On my recent visit to Dunedin’s Gasworks Museum I took along my sad little Pentax Auto 110, reported on recently, and also my Bessamatic together with a set of supplementary lenses originally made to fit Taron cameras.
The Supplementaries
Taron were a relatively short lived camera maker in Japan who produced some interesting and reportedly very well made models including the Eyemax, a strange looking camera along with more conventional ones. They were viewfinder, fixed lens, leaf shutter cameras so the inclusion of a set of supplementaries and matching finder makes sense for the time they were on the market. Their very first camera though had been a 120 TLR from 1943.
The set, very like many others of their time for TLR and viewfinder 35mm cameras, is very well made, with clear glass that doesn’t look to be coated, and a nicely made, tinted viewfinder with suspended frames for the two lenses. The lenses themselves have scales for adjustment of the focus with adjusted distances that need to be set when using them.
They came in a fitted, leather case.
The Gasworks Museum
This is a completely volunteer run operation which has preserved the buildings and machinery, opening one day a week when the whole, complex process can be explored. The number of products extracted from coal is on a par with the petrochemical industry. It runs on steam power but the steam side is hampered at present because the chimney is being earthquake proofed.
Using 50+ year old cameras to photograph even older machinery that also still works is somehow appropriate. The web site of the Museum is at https://www.gasworksmuseum.org.nz/ if you want to find out more of its history.
This is Victorian industry through and through. The production process and controls are basic physics, no computers anywhere. Control was handled by valves and gears, all manually operated.
The Bessamatic
I have reviewed this camera, the first model, recently here so I won’t repeat myself. The only modification to take the supplementaries is the addition of a 52 to 46 step down ring fitted to the 40.5 to 52 step up ring I use for filters on the Bessamatic. The finder isn’t needed of course.
The pictures
The examples are taken with FP4+ processed in Rodinal 1/;50, mostly with the standard 50mm Skopar X on the Bessamatic. I note where auxilliaries have been used,
Final thoughts
I came away from this visit with several impressions, mainly how inventive and skilled the people who designed and manufactured this amazing machinery so long ago. Every angle, every throw, every gear ratio had to be calculated without any help from electronic devices, maybe an early calculator of some type. Babbage? And then their creations had to be manufactured and assembled to work consistently and accurately after having been transported half way around the world. The cameras were no less amazing too.
The lens attachments performed well also. Not up to modern extremes I suppose but useful none the less. They certainly don’t seem to have taken the edge off the Skopar’s performance.
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Geoff Chaplin on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
davesurrey on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
I think it’s very appropriate and fitting to shoot such ancient equipment with an old film camera. Both made in the era when quality and workmanship shone through.
I did that last week at a classic car show and it’s surprising how many came up and ask what the camera it is. Some of my more interesting shots have been made at traction engine, steam engine and car rallies or at vintage railways. It just seems fitting.
Apart from a couple of Vitos and a Bessa II (oh and a Vitoret 110) I don’t have many Voigtlanders but they do seem to have made some great cameras in their days.
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Michael Kaplan on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
A lovely and profound set of images. I enjoyed how abstract some of them were drawing attention to the fascinating Gasworks rather than just a record of your visit. The Voigtlander performed admirably as one would expect considering its draws its lineage from the remarkable Prominent. And the supplemental Taron lenses measured up nicely without detracting from the Skopar’s inherent clarity. Thanks for sharing. - Michael
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
David Pauley on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
A really excellent pairing of subject matter and camera/lenses. And film choice as well. I love the Dunedin Sphinx! It is amazing how tight cropping can render even ordinary things almost as abstractions, a transformation that's all the more acute with historical finds of this sort. Your Taron lens attachments by the way remind me of two attachments Yashica made for the Electro 35 (a wide angle and a telephoto—they screwed I into the fixed 50mm). I wonder if there was every any relationship beteeen the 2 companies...
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
William Hawkins on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Jeffery Luhn on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Those are beautiful images! The highlights on the colliape..colliope...the organ, seem to be blooming in a most attractive way. That was my favorite out of many great shots.
It's nice to use vintage cameras to photograph vintage stuff. As you say, they go together very well. Your image quality is superb. Prints? Scans? Keep posting good stuff, Tony. Jeffery
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Andrew on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Gary Smith on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
RichardH on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
You are fortunate to have that gasworks museum near you, especially the steam powered equipment in fine working condition.
Comment posted: 08/08/2026
Omar Tibi on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 09/08/2026
Comment posted: 09/08/2026
Alexander Seidler on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 09/08/2026
Comment posted: 09/08/2026
Walter Reumkens on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 09/08/2026
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Andrew on Voigtlander Bessamatic and supplementaries at The Gasworks
Comment posted: 10/08/2026
These pictures from a town gasworks are also showing the chemical origin of a number of compounds fundamental to photography. The dyes cyan, magenta and yellow were all produced from coal tar distillate. Ditto the developer hydroquinone. Ditto some of the early plastics like Bakelite that went into camera bodies.
These compounds are all nowadays produced from fractions of crude oil, but before crude oil, coal tar distillate from town gasworks was the feedstock for the chemical industry, 100s of fractions being present in that tar. It was a chemical gold mine, that also gave us medicines like aspirin and paracetamol.
So, hooray for gasworks photos! Without those works, we wouldn’t have the photographic processes we’ve come to love…,,
Comment posted: 10/08/2026