 35-135mm. There is also a very rare add-on piece to give the 28mm focal length on the ones that start at 35mm. Only two drawbacks to the TEWE I find: 1. the edges are the framelines and they get blurry as you move to longer focal lengths but it really only becomes a nuisance at 100mm+, and 2, its no where near as pretty as a Leitz VIOOH. You can find a TEWE pretty cheap but you have to be patience. I bought mine for around $75 and it is very close to mint condition. On eBay you sometimes come across BIN prices of $150+ for a good example but just keep waiting a nice one will show up for a descent price.

One thing that I had to learn really quick was to get used to compensating for parallax error. I messed up quite a few shots early on because I wasn't taking parallax error into consideration. I just kept forgetting about it all the time having started out with an SLR. I rarely make that mistake now.

 

[sherm]

I use the "kit lens" that came with it... the 50/3.5 Heliar 🙂

Cheers,

Scott

 

[rover]

So you have one of those anniversary kits Scott.

Mine arrived today, not bad, one day for shipping, it pays to live close to NYC.

First impressions, the T is a nice, nice camera. I mounted the CV 21 right away and it seems like a good pair. Bad news for me is that re-buying a 40 CLE and CV 75 seem like a great kit for this camera along with the 21. I picked up a side grip for it too, and a case since they are selling for only $1. No pics, I have had a long hard day and need to hit the sack for my beauty sleep.

The black body if very nice looking, the covering is almost rubbery, very nice to hold onto. The camera with grip feel very good in my hands. Using the 21 VF should not be an issue due to the large DOF on the lens, I will zone focus or hyperfocal focus it and not worry. I will have to get used to the meter. Those lights may drive me crazy, but in general I don't trust an on board meter when using the 21 as the FOV is so lens I know the camera will meter more than I want it to, do I will carry a handheld. I hope to get out this weekend with it.

 

[back alley]

sounds good ralph.
i'd get one if there was another black one around. try metering the ground when using the 21, works pretty good and saves using/carrying a handheld.

 

[ray_g]

For the short time I had my T, I used it with my 50/3.5 Heliar. The T would be great with long lenses. In fact, I have a 135/3.5 Nikkor that would work well with your new T. 😉

 

[raid]

As mentioned above, I must have used the T with about 24-26 different lenses so far. Focusing with the T is easy and is accurate. It just takes some getting used to having to use an external viewfinder. This is sometimes troublesome when using a longer focal length. I sometimes chop off heads!

Raid

 

[BillBingham2]

With external viewfinders you need to adjust for parallax with external viewfinders when you get up close. It's not fast, but with a good finder it works fine. Someone said that he hope to save money and was surprised he didn't is right. I did not expect to save money, but I've invested way too much but then I hunted for several Brightline finders (135, 105).

I've also got a ROSOL sports finder from Leica. This is worth it's weight in gold for me. It allows me to use lots of different lenses without changing finders. The Nikon version comes in at about $600 to $900 USD. I've gotten my ROSOLs for under $80.

B2 (;->