Talk:Bessa (35mm)

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Hello, I just realized that there is a defenitely wrong statement about the shutter, which was even copied to Wikipedia! To my knowledge there is no such thing as a double focal plane shutter with two sets of curtains. How would that fit into a compact camera design? The truth is, that all Bessa models have a electronic vertically traveling metal blade shutter (see the camera manuals), most probably it’s a Seiko MFC-E2. Best regards Christoph

Hi, owner of a Bessa R here. The comment about the double shutter blades is attested to by sources such as Stephen Gandy who sells the cameras, knows the system well, and has contacts at the company. To my eyes, yes there do appear to be an inner and an outer layer of metal shutter blades (on the lens side the blades are painted gray and work with the TTL metering cell). While the autoexposure Bessa models may have an electronically-timed shutter, on my Bessa (and presumably other manual-exposure models) the shutter is mechanical and works normally with batteries removed. Cheers,--Vox (talk) 22:03, 18 July 2021 (UTC)
Hi Vox, Thanks for the explanations and the nice table on Stephen Gandy's page. I agree, that only the A-mode cameras have a electronic shutter, the others a mechanic. However, I'm still not happy about the phrase used in the article. It implies, that this is a very special double Leica-type horizontal cloth shutter (term: curtain), especially because of the explanation "to prevent damage by the sun". This is a typical Leica issue (or generally RF with cloths curtains). In fact, this is solved simply by using metal blades, which is not very special to me. Also: every standard metal focal plane shutter has two sets of blades, one inner and one outer. The only special thing with the Bessa shutters is the fact, that the inner blades are coated grey for the TTL metering. What about changing the sentence to: "All the Cosina Voigtländer Bessa models have a vertical traveling metal-blade focal plane shutter, which does not have the issue of Leica-type cloth shutters where the sun might burn holes into the curtains."

Cheers, Christoph

When Stephen Gandy cites a "modified Copal shutter" and "there are two sets of shutter blades" (emphasis mine) I believe this is accurate—relative to the shutter used in the Cosina SLRs which were the original platform used to create the Bessa range. I have a few of those SLRs, ranging from the early CT1 Super to the Vivitar V4000s and the shutter is visibly different. Those don't have a second set of shutter blades (and would not need them, as the reflex mirror largely shields the shutter). Those shutters only have pivoting actuator arms (not sure of the exact term) visible at the film-advance end of both the leading and trailing shutter blades. In contrast the Bessa shutter does seem to have a completely separate set of inner shutter blades (the gray ones) with pivoting arms at the film-rewind end of the blades. These all cock and fire in parallel, but if you hold the camera at the right angle you can see that there is extra thickness and a gap of a couple millimeters between them. Of course if you can cite some photographs or diagrams to clarify what you're saying I would welcome seeing them as I am not a camera /disassembler/repairer/restorer myself, and I may be missing something.--Vox (talk) 17:49, 19 July 2021 (UTC)
I do agree that "to prevent damage by the sun" is unclear, and it is more likely to be to avoid any risk of light leaks when the lens happens to be focusing the sun onto the shutter.--Vox (talk) 18:02, 19 July 2021 (UTC)
Thanks Vox, for the changes in the article, which is very accurate now. I have to admit, that I was a little too pushy, but with your tenancy you actually convinced me. Meanwhile i found a youtube video showing the third inner set of blades… Best regards Christoph
Cheers, no worries. As I look through the related text I also notice other lapses where information has fallen out of date. The Cosina Voigtländer page is missing any of the later mirrorless/digital Voigtländer-branded lenses. All best from the home town of Argus cameras!--Vox (talk) 00:47, 21 July 2021 (UTC)