Voigtlaender Bessa L & 15mm/f4.5 Super-Wide Heliar

[Willem-Jan Markerink <w.j.markerink@xxxxx>]

To panorama & infrared mailinglist:

Thought this might interest some classic (non-retrofocus) wide-angle
nuts, as well as people who like a very compact super-wide
viewfinder camera for IR, just like the Russar 20mm/f5.6 in
M39-mount.

>From the German FotoMagazin 4/99, page 44-46:

The name Voigtlaender is now owned by the German RingFoto chain, and 
they launched a very interesting camera, the Bessa L. 

Body parameters: M39-mount, viewfinder (not rangefinder), 340gr,
138.6x78.6x37.2mm, TTL-centerweight, vertical plane shutter 1/2000 -
1/1s, plus B, flash-sync 1/125s, manual exposure with 3-led light
balancing, manual advance, 2x 1.5V LR/SR-44 battery cells.
Lens parameters: 15mm/f4.5 Super-Wide Heliar, classic design 
(non-retrofocus)....framing is done with a separate viewfinder on top 
of the camera....optical tests show an amazing quality, close to a 
Zeiss Distagon 15mm/f3.5 or even a Zeiss Hologon 16mm/f8.0 (for US$5k 
and US$3k respectively).

Best part: set of camera + 15mm/f4.5 will cost less than US$1000. 

Sounds like the perfect non-obtrusive reporter camera for wide-angle 
freaks.

The only downside for IR-use is that the lens does not have a filter
provision, neither front nor back. But the film rails will most
likely offer enough space for at least a #87 thin foil (0.1mm), or
perhaps even #87C (slightly thicker, 0.4mm).
Nice detail for IR-darkloading: the back opens normally, unlike the
vertical drop system as used on M39 Leica M-series. 

--                 
Bye,

Willem-Jan Markerink


      The desire to understand 
is sometimes far less intelligent than
     the inability to understand


<w.j.markerink@xxxxx>
[note: 'a-one' & 'en-el'!]