Voigtländer Bessa RF Medium Format Rangefinder

**The Art of Photography: An Overview of Rangefinder Cameras**

I'm sitting here with my trusty lens, which I've been using to frame up my shots for quite some time now. Unfortunately, this particular lens is having some issues and can't be focused. However, despite its limitations, it's still a great tool for getting a shot. As you can see, there are two lenses on the front of this camera - one on the right and one on the left. The lens on the right allows for straight-through viewing, while the lens on the left uses a mirror, prism, and a bit of dye to create a ghosted image.

To focus this camera, you'll need to align these two images. When looking at straight lines, you should see a ghosted image that's offset to the left or right. To bring it all in focus, you'll need to adjust the lens while also moving the rangefinder. This process can be a bit tricky, but with practice, it becomes second nature. The good news is that this camera has a depth of field scale built into the dial, which allows you to determine the correct distance and aperture settings without needing to do any math.

One of my favorite antique cameras in my collection is actually a rangefinder camera. While I don't shoot on it often enough due to its age and the need for careful handling, I love saving it out for special occasions. The basics of how a rangefinder works are quite simple: you use two images - one straight-through and one ghosted - to determine focus. By aligning these images, you can get precise control over your shots.

**A Brief History of Rangefinder Cameras**

Rangefinder cameras have been around for centuries, with the first patent for a camera rangefinder dating back to 1888. Over time, these cameras evolved and became more sophisticated, leading to the development of some truly iconic models. One of the most famous rangefinder cameras is, of course, the Leica. These cameras were incredibly popular in the early 20th century and are still highly sought after by collectors today.

However, it's worth noting that not all rangefinder cameras are created equal. Some models use a mirror and prism system to create the ghosted image, while others rely on a simple lens with no additional optics. This can make some cameras more prone to distortion or other issues, which is why it's so important to choose a model that meets your needs.

**The Voigtlander Bessa: A Rangefinder Camera**

Speaking of rangefinder cameras, I'm currently using the Voigtlander Bessa. While this camera may look simple at first glance, it's actually quite sophisticated and capable. The Bessa is a 35-millimeter camera that uses a rangefinder system to ensure precise focus. This makes it perfect for shooting landscapes, portraits, or any other type of photography where accuracy is key.

The Voigtlander Bessa also features a number of other notable features, including a beautiful lens design and a robust build that can withstand the rigors of daily use. While this camera may not be as flashy as some of its modern counterparts, it's definitely worth considering for anyone looking to add some old-school charm to their photography.

**Folder Cameras: A Brief Overview**

While rangefinder cameras are certainly popular, they're not the only type of camera that's worth exploring. Folder cameras, also known as TLR (twin-lens reflex) cameras, offer a unique alternative. These cameras use a separate lens for each shutter cell, allowing you to take multiple exposures on a single roll of film.

One of the most notable aspects of folder cameras is their ability to produce high-quality images with beautiful depth and dimensionality. This is due in part to the fact that these cameras allow you to adjust your exposure settings after taking the shot, which can be incredibly useful for capturing complex scenes or fine details.

**Resources for Camera Enthusiasts**

For anyone interested in learning more about folder cameras or rangefinder cameras like the Voigtlander Bessa, I highly recommend checking out Jurgen Crackle's website. This expert camera repairman and photographer not only sells a wide range of camera models but also offers in-depth resources on each one, including images, user manuals, and detailed guides.

