Bessa6X9 Folder

[Pumalite]

Lens Voigtlander Voigter 10,5 cmm f/7,7
Anybody has any experience with this camera?

 

[Matthew Rusbarsky]

I have one. I assume it's the old, cheap version with the Vario shutter and portrait-group-landscape zone focus? That old Voigtar is no Skopar, but it has great character. Here's a few from mine.

 

[Pumalite]

Good pictures, I'm afraid mine is the cheapo one. Where do yo leave the arrow? Where do you see the zones. I checked the lens, but they are ilegileble. Any guidance?

 

[Matthew Rusbarsky]

I like having the "cheap one". Here's the manual from Mike Butkus' site. There are a few good illustrations of the shutter faceplate clearly showing the distance markings.

 

[ntenny]

I have one, and I've found that the lens is OK---a competent uncoated triplet with all the virtues and vices thereunto appertaining, as it were---but the light-tightness of the body is a little dubious. I tend to get light leaks from one end. Not sure how much this is my particular body vs. a characteristic of the model, but it does seem like the design isn't very aggressively lightproofed to me.

I don't have mine at hand to check, but to my recollection it does have a (coarse) numeric distance scale along with the "Landschaft, Gruppe, Portrait" indicators. Realistically, this is a camera where depth of field is your friend.

-NT

 

[Matthew Rusbarsky]

---a competent uncoated triplet with all the virtues and vices thereunto appertaining, as it were----NT

Summs it up pretty well, but I have an affinity for uncoated triplets.

 

[michaelbsc]

---a competent uncoated triplet with all the virtues and vices thereunto appertaining, as it were----NT

Summs it up pretty well, but I have an affinity for uncoated triplets.

Many of these older soldiers have only small apertures and slow shutters like these Bessas, while the uncoated triplets generally have low contrast.

But I find this a match made in heaven for film like Ilford PanF. Everyone complains bitterly about how contrasty the film is, but when you put it together with a soulmate like an old Bessa the two really, truly shine for one another.

but the light-tightness of the body is a little dubious
....
I don't have mine at hand to check, but to my recollection it does have a (coarse) numeric distance scale along with the "Landschaft, Gruppe, Portrait" indicators. Realistically, this is a camera where depth of field is your friend.

-NT

I have two, both with the the cheap Vario shutter and Voigtar lens. One is marked in meters and labeled in Deutsch while the other is marked in feet and labeled in English. The only difference I can find between the two is the paint for the markings and labels.

I find both are light tight through judicious use of metal light traps built into the clam shell as it closes. The light leak I did find in one was a result of a very small tear in the bellows at the front standard. A small dab of liquid electrical tape and I've never had any more problems.

DOF is truly your friend here, but the cameras themselves are little jewels in my mind. OK, maybe they're aquamarines instead of diamonds. But they're cute, pocket-able, and fun.

Take it out and use it. It deserves the exercise.

 

[ntenny]

Many of these older soldiers have only small apertures and slow shutters like these Bessas, while the uncoated triplets generally have low contrast.

But I find this a match made in heaven for film like Ilford PanF. Everyone complains bitterly about how contrasty the film is, but when you put it together with a soulmate like an old Bessa the two really, truly shine for one another.

Yeah, that makes sense. On similar principles, though it sounds weird, I like uncoated triplets with slide film---the high contrast of the film and the low contrast of the lens kind of compensate for each other, and the colour rendition has a certain character that I can't easily describe.

Tri-X in Diafine seems like a natural possibility too, though I don't think I've ever really used it in a folder.

-NT

 

[Pumalite]

Plenty of good advice. Thanks guys