Telephoto lens for Voigtlander Bessa R4M

[mirkal]

Hello,

I just got a bright new toy Bessa R4M and learning to deal with small 35mm

format being medium-format oriented photographer. It is a great camera and

feels fabulously handy in comparison with my Hassy, but I am wondering how can

I focus and compose with this camera considering my "largest" focal distance

frame is made for 50mm only. I was considering 90mm APO Lanthar lens as I got

through very good reviews on this particular lens and I like sharp and contrast

lenses but I am bit worry how can manage problem with missing frame lines.

Thank you for reading and even more if you come out with some help.

[john_shriver]

Well, you could use an auxiliary finder in the accessory shoe. But, with the low 0.52X magnification of the R4's viewfinder, and the short rangefinder baseline of the Bessa R cameras, focusing a 90mm lens accurately is going to be your primary problem.

 

If you think a 90mm lens is important to you, you want a Bessa R2 or R3. The R2's widest frameline is 35mm, the R3's is 40mm. The R4 is really specialized for wide angle lenses, with framelines from 21mm to 50mm.

[s_j_goffredi]

Best bet with this lens is the R3 body (a is auto exposure and m is mechanical). This has framelines for the 90mm lens and a longer effective base length making it more accurate on the longer length lenses. The R4 is a great camera that is essentially identicle to the R2 and R3 but with a wider viewfinder making it better suited to wide angle lenses.

[vincenzo_maielli]

The RF effective baselenght of the R4A or R4M is too short to perfectly focusing with 90 mm, especially at widest apertures. The better Bessa R cameras for using the telephoto lenses are the R3A or R3M.

 

Ciao.

[mirkal]

Thank you guys for your recomnedations, I found them extremely helpful.

[aplumpton]

That is a great camera for wide angle work at which it excells. The short effective rangefinder base means that focussing a 90mm at wide apertures will be difficult. VC makes a nice 90mm VF. I would couple that with a used but excellent or mint condition Rokkor 90mm f4 lens, which will probably focus fine at f4. Despite its Minolta lens name it was made by Leitz (Leica) for Minolta and it is a very very fine little lens. You see them occasionally at Georgeury.com or danblackleica.com for about 300$ in mint condition.

 

They are as small and easy to use as the also well considered (but more expensive) Leica Tele-Elmarit 90mm f2.8.

[marek_fogiel]

Miroslav,

You have bought a specialized camera, best used with the 21-28mm lenses. For the

35mm you can still use it, but it becomes borderline. For the 50mm you should use a

magnifier, there's one from megaperls with a 1.33x factor. However, for the price of the

magnifier, you could buy a second hand SLR with a tele lens... I don't like to use

rangefinders beyond the 50mm fl anyway, as your vision is difficult, and the optical

construction of the longer lenses tends to be identical between RF and SLR, so the rf

advantage disappears. My normal shooting rig for outdoors is R4A+25 or 28mm, Zeiss

Ikon or M7 + 50mm and Nikon FM3A+85mm or 100mm Makro, this covers all basic needs

at optimum level of efficiency.

[aplumpton]

Marek, you no doubt have your optimum combination of three cameras.

 

Many of us like to travel light and minimise the equipment bagagge. I personally have yet to miss a fine photo with a 90 or 135mm focal length lens stopped down to f4, f5,6 or smaller. My nearly 30 year old M camera body has only a 0.72 VF magnification and an effective RF baselength of about 50 cm., but it is adequate for all but close up or available light photos requiring very wide apertures. The ability to see beyond the 90 or 135mm framelines is an absolute boon for framing and composition, even if sometimes you have to stretch your vision a bit to see all clearly. But you certainly will achieve the latter in the photo if your instincts are right.

[mirkal]

I really appreciate you took your valuable time and guide me through this new to me RF field. I bought my VC R4M as kind of toy I can take anywhere considering 10kg+ of my Hassy gear if I want to take it with me and it is not always possible. My idea was a decent, film (of course) small camera with spectacular optics, Leica is bit over my budget right now, VC was much more accessible and it looks and feels great. After all you mentioned about focusing 90mm at RF cameras I decided to buy rather Color Skopar 21mm/F4, actually version made specially for VC R4M/A and will try to get new view to our surrounding world through 21mm, never had such a short focal lens in my hands! I guess it has to be lot of fun with it and definitively new perspectives and new composition possibilities with such a wide angle. Thank you very much for your recommendations evidently based on wide experience you have with RF cameras avoiding me to buy something I will have troubles with.

I bought my VC as a combo with Ultron 35mm/F 1.7, no problems up today despite I was reading about some construction problems. My first film I got through R4M+Ultron is more than I was expecting, and pictures taken with Color-Skopar 21/4 I saw on net are fabulous! I don?t know what you think about Color Skopar, it looks to me like R4M/A version is slightly different (and more expensive!) as the previous lens version. Any experience with that particular lens please?