Jurgen is particularly notable for his expertise with antique cameras, and he has a vast collection of models to choose from. Whether you're looking for a rare Voigtlander Bessa or a more modern folder camera like the Leica Servo 6, Jurgen's website has everything you need to get started. Additionally, be sure to check out his repair services if you have a camera that needs some TLC.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, rangefinder cameras and folder cameras are both fascinating types of photography equipment that offer unique benefits and challenges. Whether you're looking for precision focus or the ability to take multiple exposures on a single roll of film, there's a camera out there for you. With their rich history, beautiful designs, and excellent performance, it's no wonder these cameras remain popular among photographers today.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody my name is Ted Forbes and welcome back to another episode of the art of photography and today I want to cover another vintage camera and we've done a lot of this in the last couple weeks we've looked at a lot of twin-lens reflex cameras or TLR cameras and what I want to do is show you something completely different today we're going to talk about a folder camera now I did a vlog episode a year and a half ago where I talked about this and we didn't do it up and close and like break it down but I want to talk about today now this is a voigtländer bessa and the folder cameras were all medium format and they actually had this trademark of folding down and I say they were all medium format there were probably some thirty fives as well it was just a style of camera that was being produced so you can see I have the never ready case here and it is pretty thin when I open that up what I do is there is a button to release the bellows and you actually have the lens that pops up that sits on top of a bellows system and so the way this works is the lens and the shutter are all self-contained and down at the end here there's basically this rack that it sits on that does the folding and then there's a bellows set that's in there and then your roll film sits in the actual body so everything is pretty much contained in the shutter so it's a really interesting camera design I feel now this one is a rangefinder camera so this is the Voigtlander besson and sometimes it's known as the RF which stands for rangefinder and basically this has a coupled rangefinder not all folders have a couple rangefinder so this basically means I have a a framing lens in the back so you look through this eye hole and you're going to frame up your shot but if you look through this one it allows you the split image and I'll talk about that when we get it up close and you can actually focus your image it gives you two images and you want to line them up and that's how you actually focus and this is mechanically rigged into the lens on the focus rack here and it actually does a couple to focus so you don't have to look through there then get a measurement and then go find now this is four and a half feet away or whatever that is so it's really a nice feature to have on here so we're gonna go up and close on this in a minute but just real quick in case you're looking into folder cameras or in particularly the Voigtlander the Voigtlander actually is very confusing because there are two companies that have produced a voightlander products there was the original voice Lander company which is this one and they built these in the 30s through probably the late 50s early 60s as they started pretty early and these are exceptional cameras as for that time period so that was the first point Lander company and they were made in Europe the second voigtländer company there was a japanese company called cocina that about 10-15 years somewhere in there about 10 or 15 years ago they purchased the Voigtlander name and so they started producing 35 millimeter rangefinder cameras under the voigtländer name they're not the same company and what's even more confusing is they took the original model names and recycled those I'm not real sure why this made it very air it makes it very difficult to discern when you're actually trying to look up information online on these if you're using Google or if you're using eBay if your instant purchasing something it's kind of hard to do your research because what's what the Boyd Lander besa is this and then there's a 35-millimeter voigtländer basa even the lenses like the scope ours and all and they they were all kind of interchangeable as far as name goes but they're not even the same lenses so it does get very confusing and so we are talking about the original voice landers here just to be specific there were two models of this particular range funny that was the Voigtlander besa which is this one and then there was a Voigtlander base a 2 which was a silver look this one was all black and had some differences as far as the shutter and the lens went but anyway let's go up and close with the voigtländer basa and i'm going to show you why i think this is one of my favorite cameras that i own ok so we're gonna check out the voigtländer besa RF or rangefinder and this is an antique camera these are known as folder cameras are folding cameras and right now we're in the folded down position and this is what I love about this design is just the portability and the fact that you're combining some of the best elements of medium format and large format into this very compact size and for its time it was revolutionary and like it's small enough just to carry around if it's winter and you have a coat with a large enough pocket you can just slip it in there it's not very heavy it's also got a little handle on here if you want to you know swing it by that I don't really trust it because of the age but the leather is in good shape on this camera and I just I'm stunned by the level of design that went into this and how many features when you consider the time these were designed you know in the 30s you know what they were able to pack into a camera and so right now we're in the folded position so the lens and the bellows are all underneath this