Voigtlander R2M R3M Eye Candy

[CameraQuest]

New Pics on R2M / R3M page

http://cameraquest.com/voigt_250.htm

I scored silver R2M Lucky # 13

the metered manual red LED readout is the best of any Cosina Voigtlander
with 9 LEDs numerically indicating the exposure

the meter now seems patterned after the ZI with more center weighting.

Stephen

[wlewisiii]

Very pretty; thank you for sharing the images. Wish I had the spare grand as I like the one tricked out with the grip, release & vented hood - very nice in chrome with the black accents.

William

[aizan]

is the paint like the zeiss ikon?

[kully]

The webpage says the black finish is the same as that applied to the Zeiss Ikon.

The intra-stop reading is useful, and that cool little rewind handle ... also nice, but why?

[atelier7]

With a mechanical shutter, is the R2M "louder" than then R2A's electronic shutter?

[Socke]

The R2M is realy nice, an I like the colapsible Heliar as well. Add a pancake 35 and I begin to sweat since I've sworn off of gas until I was in Brazil :-)

[Huck Finn]

Originally Posted by kully

The webpage says the black finish is the same as that applied to the Zeiss Ikon.

Actually it says "appears to be identical" -whatever that means.

[Socke]

Originally Posted by Huck Finn

Actually it says "appears to be identical" -whatever that means.

It's black?

[boilerdoc2]

Gorgeous. But no Aperture priority metering?! Explain that?

[rich815]

Originally Posted by boilerdoc2

Gorgeous. But no Aperture priority metering?! Explain that?

You want that get the existing R2/3A.

Just like there's the Leica MP and the Leica M7.

[Socke]

Rich, sure Boilerdoc meant Aperture Priority AE?

[Grober]

Originally Posted by atelier7

With a mechanical shutter, is the R2M "louder" than then R2A's electronic shutter?

It had better be much quieter or poor Stephen will end up with extra stock on hand for a long period of time.

A boost over current reliability of all the Bessa bodies would be a plus also.

[sockeyed]

Reliability?

My Leica M6 is in the shop with a light leak.

My Hexar RF is in the shop with a problematic rangefinder.

My Bessa R3A has been flawless since the day that I bought it early in 2005. I have exposed thousands of frames on it and it has accompanied me to Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

[Fred]

Originally Posted by Grober

It had better be much quieter or poor Stephen will end up with extra stock on hand for a long period of time.

A boost over current reliability of all the Bessa bodies would be a plus also.

A very valid point, although people only seem to post about faulty cameras or where they have handling or dealer issues. Not often about the good ones.

Intersting point though, will we 'read' less about faulty R*M cameras. The R*A's seem to be pretty good these days.

[rich815]

I'm still wondering why Stephen, who has the 50/2 Heliar in hand, has not posted any photos with it.

[Grober]

Any meter on/off switch on the Bessa RxM? I can't tell from the photos so far.

[oscroft]

Originally Posted by sockeyed

My Bessa R3A has been flawless since the day that I bought it early in 2005. I have exposed thousands of frames on it and it has accompanied me to Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

I don't mean to belittle the reliability of Bessa cameras (I have a couple myself), but what does it mean that it's been flawless for just over a year?

My Pentax SP500 has been flawless since I got it in 1969, and it has acompanied me to Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau, Phillippines, Taiwan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, USA, France, in addition to very heavy use around the UK. And in that time it experienced conditions from +40C (Rajasthan) to -20C (Everest base camp, Nepal), to 95% humidity (lots of places). That's reliability.

Compare reliability by all means, but at least choose a time period that's at least vaguely meaningful.

Best,
Alan

[kully]

I had a Samsung P&S zoom which I back-packed with and it still works perfectly after seven summers of desert, mountains and seaside in the unsavoury company of my trouser pocket. My Oly Trip 35 has fallen off a moving car, been dropped and trodden on more times than I can remember.

You can't really measure reliablity easily, it all depends on some small, obscure piece of something that will work itself loose at some point.

The only thing manufacturers can do is QA and learn from field issues. Cosina have been making that same design for donkeys years and although QA won't be up to Leica standards I take reassurance in all the 'cheapo' rangefinders from the 70's (GSN, Oly RC &C) still chugging along, maybe a little wonkely, but still doing that they were built for.

[Abbazz]

Originally Posted by rich815

I'm still wondering why Stephen, who has the 50/2 Heliar in hand, has not posted any photos with it.

There are some mouth-watering pictures on CV website, like these:




Abbazz

[thafred]

Not only the Lens design is that of the Summicron Collapsible but also the bokeh looks very similar...IMHO.

Does anyone know when this set comes out?? I want one...

Bokeh-pic by Coll. Summicr. on M3

[Abbazz]

Nice picture, thafred. The bokeh on the Heliar looks a litle bit more "swirly" than on the Cron. I love that!

I can see strange artifacts (flare?) on two of the published pictures: on the last picture of my previous post, middle-right, and on the following picture, bottom-left.



It is interesting to note that all the pictures published were taken full-open (f/2.0 or f/2.5), not bad...

Abbazz

[jgeenen]

The second example looks like flare, but due to the heavy direct light sources that's not unexpected - depending the circumstances of course. In the first sample, it looks like some timber or column carrying the roof in the background: watch the shape of the area.

[Mazurka]

Originally Posted by thafred

Not only the Lens design is that of the Summicron Collapsible but also the bokeh looks very similar...IMHO.

The collapsible 'Cron was a 7-element 6-group double Gauss construction, which is vastly different from the Heliar's 5-element 3-group design.

[thafred]

Hi Mazurka,

I did mean the design of the lens barrel/mount not the optical design, I guess I should better explain my statements
thanks for making this clear!

I´m really looking forward to see what this 5-element design does at f/2...the pictures look like a lot of character...very curious about this small glass especialy since I love the ergonomics of the Summicron and the Heliar should have similar "feel" of operation.

[kshapero]

Originally Posted by atelier7

With a mechanical shutter, is the R2M "louder" than then R2A's electronic shutter?

It is quieter. I've owned both.