just got my first 6x9 (its a bessa I)

[pellicle]

Hi

I've posted some quick images and details on my blog, but I'll also say here that I'm wondering about the shutter. It 'seems' accurate at speeds down to 10, but slower than that seems to rattle away or worse 'stick'. I'm expecting that a quick clean would work, but I was unable to progress very far in 'pulling it down' (due to the second element being hard to remove).

Anyway, I'll have to wait for images as I've run out of chemistry (and the delivery is late from my order placed on the 8th of March).

Not sure how hard it is to service it (have been reading this link) and while I've been pulling things apart like this for some years on and off this is perhaps the most fiddly (apart from that fob watch I did when I was 12 ... never got that one back together though ;-)

I suspect that I could pull the assembly off and post it to somewhere for service, as the lens looks like it might unmount from the bellows easilly (seems to be a single ring at the back).

I made a ground glass, and with my x10 loupe, the images on there look good. This however does confirm that the optimism of the DoF scale is rather high.

Anyway, its all fun

 

[elekm]

Which lens is on your Bessa? I have the Helomar, which is a very good triplet. The Heliar is a better lens.

It has a hinged yellow filter attached to the front.

Sounds like the shutter should be serviced. I haven't had mine apart in a while, so it's difficult to recall how you would remove that middle element. However, one tool that I use is this kitchen tool that is for remove lids from jars. It's a long rubber strap on a handle. I have one that is about 3/4-inch wide and a narrower one. I wrap the strap around the lens and twist (don't use the handle).

But good luck and have fun.

 

[ntenny]

Now that is a tasty-looking camera. I notice that it actually has a viewfinder, which strikes me as an excessive luxury, but I suppose we all need our little conveniences.

I've posted some quick images and details on my blog, but I'll also say here that I'm wondering about the shutter. It 'seems' accurate at speeds down to 10, but slower than that seems to rattle away or worse 'stick'.

That's not unusual in these old folders, of course, and I expect you're right that all it needs is a quick cleaning, but to my mind the strength of these cameras is their convenience and hand-hold-ability, for which you don't really need the slower speeds. You've got a decently fast lens there, which should help.

The Lens Collector's Vade Mecum doesn't have much to say about the Vaskar, by the way---it seems to be your basic postwar triplet, and the VM says "it was coated", but I don't know if they mean *all* of them are coated or just that coated examples exist. I would expect you'll find it perfectly fine, with perhaps some vignetting at wider apertures and so on. The shallow depth of field is a fact of life---you're using a 105-mm lens, after all, and it has the same DOF limitations that a 105-mm telephoto has in 35mm-land.

Anyway, I'll have to wait for images as I've run out of chemistry (and the delivery is late from my order placed on the 8th of March).

You don't have any instant coffee?

Congratulations and enjoy it!

-NT