cover here and so to open that up there's a little release button on the bottom and so you're going to push that button and love how well this is designed watch this come out I mean just so well engineered with the way the lens works and the way it folds down and the angles and you know the hinges and it it's just simply amazing so what you have here is we've got this is a scope our lens that I've got on this one there were as I mentioned before several different kinds of lens options you could get and there were also several kinds of shutter options you could get to the shutter I have will go anywhere from one second in increments all the way up to one four hundredth of a second and you do have bulb and timed release as well which is really nice and the way this works is you're going to do two things to take the picture though everything is self-contained in the lens then you have bellows which simply separate the focal distance to the focal plane back here in your film this is housed in the back and you roll it forward by this crank here I'll get to that in a second so what you're gonna do is two things you have to the shutter and then fire the shutter so to the shutter you set your shutter speed and he simply it by moving this piece over here now it's cocked and ready to go and the shutter release is on the bottom it's this this little this little hinge right here so what I do is I move that and that takes the picture and you can see that actually when I move that down it's a mechanical crank the mechanism in here actually physically goes all the way in and has a little dial that's actually shooting a picture for you so I think it's just amazing finding these in good condition if you can find one that's been overhauled and works they are serviceable people can repair these these days and I'm gonna link to a guy who goes by the name service 66 on the internet and I will after we're done here I'll show you where you can he actually sells cameras and repairs them both so if you want to just buy one this in good condition you know a couple hundred bucks will get you a really really nice camera so anyway that's how that works also on the lens is this little notch here where the screws in and that's for a cable release so if you're doing time or bulb exposure and you want to use an external cable release to fire the exposure that you have that option as well so that's basically very simple but but effective how it works over here on the side here you have your shutter speed where I just move this top dial and it's going to move my shutter speed right now and you have your settings here and then there's a little bottom lever here that changes the aperture and so if I want to go down to f-22 I just slide that over here and if I want to go back over to 3.5 which is the larger temperature I can go over here so anyway beautiful design wonderful shutter wonderful lens it's it's simply amazing this did take some filters too I believe so if you want to use an orange filter red filter you're shooting black and white you have that option as well I don't have the filters but you can just hold something over the lens anything works and so al if you want to close this down there's a release here in the bottom and then that makes it go away and everything is compacted down into who just basically maybe two inches of space there so it's really quite amazing now I want to show you the couple other things on here when you want to load film there's a release in here I simply pop that up and this whole back slides open and you have your red windows for viewing the film on the back and then you just simply pull these levers up put your spool in there put your film over on the other side wind it up here's your crank pretty basic and you're good to go once you close the back and then you roll this up so you have two ones in each of these windows and you're ready to go so you're shooting six by nine so this is a little different than a lot of people think of medium format as being square and this one is not it's rectangular it's a six by nine not a six by six so that's important as well and of course you have the obligatory please use our film sticker on the inside good luck finding any void liner film now but anyway that's basically how that works use a standard 120 film now the other thing I want to point out here then this is where this camera is fairly amazing because not all folding cameras of this era had a rangefinder within so okay so you have this camera and it's not through the lens viewing you don't have a twin lens where you have a viewing lens and a taking one so how do you focus I'm gonna go ahead and open this up so we can kind of see how this works here so and release that bringing the lens out okay and you also I fail to mention you have tripod so you can mount this on a tripod and you also have a little kickstand so if you want to set it on a table or something like that you simply pull that up kick stands up and I can set it on a table and I'm ready to take pictures so very cool feature but back to the rangefinder and the focus and what this employs is is a rangefinder so this is actually split but it's also important to note that this is a coupled rangefinder and what that means is you can actually focus through this focusing lens here and this is the taking lens here so basically I'm going to use this to frame it up I can't focus this lens I'm just simply using this to frame up my shot this one however is a little bit zoomed in and it uses there's two lenses on the front you can see right here and one on the right and what that does is your viewing straight through the one that was on the right here and the one on the Left uses a mirror and a prism and a little bit of dye to actually discolor the image a little bit and what it does is it gives you two images and to focus what you do is simply align those images you'll see like especially if you're looking at straight lines you'll see a ghosted image that's over to the left or the right and so what you want to do is just turn the focus here and you're gonna see what happens is physically it actually if you can tell it's doing that and only bring it all the