Madeleina Schwantes, writing for 35MMC, has written a review of the Voigtlander Bessamatic Deluxe, a German-made leaf-shuttered SLR camera released in 1962. The Bessamatic Deluxe was a successor to the original Bessamatic, released three years earlier, and added a few new features to improve the user experience, including the ability to view the lens The camera used a unique system to show the current settings directly inside the viewfinder.
It features a split-image viewfinder and unique focus indicators on the lens that uses two red arrows to show the focusing distance in both meters and feet. It also uses a rather unique shooting workflow in that you must effectively choose your aperture first when shooting. Then, if you want to change your shutter speed, the aperture will automatically adjust with it. As explained by Schwantes:
‘You can turn the ring to adjust the shutter speed, but the aperture will always change with it. Here is an example: You choose f/5. 6 and the speed sits at 1/125. You can now turn the shutter speed to 1/250 and the aperture will automatically move to f/4. ’
As you may expect, this workflow made for quite a unique shooting experience, but once familiar with it Schwantes found it an enjoyable experience and actually appreciated that once you had your initial settings in place, you effectively have every possible aperture/shutter speed combination you can use with the turn of a dial.
With the focus ring in this position any object in a distance between 1. 2 and 3 meters will be sharp
One of the few downfalls of the Bessamatic Deluxe was its Selenium light meter, which didn’t require batteries. While convenient when new, the mechanism tends to become less accurate over time, especially when constantly exposed to light. Schwantes notes that Voigtlander did include a built-in screw to adjust the meter, but says it’s nearly impossible to reach without professional assistance, so her in-camera metering was less accurate than she would’ve liked.
Voigtl
While admitting it comes with a sentimental bias, Schwantes says she ‘appreciates [Bessamatic Deluxe’s] quirks,’ saying:
e first ever zoom lens for 35mm cameras. It is not that easy to find and can be quite expensive, but I absolutely love using it, despite it being very heavy. Here are some pictures I took with that lens. ’
You can read the full review over on 35MMC:
Voigtl
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 35mmc and Kosmo Foto.
. dpreview.com2021-9-11 16:00