Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Dear LUGGERS, Here is my original review of the Bessa R that I sent to the LUG when I picked up my Bessa R and a 35mm Pancake lens from Dr. Joseph Yao early this year. <I have been using the 15mm, 25mm Voigtlander lenses with a Bessa L so the body of the R was familiar to me. I also have the Voigtlander 35mm/1.7, the 50mm/1.5 and the 75mm/2.5 which I have been using with my CLE and Leica M6 bodies using LTM to M adapters. I have to confess that I prefer smaller camera bodies - which is why my favorite carrying camera is a Rollei 35SE. I have a preference for my CLE over my M6's because of size and it is one of the main reasons I like the Bessa R. The camera is light and so seems smaller, but is well made and the R, perhaps because of the viewfinder structure on top of the body feels more solid than the L - but both bodies are pretty much one and the same. The viewfinder on the R is bright and clear - really impressive. The first R body that I tried did not have a completely accurate rangefinder when focussing to infinity. I live on the 35th floor of an apartment building in Central Hong Kong and I have lots of points of light to focus on outside my windows. I consider accurate focussing at infinity to mean that when you focus on a light source a mile or so away when the lens reaches infinity then the two points of light in the viewfinder / rangefinder merge as one. (I am a stickler about this and have had my M6HM TTL back to the Leica distributor twice in order to get it right). The second Bessa R body I tried produced a slight ghost of the light point at infinity but after checking with the viewfinders in my other rangefinders I decided it was close enough. I also get a slight ghost in my CLE and in my M6 Classic. Part of the finder accuracy problem is that I wear trifocals and as I shifted my eye around in the viewfinder, I could reduce but not completely eliminate the slight ghost that I noted. I have shot and developed only two rolls of film, shooting mostly the pancake and 75/2.5 lenses. The results are very good. I took some available light pictures of my daughter with my old Summarit 50mm/1.5 and really liked the way the lens handled on the camera - beautiful bokeh too. I went to a dinner party with the camera (amazed comment - you mean you have to wind it by hand?) and took some flash pictures using the Olympus SF20 flash that I use with my Rollei 35 - (F5.6 @ 1/125 with ASA 400 film). The pancake lens at F5.6 produced color saturation and detail that were just outstanding. There has been a recent discussion on the LUG about minimal camera packages. I took the R, the 35 pancake; the 75/2.5 and the SF20 flash with me to Beijing but didn't use the flash once. I took pictures of my Chinese customers - hand held down to 1/30 - and the results with the pancake 35 show little to no camera shake. I can't imagine a more compact yet competent set of camera equipment than this set. Now the R is not a Leica M, but the fit and finish is good - a non-stick rubber covering - and you don't need to worry about dinging US$2000 worth of camera body. Winding is not as smooth as Leica, the shutter has a louder metallic click than the swoosh of Leica's cloth shutter, and the rewind is a bit sticky like the film is being held too tightly by the pressure plate (no scratches however). Yet, for an introduction to the joys of rangefinder picture making I would be hard pressed to find a better value. One other thing - attaching screw mount lenses is easier if they are focussed at their closest distance. Then the focus barrel doesn't fight with the rangefinder cam in the camera body. Attaching the screw mount lenses just highlights what an advance the M bayonet was in 1954. I think Cosina is going to sell a lot of these cameras and the LTM lenses to go with them. I also think that many Bessa owners will aspire to a Leica as the ultimate rangefinder. This trading up will be good for the entire RF industry. Finally the logical progression for Cosina would be from Bessa L to R to an M bayonet body - that would give the company real breadth to their camera range. Cheers Howard Cummer.> After using the camera for nine months I would add the following comments. The lack of accuracy in the rangefinder focussing finally drove me to change the second camera body and on the fourth body the patient Dr. Joseph Yao finally showed me how to adjust the rangefinder accuracy. Now I am happy that the camera rangefinder focussing is exact - just like my much-repaired M6 HM TTL where Leica finally replaced the rangefinder completely. The Bessa R with the 35mm Pancake lens makes a very handy combination - like a CL with the 40mm Summicron. My favorite lenses remain the 15mm Heliar, new LTM 35 mm Summicron Asph and my old faithful Summarit, the front element of which John Van Stelten has repolished and recoated. The camera rewind has loosened up, I now use the handgrip on the Bessa R which frees up the camera case bottom for use on my Leica R6.2. I understand that Cosina will be coming out with a Bessa M mount body sometime in 2001 and I will almost certainly buy one to use with my wide angle M lenses - likely in preference to the Leica 0.58, because a) the Bessa viewfinder is great *when correctly adjusted*, b) the shutter speeds are better (top of 1/2000 instead of 1/1000) and flash sync at 1/125 i/o 1/50). I suspect I may have to adjust the rangefinder (unless Cosina has its quality control finally sorted out) but I now know how to do that. I readily admit that the Bessa R doesn't have the build quality of an M6, but then it costs (in Hong Kong at least) about 1/3 the price of a 0.58. If I left the body on a bus somewhere it wouldn't be a catastrophic loss. In sum, my experience is that there is a place in my camera arsenal for the Bessa whether LTM or M but it doesn't replace my M6's - especially the HM. Cheers Howard.