Voigtlander Bessamatic - 1950s Film Camera - Repaired and Shooting Film
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- The Voigtlander Bessamatic was a 35mm SLR camera, first introduced in the late 50s, although my version may well date from somewhere in the 60s. The camera has a Synchro-Compur leaf shutter and utilises a version of the DKL lens mount.
My example, like most of the cameras I get hold of, was in need of a service before it was ready to take shots - I'll touch on the repairs required during the video, but this definitely isn't a "how to repair" video.
There'll be sample shots taken on the camera - the film was Kentmere 100 ISO Black & White film.
Start 00:00
History 00:50
Camera Overview and Controls 01:34
Filter Corrections 06:22
Frame Counter 07:03
Loading a Film 08:22
Gallery One 09:50
Faults and Repairs 11:22
Gallery Two 14:12
Summary 15:24
Outro 15:52
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Outro Music
"As Yet Untitled"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp page)
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Additional Music
"Bright Lights"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp Page)
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www.grumpytim.com 
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I thoroughly enjoyed this video! Voigtlander is my favorite film camera company. Seeing those photos of classic cars inspired me to get my Bessamatic out when a car show rolls around near me. Lastly, I recommend the original Vito B if you're looking for another Voigtlander!
Cheers z John, I'll keep my eyes open for a Vito B - I've got a Vitoret in the "to do" pile and also Brillant to have a play with. I'm really impressed with how nice the Bessamatic is to use and how solid it feels.
Another nice video and a great result with the cameras. A Bessamatic M is fairly high on my list to collect as it happens
Cheers Conrad, I've never seen a model M in the flesh but I guess they must appear from time to time. I still rather fancy an Ultramatic (the CS model) because I love how it looks - I'd probably never use it's auto features though.
@@GrumpyTim I see them in pictures from some German guys I chat with on instagram but that’s about it . They have access to so many more of the German cameras , naturally enough
Yeah, I guess that makes sense that there will be a few more available in Germany. Since finishing this video I've got another Bessamatic on the way - the same model as mine, stuck solid but otherwise looking in good condition, particularly the lens, which if it checks out ok, I'll put on my friend's camera.
I'm a proud owner of a very beautyful Bessamatic M. Really nice 🤩...
I collect Bessamatic m and have five of them. Such a beautiful camera. Only about 11.000 ever made, all during year 1965.
Hi , I was very impressed with the quality of the Bessamatic camera and lens combined with Kentmere 100 , you dragged every ounce of resolution and contrast you could get from it and your talent and experience really shows. I've been collecting voigtlander lenses in a small way for a couple of years now and their quality is superb. You also repaired the camera yourself and wrote and recorded the music. A true polymath, no wonder you're so grumpy. All the best, Jake E.
Cheers Jake, I really must put another film in that Voigtlander - having read your comment I just clicked a shot (without film) and it reminded me what a lovely camera it is - maybe it could be my ultimate street photography camera - solid, high quality, not at all intimidating and as you say, not a bad lens either. Thanks for the reminder, it's easy to get excited about the latest project and forget about something that I already have.
This is the best review of the bessamatic I’ve found thank you! One thing I have yet to see anyone address is how to set the B mode shutter. The manual PDF I have also does not make it clear. Should I just force it all the way to B? I’m too scared to try. Your advice would be very much appreciated!
Hi Kitty, unless they made some modifications over the years of production, I don't think there's any latch to prevent you moving the shutter speed ring into the bulb position. The linked aperture and shutter speeds can make it a bit tricky to adjust the shutter speed at times, particularly if the rotating rings in the mechanism have got a bit dirty, but if you get the speed down to the 1 second position and then make sure the apertures are somewhere in the middle, say f5.6 or f8, then it should, in theory, move easily to bulb. If it won't move fairly easily, I wouldn't advise forcing it, force is rarely your friend on an old camera. Off the top of my head, I can't remember the exact operation inside the shutter when you move it into bulb but I can look over my notes and photos again sometime if you're still having problems.
I'll just check that it is the bulb position and not the self timer "V" that you're trying to select - the self timer on the early models has a little latch on the opposite side that you have to press before moving the lever into the "V" position.
Great video! I often see Voigtlander camera's on my local "Dutch Ebay" but I never had any interest for them. After watching this video I might consider a Voigtlander if I can get one for a bargain.
They're rather lovely and solid things to use, or at least the Bessamatic is - I also have a Vitoret which I haven't serviced yet, but that one is less of a solid lump. The prices on ebay over here seem to be all over the place, from around £20 or so to about £250, which is quite a big gap - I doubt the top priced ones ever sell.
