Old Europe - more than ever: the best place to be!











::: I am not going to tell you that using cameras with film is the only way to produce decent photos. I won't claim that someone who wants be a street-photographer can only achieve this by buying a Leica M.

But if you want to shoot film and if you want to shoot out in the streets, I recommend to buy a rangefinder. There are many possible options. For me, after thinking about it quite a while, the Voigtländer Bessa R3M was the right choice. In terms of balancing of how much money I wanted to spend, which quality I need and which perspective I wanted as for future purchase of lenses.

I made a compromise, yes, but not a false one.



I wanted a reliable, well-crafted camera-body with M-bajonet, no AF, no automatic functions, a light-meter, a good viewer. And this is exactly what I got. The camera takes two batteries to supply the light-meter. If they fail, I can still estimate exposure or use my Gossen light-meter or another cam for metering. As long as the film doesn't melt or freeze I can use this camera in the Sahara or at the polar circle.

And I got one of the only 2.500 classical Heliars 2/50, a collapsible lens produced for the Voigtländer 250 years anniversary.

I bought the R3M and the Heliar as a set for a special price. Otherwise I would have chosen the faster 1.4/40 Nokton ASPH.

But I am very happy with the fifty. All my recent photos in the gallery have been taken with it. But mind you: What you see on dA is not what I see after developing the film. What you see here is what is left of the original quality after scanning, processing and jpegging...



So, when I opened the box a couple of days a go, a held in my hands a wonderful piece of optical gear. Made in Japan, yes. By Mr. Kobayashi at Cosina. That's alright with me. This guy obviously knows what he is doing and he does it well.

The body (430 g) felt fine in my hands from the very first moment. Everything is where it should be. Don't say, this is not important. It is.

There are not many buttons anyway. The trigger, which you push half way down to activate the meter and the LED-indicator in the viewer, the lever for the filmtransport (single and/or multiple ratcheting) and a little one for choosing the viewer-frames (40, 50, 75, 90 with parallax-correction) according to the attached lens, and the exposure wheel (1s to 1/2000 + B). By lifting it a bit you can choose filmspeeds from ISO 25 to 3200 by 1/3 steps.



Together with the Heliar (260 g without the metal lens hood, which is supplied with the lens) you have 700 g of valuable photographic gear in your hands. You would not want to always have the impression it might slip through your fingers. The body is - in relation to some SLRs I have - comparatively small. Yet it is easy to hold, due to the leathers and a smart "swelling" on the right back.

It is a good weight, making it fairly easy to keep the camera steady even when it comes to available-light-photography at critical exposure.

In the very same situations you will love the extremely bright viewer, and I am glad that I chose the R3M with her x1.0-viewer. It is just wonderful. And has some reserves for people wearing glasses, too. Did I mention the rubber-armed viewer-window?



As mentioned before you push the trigger a bit and see the LEDs (Center-weighted average TTL-metering) on the bottom of the viewer and either adjust the aperture of the lens to match the pre-chosen exosure-time or vice versa. In the latter case you stretch your triggerfinger just a bit and gently turn the exposure-wheel until it snaps to the desired time.

Focusing with the split-image- or double-image-system is - due to the bright viewer - fairly easy. It works best of course if you have horizontal and/or vertical lines you can join.

I must admit though that presently I need a little more time to focus than with my old non-AF-SLRs where I use focussing screens with grids but no split-image-indicator. But that is just a matter of practice I guess...

When you finally push the button, you'll hear the sound of heaven: Thwapp

Rewinding the film is as easy as loading. But due to the fact that the rewind-crank is rather small, I can't wind as fast as I would with my Contaxes. But I'll get used to it.

To open the body, you'll have to unlock the rewind-knob and pull it up. It is a nice detail since you can't open the body unintentionally when taking the camera out of the bag for example.

Well, this was not meant to be a technical review but I juts wanted to give you my impression after two weeks with this beautiful camera. Also there will be much more elaborate reviews of the Heliar and other lenses soon.



I am not going to go easy on the Bessa and the lens. I am a user, not a fondler. But I am pretty confident, that the Bessa will take it well.

For sure I feel I made a good decision. The R3M has a M-bajonet, so various new and vintage lenses can be attached to it. And there are even more possible combinations by using the Leica M39-screw-mount-adaptor which is availabe.

To sum it up: The Bessa is the Volksleica, that Leica should have built!

And even in case I some day get a Leica M, the Bessa will still be a splendid backup-body (read: buddy)

I suggest you browse the relevant webpages for more information.

Some good places to start the research:

-- Voigtländer - deutsch
-- Voigtländer - english
-- Cosina - mostly japanese
-- Bessa R: Why a manual camera? - english
-- The Contrary Mind of Hirofumi Kobayashi
-- Cameraquest - english
-- Photovillage - english
-- Vereinigung für Digitalkameraverweigerer - deutsch

... and I would like to mention the dealer where I bought my Bessa. Stephan Dörger at Photo-Schemkes in Bremerhaven is most competent, kind and helpful.

Thanks for all your comments and favs!

Have a wonderful day and a nice week, cheers!

::: Just wanted to let you know, that I try to answer all comments, but I can't reply to all - or -messages if you don't leave a comment. But be sure that I will visit your gallery. sooner or later.

::: 100% useless, but funny somehow: My japanese name is Morita (forest field) Kaito (big dipper of the ocean).
Name Generator Generator



::: Again I'd like to feature someone, who found me... And I am glad she did. There are some really touching photographs in her gallery. Very human, very attentive. Another great talent, if you ask me

To be continued...
Have fun!

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