way in it's actually moving this lens in and out and it's also moving the the the rangefinder in there so when you have those two images lined up you know you're in focus and that's really important because a lot of these early rangefinder cameras you could do the rangefinder but then you would have to go set the the distance of the lens to the body actually separately or you'd have to just measure it out in some cases with especially with the earlier cameras and so that's kind of a big deal and it also gives you a scale a depth of field scale all here on the dial which is kind of nice to have but you don't have to do math to focus your image you can just use the rangefinder to do so so that's what you know why we call it the RF of the rangefinder and that's what a rangefinder works if you've never seen one there are other very famous rangefinder cameras a lot of the Leica stuff was all rangefinder their range finders you can get today and the company that bought bought the Voigtlander name which is Cocina out of japan some of their models now are range finders and I mentioned that this is gets confusing because if you're googling Voigtlander basis a range finder will they have a bessa rangefinder that's a 35-millimeter camera to make it even more confusing they now have a medium format version - they are not the same design it's not the same company and they have very little to do with one another other than the fact they're both called voigtländer and they have recycled all of the actual names of the models as well so anyway don't be confused on that but this is this is the basic RF there's an r base of two as well there's you know some variations but this is this is probably one of my favorite antique cameras in my collection I don't shoot on it often enough just because the age and all and I want to wear it out but so I save it for special stuff but anyway that is the basic RF and a little bit of an overview on folder cameras so that is the Voigtlander besa and if you're interested in checking these out further I would recommend like I said due to the name recycling that had been going on more recently with these I think the easiest thing to do if you're interested folder cameras in general is there's a website that I would check out and this is Jurgen crackles website and he is a camera repairman and he sells these things and he has an amazing website that has a lot of in-depth resource on a lot of these folder cameras the different models the different brands there's a lot of image examples in there you know how sharp they are and what they're capable of taking so check that out it's certo six calm that's cer to6 comm and that is actually named after another camera which was the servo 6 I've never owned a service 6 but they're one of the top-of-the-line folding range finders from that day but go check that out if you're interested in learning more hidden uragan does two things he will actually repair cameras so if you find one that you need torn down and cleaned and repaired and the whole thing he'll do clas he'll do shut repair and the like and he's really good he also sells these and he sells them on ebay you can bind through him and they're not the cheapest things in the world but he is so good you will get a quality camera when you buy one of those he will not sell you something that's junk so you get what you pay for on those anyway once again guys this has been the Voigtlander besa and thanks again for watching another episode of the art of photography I'll see you guys next time laterhey everybody my name is Ted Forbes and welcome back to another episode of the art of photography and today I want to cover another vintage camera and we've done a lot of this in the last couple weeks we've looked at a lot of twin-lens reflex cameras or TLR cameras and what I want to do is show you something completely different today we're going to talk about a folder camera now I did a vlog episode a year and a half ago where I talked about this and we didn't do it up and close and like break it down but I want to talk about today now this is a voigtländer bessa and the folder cameras were all medium format and they actually had this trademark of folding down and I say they were all medium format there were probably some thirty fives as well it was just a style of camera that was being produced so you can see I have the never ready case here and it is pretty thin when I open that up what I do is there is a button to release the bellows and you actually have the lens that pops up that sits on top of a bellows system and so the way this works is the lens and the shutter are all self-contained and down at the end here there's basically this rack that it sits on that does the folding and then there's a bellows set that's in there and then your roll film sits in the actual body so everything is pretty much contained in the shutter so it's a really interesting camera design I feel now this one is a rangefinder camera so this is the Voigtlander besson and sometimes it's known as the RF which stands for rangefinder and basically this has a coupled rangefinder not all folders have a couple rangefinder so this basically means I have a a framing lens in the back so you look through this eye hole and you're going to frame up your shot but if you look through this one it allows you the split image and I'll talk about that when we get it up close and you can actually focus your image it gives you two images and you want to line them up and that's how you actually focus and this is mechanically rigged into the lens on the focus rack here and it actually does a couple to focus so you don't have to look through there then get a measurement and then go find now this is four and a half feet away or whatever that is so it's really a nice feature to have on here so we're gonna go up and close on this in a minute but just real quick in case you're looking into folder cameras or in particularly the Voigtlander the Voigtlander actually is very confusing because there are two companies that have produced a voightlander products there was the original voice Lander company which is this one and they built these in the 30s through probably