Compared to Zeiss Super Ikonta C with Tessar 105/f3.5, Bessa II with Heliar is far less desirable. Although in theory, Heliar is suppoedly a better formula.
It is said that Bessa II's Heliar does the focusing by moving the wjole lens (changing lens to film distance) while Tessar moves the distance between the elements of the lens, with lens to film distance unchanged. It is also said that Heliar has a rounder point response that gives better tonaity though the resolution is lower. This contributes to better performance in portraiture. Bessa II has has the viewfinder combined with the range finder, unlike Zeiss Super Ikonta C, which has one winder for virewfinder, anda another smaller winder for rangefinder.
While I can't argue with these theoretical facts, I find when it comes to the picture delivered, Super Ikonta C is far better than the Bessa II. I talked to a camera repairer friend about this, his comment is that, through all he had seen, Bessa II had very bad engineering quality, consistently.
As far as the arguement on the focusing acuracy of the folding cameras, that's a totally rubish. Folding cameras would not have worst focusing accuracy than any field camera or worst than any Graflex Super Speed: they are the same in this sense.
Is the Bessa II a worthwhile MF camera?
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Compared to Zeiss Super Ikonta C with Tessar 105/f3.5, Bessa II with Heliar is far less desirable. Although in theory, Heliar is suppoedly a better formula.
It is said that Bessa II's Heliar does the focusing by moving the wjole lens (changing lens to film distance) while Tessar moves the distance between the elements of the lens, with lens to film distance unchanged. It is also said that Heliar has a rounder point response that gives better tonaity though the resolution is lower. This contributes to better performance in portraiture. Bessa II has has the viewfinder combined with the range finder, unlike Zeiss Super Ikonta C, which has one winder for virewfinder, anda another smaller winder for rangefinder.
While I can't argue with these theoretical facts, I find when it comes to the picture delivered, Super Ikonta C is far better than the Bessa II. I talked to a camera repairer friend about this, his comment is that, through all he had seen, Bessa II had very bad engineering quality, consistently.
As far as the arguement on the focusing acuracy of the folding cameras, that's a totally rubish. Folding cameras would not have worst focusing accuracy than any field camera or worst than any Graflex Super Speed: they are the same in this sense.