Voigtlander Bessamatic – A retrospective look at a marketplace find.

One of my daily routines includes a search in the local classifieds for cameras. Initially fueled by my obsession with finding “that perfect camera” and later to finding various models I haven’t tried or know little about. If the word Voigtlander pops up, I’m going to check it out. The name resonates history, quality build and fine optics. Qualities that can be found in the lenses they offer today and in the Bessamatic featured here. Bessamatics where manufactured starting in 1958 and this particular Bessamatic is what I believe to be an early example based on the Color-Skopar X 50/2.8 lens. I Haven’t been able to nail down an exact date on the body, Wikipedia lists this lens as the option from 1958 to 1960. Also included was a 135mm f4 Super-dynarex lens, also produced from 1958. The 35mm f3.4 Skoparex (feature image) was a later find in a box of lenses at a garage sale, its crazy the things you’ll find sometimes. Another item of note while talking about the Bessamatic’s (DKL-Mount) lenses, it was the first SLR to be fitted with a zoom lens. The Zoomar was available in 1958 with a 36-82 range. Enough geekery, time to move on.

The camera was listed on marketplace by the original owners daughter and after an initial glance I thought “you don’t need another camera”. You know the routine. you look up a couple reviews and learn more about the camera of interest. After about an hour of pondering, you decide to send a message, just get a feel for the legitimacy of the listing. After a couple messages I was on my way with Rocco (black and white terrier) in the back seat. It was about an hour drive and into the scenic Wisconsin Driftless area. It was a drizzly mid weekday and even if the camera was a no-go it was a nice way to spend a couple hours. We met at gas station and the awkward first impressions quickly disappeared as she brought her dog along as well. After explaining my fascination with vintage cameras, I asked if she’d be willing to share any photos or stories about it that I could share here. She agreed and appreciated knowing what was happening with one of her dads prized possessions. After her fathers passing, the camera spent 30ish years on a mantle in her living room, a pleasant reminder of her dad and the fond memories it created.

Here’s a little bit that she had to share about her father and his Bessamatic.

“The camera was my father’s and he used to take family photos. He raised me and my brothers after my mother died when I was very young. He would take us on vacations and he always brought his camera so he could take pictures. I don’t remember anything specific about the camera just that he always had it and was always taking pictures, which amazes me now knowing how much it must have cost to get them all developed with 3 small children never sitting still and ruining most of them. I will send a few photos that I have via email.”

Here are some of the photos she shared.

After an initial cleaning and inspection of the Bessamatic I was very impressed with how well it looked. The shutter speeds sounded accurate enough and the selenium light meter even works. I had five rolls of Kodak Plus-X125 left from a brick of expired film. It’s about twenty years old, but still delivers consistent results, so in a roll went. Winding the shutter lowers the mirror with a “clup” sound and lights up the viewfinder. The viewfinder is a wonderful place to view your composition; it’s bright and has a split image/fresnel focusing screen for dialing in the subject. Aperture is adjusted using the knob below the rewind knob which also shares iso setting duty. Think thats interesting? It gets better. Shutter speeds (1-1/500th +b) are selected using the ring around the lens, closest to the camera body. This is coupled to the aperture so as you adjust the shutter speed, it stops up or down the aperture to maintain the same exposure. Those familiar with shooting Nikkonos cameras will feel right at home when looking down at the lens. The depth of field is shown by a pair of red tips that move in conjunction with the aperture. The amount of engineering that must have gone into this is mind boggling to me. It may seem complicated and maybe confusing to use, but after a few shots you feel right at home.

I finished the roll of PX-125 and it was good not to see any surprises in the way of light leeks or shutter issues. Was the expired film hiding details? How would the lenses render color? I was still getting used to the ergonomics and the uncommon control layout; would the user experience develop with more time? It was time to find out and in went a fresh roll of color. I really like how the Voigtlander lenses work with Fujifilm 400. The colors are very natural and pleasing to look at. Some images are soft and I suspect this is likely from the aperture I was using. All these photos were taken with the 50mm Color-Skopar X lens and I plan to give the 35mm Skoparex a try next.

I plan on using the Bessamatic randomly when the mood strikes. It’s an easy to use 35mm SLR with three of my favorite focal lengths. It was never going to be my main camera and I can’t imagine bringing it along on vacation or a work trip. Theres a long weekend trip to Road America is coming up, and this might just be the tool. Photographing vintage cars using a vintage camera just feels right. Who knows, maybe this camera was already there, doing the same thing, fifty years ago.

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