the late 50s early 60s as they started pretty early and these are exceptional cameras as for that time period so that was the first point Lander company and they were made in Europe the second voigtländer company there was a japanese company called cocina that about 10-15 years somewhere in there about 10 or 15 years ago they purchased the Voigtlander name and so they started producing 35 millimeter rangefinder cameras under the voigtländer name they're not the same company and what's even more confusing is they took the original model names and recycled those I'm not real sure why this made it very air it makes it very difficult to discern when you're actually trying to look up information online on these if you're using Google or if you're using eBay if your instant purchasing something it's kind of hard to do your research because what's what the Boyd Lander besa is this and then there's a 35-millimeter voigtländer basa even the lenses like the scope ours and all and they they were all kind of interchangeable as far as name goes but they're not even the same lenses so it does get very confusing and so we are talking about the original voice landers here just to be specific there were two models of this particular range funny that was the Voigtlander besa which is this one and then there was a Voigtlander base a 2 which was a silver look this one was all black and had some differences as far as the shutter and the lens went but anyway let's go up and close with the voigtländer basa and i'm going to show you why i think this is one of my favorite cameras that i own ok so we're gonna check out the voigtländer besa RF or rangefinder and this is an antique camera these are known as folder cameras are folding cameras and right now we're in the folded down position and this is what I love about this design is just the portability and the fact that you're combining some of the best elements of medium format and large format into this very compact size and for its time it was revolutionary and like it's small enough just to carry around if it's winter and you have a coat with a large enough pocket you can just slip it in there it's not very heavy it's also got a little handle on here if you want to you know swing it by that I don't really trust it because of the age but the leather is in good shape on this camera and I just I'm stunned by the level of design that went into this and how many features when you consider the time these were designed you know in the 30s you know what they were able to pack into a camera and so right now we're in the folded position so the lens and the bellows are all underneath this cover here and so to open that up there's a little release button on the bottom and so you're going to push that button and love how well this is designed watch this come out I mean just so well engineered with the way the lens works and the way it folds down and the angles and you know the hinges and it it's just simply amazing so what you have here is we've got this is a scope our lens that I've got on this one there were as I mentioned before several different kinds of lens options you could get and there were also several kinds of shutter options you could get to the shutter I have will go anywhere from one second in increments all the way up to one four hundredth of a second and you do have bulb and timed release as well which is really nice and the way this works is you're going to do two things to take the picture though everything is self-contained in the lens then you have bellows which simply separate the focal distance to the focal plane back here in your film this is housed in the back and you roll it forward by this crank here I'll get to that in a second so what you're gonna do is two things you have to the shutter and then fire the shutter so to the shutter you set your shutter speed and he simply it by moving this piece over here now it's cocked and ready to go and the shutter release is on the bottom it's this this little this little hinge right here so what I do is I move that and that takes the picture and you can see that actually when I move that down it's a mechanical crank the mechanism in here actually physically goes all the way in and has a little dial that's actually shooting a picture for you so I think it's just amazing finding these in good condition if you can find one that's been overhauled and works they are serviceable people can repair these these days and I'm gonna link to a guy who goes by the name service 66 on the internet and I will after we're done here I'll show you where you can he actually sells cameras and repairs them both so if you want to just buy one this in good condition you know a couple hundred bucks will get you a really really nice camera so anyway that's how that works also on the lens is this little notch here where the screws in and that's for a cable release so if you're doing time or bulb exposure and you want to use an external cable release to fire the exposure that you have that option as well so that's basically very simple but but effective how it works over here on the side here you have your shutter speed where I just move this top dial and it's going to move my shutter speed right now and you have your settings here and then there's a little bottom lever here that changes the aperture and so if I want to go down to f-22 I just slide that over here and if I want to go back over to 3.5 which is the larger temperature I can go over here so anyway beautiful design wonderful shutter wonderful lens it's it's simply amazing this did take some filters too I believe so if you want to use an orange filter red filter you're shooting black and white you have that option as well I don't have the filters but you can just hold something over the lens anything works and so al if you want to close this down there's a release here in the bottom and then that makes it go away and everything is compacted down into who just basically maybe two inches of space there so it's really quite amazing now I want to show you the couple other things on here when you want to load film there's a release in here I simply pop that up and this whole back slides open