Bessa users Unite!!!!

[Red Robin]

Anyone own and use Bessa's ? FYI there IS a Volk. group here

[Steve Mack]

I've got a Bessa R and the 35mm f/2.5 Color Skopar. It hasn't seen too much use recently, but I'm carrying it more and more, since I carry a camera everywhere I go and it's light and handy and does good work.

With best regards,

Stephen

[ntenny]

I've gotten quite a bit of use out of a Bessa-R, but I'm not shooting much 35mm lately. When I travelled a lot for work it was a nigh-perfect camera to pack along. It's not Leica construction or "haptics", obviously, but it's hard to beat in terms of bang for the buck!

-NT

[2F/2F]

Bessa R and Summitar. It replaced my Leica IIIc when it broke. 1/3 the cost of repairing the Leica, and it's a better camera, so the IIIc may never be used again.

[kraker]

My Bessa is an R3M. Together with a 40 mm S.C. Nokton, 15 mm Heliar and a 90 mm Leica Summarit (my only piece of Leica equipment) it makes for a great kit. When not shooting MF, this is the set that gets the most use.

I'm still trying to figure out what the Volk. group you mention is, though...

[GS_Jean]

I have Bessa L (silver), T (grey anniversary version) and R2A (grey). I never use the L (bought on flebay for the 15mm lens that was with it). My favorite is the "T", a wonderfull but for sure specific camera. And the build quality (metal dials and lever-base) of that version is great.
The R2A is a nice camera too, I use it regularly but it's my wife's camera ;-)
Lenses used are VC 15/4.5 (funny and lovely), 25/4 (most used, on the T off course), 35/1.7 (stay on the R2A as normal lens), and 90/3.5 (good lens used on both T and R2A). Also have Leica Elmar 50/3.5 (quite never used, aperture selection on front too hard to use) and a Summitar 50/2 (nice lens, and unique look with eom hood ;-)
The beautifull Leica IIIF, wonderfull piece of mechanical technology, stays at home beause it's a pain in the a.. to load :-|

[paulfish4570]

bessa r2m here, with 35/2.5 and 50/2.5 color skopars. the 35 lives on my r2m. the 50 lives on my iiif. i've got an m-mount elmar 90/4 that gets occasional use on the r2m.

[randy6]

I use an older Bessa II 6x9 120mm film camera

[sandermarijn]

Bessa R2A- great camera, focuses well even up close with large aperture 50mm's.

Makes a very compact package with the short-nose eveready case (GET IT!). The 50mm Sonnar and the 35mm f/2.8 Biogon both fit with that case on.

About the lenses: actually a bit disappointed with what they do on b&w film. They are not the manual focus versions of the Contax G lenses that I had hoped them to be. Tonality, shadow detail- just not up there. They're probably optimized for digital colour, if such a design consideration can be put into practice at all.

I once tried a 50mm Summicron and quickly found out that tab focusing is not for me.

I would not trade my Bessa for a Leica M7 or for the Zeiss Ikon. But then I have never used (or even held) one of those so what do I know?

[ntenny]

About the lenses: actually a bit disappointed with what they do on b&w film. They are not the manual focus versions of the Contax G lenses that I had hoped them to be. Tonality, shadow detail- just not up there. They're probably optimized for digital colour, if such a design consideration can be put into practice at all.

I've been quite happy with the 21/4 and reasonably happy with the 75/2.5, but haven't had the opportunity to play with others, though I've seen results I liked from other people. I'm curious which lenses have been problematic for you.

It doesn't seem like the screwmount lenses, at least, would make sense to optimize for d*g*t*l---of course there will be users who put them in an M adapter on an M9, or on a micro-4/3 camera, but surely the vast majority of screwmount lenses live out their days on film bodies?

-NT