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What do you get when you take a pleasant scale-focusing Metro 35 and add a multiframe range/viewfinder? An instant cult classic!
Even while we were putting the finishing touches on our test of the scale-focusing, screwmount Voigtlander Bessa-L for the October '99 issue, we were besieged by persistent rumors that its Japanese maker, Cosina, had something considerably more audacious up its sleevenamely a full-fledged, interchangeable-lens, coupled rangefinder 35 complete with a multiframe finder similar to those in the Leica M6 and Konica Hexar RF. Frankly, we were skeptical. While Cosina is certainly a well-established SLR maker, quite capable of turning out high-quality lenses, designing and producing a first-class range/viewfinder with multiple parallax-compensating framelines is a daunting prospect, both optically and mechanically And integrating it with the BessaL's die-cast chassis that began life as a sturdy, straightforward manualfocus SLR minus the pentprism, is something that had never been attempted. We were fairly certain that any new rangefinder Voigtlander would have to be based on the rangefinderless Bessa-L's old-style Leica/Canon 39mm screw mount, but even that raised questions. How would the lenses couple to the rangefinder, and what about selecting those finder frames?
When we finally obtained an early production version of the Voigtlander R for testing (after salivating over descriptions and photos of preproduction prototypes in the Japanese press), our trepidation was put to rest. The camera is not only beautifully integrated and handsome (we chose the chrome version for testing; it's also available in black finish), it works very well indeed-far better than we would have expected or dared to hope.
While bearing a definite family resemblance to the rangefinderless Bessa-L (which remains in production), the Bessa-R is even more attractive. Its top cover, now deeper to accommodate the range/viewfinder, is elegantly contoured, with an upward slope at the shutterspeed dial that visually complements the downward slope of its left side, which is cleverly recessed to accommodate the folded rewind crank.
Unquestionably, the feature that establishes the character and sets the performance parameters of this class of camera is its range/viewfinder, and here the Bessa-R really shines. The front viewfinder window has been made as big as possible to provide sufficient finder magnification along with enough eye relief to allow all four finder framelines...