and you have your red windows for viewing the film on the back and then you just simply pull these levers up put your spool in there put your film over on the other side wind it up here's your crank pretty basic and you're good to go once you close the back and then you roll this up so you have two ones in each of these windows and you're ready to go so you're shooting six by nine so this is a little different than a lot of people think of medium format as being square and this one is not it's rectangular it's a six by nine not a six by six so that's important as well and of course you have the obligatory please use our film sticker on the inside good luck finding any void liner film now but anyway that's basically how that works use a standard 120 film now the other thing I want to point out here then this is where this camera is fairly amazing because not all folding cameras of this era had a rangefinder within so okay so you have this camera and it's not through the lens viewing you don't have a twin lens where you have a viewing lens and a taking one so how do you focus I'm gonna go ahead and open this up so we can kind of see how this works here so and release that bringing the lens out okay and you also I fail to mention you have tripod so you can mount this on a tripod and you also have a little kickstand so if you want to set it on a table or something like that you simply pull that up kick stands up and I can set it on a table and I'm ready to take pictures so very cool feature but back to the rangefinder and the focus and what this employs is is a rangefinder so this is actually split but it's also important to note that this is a coupled rangefinder and what that means is you can actually focus through this focusing lens here and this is the taking lens here so basically I'm going to use this to frame it up I can't focus this lens I'm just simply using this to frame up my shot this one however is a little bit zoomed in and it uses there's two lenses on the front you can see right here and one on the right and what that does is your viewing straight through the one that was on the right here and the one on the Left uses a mirror and a prism and a little bit of dye to actually discolor the image a little bit and what it does is it gives you two images and to focus what you do is simply align those images you'll see like especially if you're looking at straight lines you'll see a ghosted image that's over to the left or the right and so what you want to do is just turn the focus here and you're gonna see what happens is physically it actually if you can tell it's doing that and only bring it all the way in it's actually moving this lens in and out and it's also moving the the the rangefinder in there so when you have those two images lined up you know you're in focus and that's really important because a lot of these early rangefinder cameras you could do the rangefinder but then you would have to go set the the distance of the lens to the body actually separately or you'd have to just measure it out in some cases with especially with the earlier cameras and so that's kind of a big deal and it also gives you a scale a depth of field scale all here on the dial which is kind of nice to have but you don't have to do math to focus your image you can just use the rangefinder to do so so that's what you know why we call it the RF of the rangefinder and that's what a rangefinder works if you've never seen one there are other very famous rangefinder cameras a lot of the Leica stuff was all rangefinder their range finders you can get today and the company that bought bought the Voigtlander name which is Cocina out of japan some of their models now are range finders and I mentioned that this is gets confusing because if you're googling Voigtlander basis a range finder will they have a bessa rangefinder that's a 35-millimeter camera to make it even more confusing they now have a medium format version - they are not the same design it's not the same company and they have very little to do with one another other than the fact they're both called voigtländer and they have recycled all of the actual names of the models as well so anyway don't be confused on that but this is this is the basic RF there's an r base of two as well there's you know some variations but this is this is probably one of my favorite antique cameras in my collection I don't shoot on it often enough just because the age and all and I want to wear it out but so I save it for special stuff but anyway that is the basic RF and a little bit of an overview on folder cameras so that is the Voigtlander besa and if you're interested in checking these out further I would recommend like I said due to the name recycling that had been going on more recently with these I think the easiest thing to do if you're interested folder cameras in general is there's a website that I would check out and this is Jurgen crackles website and he is a camera repairman and he sells these things and he has an amazing website that has a lot of in-depth resource on a lot of these folder cameras the different models the different brands there's a lot of image examples in there you know how sharp they are and what they're capable of taking so check that out it's certo six calm that's cer to6 comm and that is actually named after another camera which was the servo 6 I've never owned a service 6 but they're one of the top-of-the-line folding range finders from that day but go check that out if you're interested in learning more hidden uragan does two things he will actually repair cameras so if you find one that you need torn down and cleaned and repaired and the whole thing he'll do clas he'll do shut repair and the like and he's really good he also sells these and he sells them on ebay you can bind through him and they're not the cheapest things in the world but he is so good you will get a quality camera when you buy one of those he will not sell you something that's junk so you get what you pay for on those anyway once again guys this has been the Voigtlander besa and thanks again for watching another episode of the art of photography I'll see you guys next time later\n"