Voigtlander Bessa with Voigtar 3.5/105, Fomapan 100

[iangreenhalgh1]

This is the second Bessa I bought, identical to the first but with a 3.5/105 Voigtar rather than a 3.5/105 Skopar.

The lens is excellent, perhaps as sharp as the Skopar in the other Bessa, if not then the difference is hard to see.


#1

#2

#3

#4

[Minolfan]

Maybe the edges are better with the Skopar? There can the difference between a tessar-type and a triplet come visible, certainly WO. The centre can be equal very well indeed.
You are presenting a real temptation to get my younger stuck Bessa with coated Skopar working again!

[iangreenhalgh1]

Yes, the corners should be weaker with a triplet at larger apertures, but I can't imagine many times where I would need or want to shoot an old folder at a large aperture. I think the statue one was at f8 and it gave sufficiently small dof to throw the background nicely out of focus, I doubt I will ever shoot this camera at wider than f8 so I won't see the weak corners.

This 3.5 version of the Voigtar seems quite rare, the 4.5 version is very common.

You should definitely try your Bessa, they are fun cameras to shoot, you just have to be methodical and slow in how you work, makes you think about every shot, a most different experience to shooting a 35mm camera.

[Nesster]

We attempt to see theoretical difference that may not be there, peering into triplet corners. We'll see that in 135 size much much faster than 6x9 120.

However, even with the early coatings on 50's folders, not to mention the uncoated lenses, triplets often overcome their theoretical disadvantages because there are fewer glass/air surfaces involved. Given a good 60-90 years of age, even the most pristine lens surfaces will have accumulated something...

I envy you that first angel, I've seen other pics of her you've taken, she has a great expression

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Nesster. I have two 6x9s with Triplets - this Bessa with Voigtar and a Franka Rolfix with Rodenstock Trinar, both are good lenses and don't lack sharpness. I also have an Ikonta-M 524/16 6x6 with a Novar Anastigmat and that is very sharp, that one is coated, the Bessa and Rolfix are prewar uncoated ones.

I've only shot one roll in each of my Bessas, from the results I couldn't pick which had the better lens, maybe after more rolls some differences will become apparent but I doubt it.

Sometimes people get too hung up on technical aspects such as lens type, number of elements etc when what we should really be worrying about is making the picture, that's something using these old folders has taught me.

[ForenSeil]

Your first example shot is really nice!

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers, that was at min focus - 5 feet, aperture f8, wanted to see how it would perform for portraits.

[skida]

Getting a good result out of an old camera is very satisfying and those shots look very pleasing. The first and last in the series are the stand out shots for me.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Skida, I agree very much, it is so satisfying to shoot with these old ladies.

I would have posted whole roll but I buggered up the exposure, a bit of underexposure and the Fomadon LQR is a high contrast developer and unforgiving of underexposure, so it was operator error not the camera at fault, it's a very good camera.

If you ever see a Bessa cheap at a boot sale, grab it, try to find one with a Skopar lens.