Photo: Marc Vanstraelen In many regards, the Voigtlander Bessaflex TM is the perfect fully mechanical film SLR (batteries are only needed for the meter): it's small and light, sports a bright viewfinder and is incredibly straightforward to shoot with.
Unfortunately, it debuted at the start of the digital revolution and was far from a commercial success. But what if it had debuted a decade or more later, when folks were rediscovering the joys of shooting film?
Cosina, who manufactured the 'TM' starting in 2003 (licensing the Voigtlander name), has a long history building cameras in a variety of mounts, for other brands. In fact, the Cosina CT-1 of the 1980's – a camera the 'TM' traces its lineage back to – was also the basis for the entry-level Nikon FM-10 , Canon T60 and Olympus OM-2000.
So in theory, the 'TM', which stands for 'thread mount,' as the camera accepted Pentax M42-mount lenses, could've been tweaked to accept a wide range of other mounts. And had it come out in 2013 rather than 2003, perhaps it could've become the go-to body for analog-curious folks looking to put their vintage manual focus glass to good use, via a modern-built, high-quality third party camera. And if that were the case, perhaps you'd still be able to buy an affordable one today! If only. . .
Read more about this fascinating camera's history, via our pals at KosmoFoto:
Read: - KosmoFoto - The little film SLR too far ahead of its time
About Film Fridays: We recently launched an analog forum and in a continuing effort to promote the fun of the medium, we'll be sharing film-related content on Fridays, including articles from our friends at KosmoFoto and 35mmc.
. dpreview.com2021-2-13 18:00
