Voigtlander Bessamatic: shutter button and rapid winder frozen, mirror stays up

[blee1996]

Hi, I have a Voigtlander Bessamatic that just locks up. I have been using it for quite a few years successfully and smoothly, and really enjoyed it. I have been using a variety of lenses with it, such as Septon 50/2, Skopar 50/2.8, Dynarex 90/3.4. And the most recent one was a Skoparex 35/3.4, with which I shot a roll of Ilford FP4+. It was after unloading, and when I tried to load a new roll of film the camera froze up all of a sudden. I tried everything below, and it is still solid frozen. I wonder if anyone here has previous experience with Bessamatic and might know how to unfreeze it.

Symptoms: mirror is up, shutter button cannot be pushed down, Rapid Winder (film advance/shutter cocking lever) cannot be moved at all. I did not want to use excess force, and tried all the following:

- The Reverse lever under the shutter release in R and normal position
- With 50/2.8 Color-Skopar lens mounted and unmounted
- With backdoor open and closed
- With film frame count in different number positions

Thanks in advance!

 

[blee1996]

Turns out to be an easy fix. And hopefully this will help other people who experience the Bessamatic lock-up, which seems to be common.

1) Peel off the leatherette on the bottom, and remove the 4 screws

2) Gently nudge the chrome actuation lever designated by the red circle

And voila, the entire mechanism is unstuck. It might happen again in the future, but at least there is an easy fix I know.

 

[herb reikers]

Hello!
In my case, this did not work, there may be some worse problem. I need to open top and front to fix it. Rather tricky job.