Camera collection
Over the years I have collected a number of vintage camera’s. The collection I Built is one of camera’s I simply like or camera’s that have a history to me. I have my firs camera ever a AGFA click-II, and a camera my parents used to make pictures of me and my siblings a AGFA paramat. Further I have a pentax MX that I used during my education at the Art school of Utrecht in Holland. Have a look at the gallery of some pieces of my collection
Collection of Shutters and lenses
8x10" homemade wooden camera with Gundlach Radar 305mm F4.5 lens
For eight or nine years I’ve also been collection shutters and lenses for large format camera’s. I started collecting at a time I wanted a 8×10″ camera but could not afford one, so I made one myself. The shutter i used for this camera was a large BETAX5 from wollensak NY. These kind of shutters are simple and reliable, thats why I started collectiong them and now have several shutters from BETAX-00 through BETAX-5 (pattented in 1912) , a small DELTAX and a nice OPTIMO all from wollensak NY. The lenses I use are as mentioned a Gundlach Radar 305mm F4.5 in a BETAX-5, a Tessar carl zeiss Jena 180mm F4.5 in a BEATX-4, Graphic KOWA 210mm F9.0 in a copal-1 shutter, a copper lens Lysioskop no.3 D.R.G.M (Dresden) with a Luc shutter.
Bessa II (1950–59?)
This is simply the crème de la crème of 6×9 folders. It has beauty, style, superb optics, a built-in rangefinder, vaunted Voigtländer quality… this is good stuff. Early models did not have an accessory shoe. Only the last model (1956) had the mask for also shooting 6×4.5. Bessa II’s usually come with either the Color-Skopar or Color-Heliar f3.5/105mm lenses, more rarely with the APO-Lanthar. The Apo-Lanthar lens is so rare that if you see one, it will surely cost a king’s ransom
Focusing is by turning a focus wheel with your left hand on the top left… the whole lens / shutter assembly moves to focus, like a view camera. Only a handful of folders would focus this way, most simply rotated the front lens element to achieve focus. That’s not a lesser method as most optics today focus that way. On a folder, the Voigtländer (and Super Isolette, Certo Six, Iskra, Super Baldax, Mamiya 6) this method of focus seems to be a tad more precise…. I’m guessing folks, I’m not an optical engineer!
The Bessa optics are first rate, no matter if talking about the 3 element Vaskar, 4 element Color-Skopar, 5 element Color-Heliar, or the 6 element APO-Lanthar. Is a 3 element lens not as good as a 4 element design? I even had one customer (a semi-professional photographer) who had bought both a Vaskar Bessa I AND a Color-Heliar Bessa II. He sent me pictures to prove that HIS VASKAR outperformed HIS Color-Heliar. It is possible!
Shutters on a Bessa II are always either a Compur-Rapid or, the Synchro-Compur. On this camera the C-R shutter goes to 1/400th while the S-C goes to 1/500th sec. The other difference is that the S-C shutter has a switch to choose whether you’re using flash bulbs or electronic flash. The C-R is simply synched for whatever you attach to the PC post. One other point to make, especially after 50 years… NO Synchro-Compur or Compur-Rapid has a top speed of 1/400th or 1/500th sec. EVERY single one I’ve had in the shop tested out on an electric shutter tester, at a little better that 1/350th sec… about what the average Prontor S family of shutters will do.
In my own experience, both the Bessa I and Bessa II are deserving of the reputation that they have. The Bessa II is a bit pricy, but you get commensurate quality, built-in rangefinder, and superb optics in the bargain. With the Bessa I you get an excellent build quality with excellent optics…”even” if it is “only” the UNDERRATED VASKAR!
