Hi
How did you focus the Bessa?
I kind of cheated. I made up a ground glass, and with the camera on a stool similar to the one holding the ruler brought everything into as sharp focus as I could (using a x10 loupe attached to the GG).
I then measured this distance, loaded film into the camera and positioned the camera again using the tape measure (you'll spot the tape measure on the floor from where I put it down after I used it).
My experience is that 6X9 folders with long lenses (105mm -110mm) do not do well at all in comparisons where the objects are fairly close. Might be more interesting to do a comparison of a landscape scene.
I also subsequently did that (of course
. This image
was taken out walking around my neighborhood. Its taken at f8 and shows clearly the very restricted DoF available.
I'm not sure if the problem (not doing well at close distance which I tried to asses in my published test) is the lenses or the inability to accurately choose focus. Something like 30 years ago (when I was a school kid) I was doing macro pictures with ruler measurements and an old Aries Viscount 35mm camera with quite good outcomes.
Anyway, I feel that the major issues with this camera are
- difficulty of tripod mounting due to base shape and mount position
- accuracy of focus
- optimistic DoF markings for 'zone focusing' (leading to soft images)
- camera shake induced by the dreadful shutter mechanism
but as a LF user I don't find the camera all that challenging to use, on the contrary its almost laughably simple and quick to use