Really loved the video. I'm very impressed with everything: the video itself; your mechanical competence - I'd love to be able to repair classic cameras - and the quality of your photographs.
I recently stumbled upon a 'like new' Voigtlander Prominent with some lenses and filters, also in pristine condition, and I couldn't resist buying the set. And then I came across a Bessamatic outfit, with 4 lenses, including the elusive 100mm Dynarex at a reasonable price. So I bought that lot too.
I love the Voigtlander look. I think I read somewhere that the Bessamatic Color-skopar performs better than the rangefinder version. I wonder if anyone can confirm that? I have film in both cameras, so I'll make some comparisons of my own.
Hi Alastair, it wouldn't surprise me if there were differences in the theoretically identical lenses fitted to the Bessamatic and the Prominent, but I haven't compared them myself. Both of your cameras sound great, and I'm very glad you've got film in them, much better than just leaving them on the shelf.
Thanks for the video! Great!
Cheers, glad you liked it.
Like 33 nice video my friend thanks for sharing and stay connected ❤❤❤
Cheers Pallabi, glad you liked it.
It is always a pleasure to watch one of your videos on a Friday evening.... Great restauration and beautiful slideshow!! I do not have a Voigtrländer but your video now made my curious about this brand. What kind of black and white film did you use and did you develop it by yourself?
Greetings from Germany...
Cheers radiogagag, I'm really pleased with the Voigtrländer, it's great to use - I've already got a couple of other Voigtrländers to repair and try out, but the Bessamatic is probably the one I'll use the most. The film was Kentmere 100 ASA film - my goto black & white film is Ilford FP4 125 ASA, but I thought I'd try a bit of the Kentmere stuff on this camera, which is a bit cheaper - it worked pretty well and I'd happily use it again. I don't process my own film at the moment, but I use a one man photo lab - he's really good, and I get to talk to the actual person who's going to be processing my film - it's not a particularly fast service because he's good, and therefore popular.
@GrumpyTim It,s nice that you still have someone around who processes films, especially black and white ones. In Germany, I suppose there are only a few centralised labs left that are processing films. So some years ago, l bought myself a small DIY kit for black and white film processing with a daylight film processing can and black bag which hand holes to open the film cartridges and put it in the can. I really enjoy processing a film by myself, but the quality will, of course, never be comparable to that of a skilled professional....
I'm quite tempted to do some home film developing at some time - I used to do it many years ago, before the invention of digital. In theory, you can stay much more in control if you do it yourself, although there does appear to be a fair bit to learn, like what developer to choose, and exactly what method of processing, ie stand developing and so on........maybe one day I'll dip my toe in the water again.
@@GrumpyTim I hope you will do so since I'm very much looking forward to the results.... 😀
❤
Glad you liked it GR8FLMD3AD
Hi Grumpy, I just bought an as new condition Bessamatic Deluxe and looking through the viewfinder if I turn the camera in portrait mode to the left with the aperture knob down and the shutter button up and shake the camera a straight black line shuffles into view on the left side of the viewfinder, if I turn the camera the opposite way and shake it the black line shuffles back out of the viewfinder. Is that anything to worry about?
Hi Paul, it could be a few different things, here are my thoughts:
There is an angled mirror in the viewfinder eyepiece (it's a semi transparent mirror, like the ones you find in the viewfinder of a rangefinder camera), it reflects some of the light up to the CDS cell (for the light meter) that's mounted in the top of the eyepiece, pointing downwards. If that mirror has come loose, it could be moving into shot when you hold the camera sideways. The one on the Deluxe that I repaired had been cracked in half by a previous owner, but as the CDS cell was dead on that camera, I simply removed the mirror entirely.
The fact that the black line appears on the left of the viewfinder when you're holding the camera with the left side downwards would possibly point towards something before the prism, ie on the focusing screen (the image is reversed on the focusing screen, it's only corrected when it goes through the prism). I can't remember exactly what shims and masks are in the Bessamatic, I do remember that the setting shims for the focusing screen are little needles that slide beneath the screen - they would have had different thickness needles so they could trim the screen so it focussed correctly - if one of these has come loose, it's likely that your focussing will be out.
If you take the lens off and do the necessary actions to make the line appear, keep the camera in that orientation and shine a torch into the mirror box area, you might be able to see whatever is causing the line when you look at the focussing screen - remember it will be the upper edge of the screen where you'll see your line.
@@GrumpyTim Thanks heaps Tim, I’ll check that out. I’ve not taken a shot with it yet and hopefully it won’t affect the cameras performance. Mine is a really lovely example even the selenium cell light meter works perfectly..
Oopsie, I got my deluxe and CS muddled up - your deluxe has a selenium cell light meter, so the stuff I said about the angled mirror is irrelevant to your camera. Thinking a bit more overnight, I very much doubt that there's an issue with one of the needles that trim the position of the focusing screen, because they are held fairly captive. So that probably leaves us with either a spacer or just a bit of masking between the focusing screen and the magnifier (the exposure meter needle and match needle operate in that space), so if it's not causing any issues, you probably don't need to worry about it.
Tim, I've got this same camera that looks pretty mint after a clean up. I've also got the case, along with 100mm and 35mm lens with cases, both mint and snappy. Your nice video helped me answer some questions. I would like to use this wonderfully engineered piece, but the mirror isn't returning to the correct position, thus a dark/gray viewfinder. If I move the mirror slightly, the viewfinder is completely light (this is without the lens, of course). Is this a lubrication problem or something else? Is it an easy repairman fix or irreparable? Thanks for your help!
Hi Californiaflatlander, Sounds like you have a nice example, plus some nice lenses too. The issue with the mirror not moving to the correct position could be a few things, it could be as simple as needing lubrication, or the lever which operates the mirror and film blanking plate might have been damaged at some point in time, or the camera may have been reassembled incorrectly following a previous service, or the shutter release delay timer (which allows the mirror and blanking plate the time to move out of the way before the shutter fires) may be sticking in some way.
If I remember correctly, both the Mirror and film blanking plate are sprung so they flip up to the top of the mirror box, therefore, if the mirror isn't in the correct position when the film is advanced, then either the lever that moves the mirror is moving it too far or not far enough (on many other SLR cameras, the mirror is sprung down into it's viewing position where it sits on some stops, and moved up and out of the way by a lever when you take a shot). Does the shutter fire as it should? If you slowly advance the film lever with the back door open, you should see the blanking plate moving down to block the film window - does the blanking plate close properly against the film window, or are there gaps, in which case, that would mean both the mirror and the blanking plate are sitting incorrectly when the film is advanced.
The Bessamatic isn't the easiest camera to take apart (although that applies to most cameras if you're not familiar with them), there is a pretty good disassembly guide for the Bessamatic at learncamerarepair.com but I wouldn't really advise starting a journey into camera repairs with a Bessamatic as your first repair.
@@GrumpyTim Thanks, Tim. I'll let you know if I get it fixed.
Well done. Certainly can take some shots. There are a lot of parts in those cameras. I wonder how much they cost new.
It would be interesting to do a parts count, comparing a focal plane shutter camera to a leaf shutter camera - I'm guessing the leaf shutter might have more components, but they might in fact end up with a pretty similar amount. It's always weird when you remove the shutter section from one of these leaf shutter cameras - in essence, the tiny disk you're holding is the camera, and the rest is just there to transport the film - you can cock and fire the shutter without the need for the bulky camera body.
I'll have a look in one of my old camera magazines to see if I can get an idea of price - I think the stuff from Zeiss and Voigtlander was pretty expensive compared to the stuff coming from Japan.
@@GrumpyTim I bet it was expensive. Lots of parts and no CNC which also have to be assembled.
That's a really good point about no CNC - I kind of get blasé about modern production techniques and forget that it wasn't always like that.
@@GrumpyTim Yes, particularly things like the quarter section of gear teeth on a partial ring. Awkward to make.
Hi Tim, I'm aware that this is off topic, but you were kind enough to reply to a comment that I made on this page earlier. Perhaps you can help me. I recently acquired a Rolleicord Vb on ebay, and was disappointed to discover that there is an issue with the shutter (it seems that it doesn't always cock reliably). So my question is do you know of anyone in England who is competent to repair Rolleis at a reasonable price - anything over £200, (although possibly not unreasonable) is out of my reach.
Hi Alastair, there must be plenty of vintage camera repairers in the UK, but I've never had the need to seek them out, so I don't personally know of any, good or bad. I do occasionally repair cameras for other people, but I'm not a professional repairer and can give no guarantee of success, and in the case of one camera that I'm doing for someone, I started work on it but it was being awkward, so it keeps getting put to one side in favour of other jobs (I've had it since January!). Feel free to email me if you can't find anyone - you'll find the email address in the "about" tab of my channel.
Hi ive just brought one of these and do they only take black and white photos?
Hi Mike, you can use whatever 35mm film you like - Black & White, Colour, Slide, Infrared, but as a start I'd go for a fairly standard Black & White or Colour film, many of the specialist films are a bit more fussy to shoot (not to mention more expensive), so I'd keep it simple for the time being.
how did you take off the apperture ring?
Hi Fettarme, I haven't got my notes with me today, hopefully I'll have written down what I did to remove the aperture ring, I don't recall it being too difficult - I'll try to have a look at my notes next week and let you know.