R4A arrived!

[oscroft]

I'd been thinking about getting a Bessa-R4A recently to take away for a couple of months this summer as a companion for my Leica M6 - I really like wideangles and have a few of the CV ones. I didn't really have the money, but decided my Bessa-R, Bessa-L and a few bits of Olympus gear could go to help pay for it. So yesterday a few packages passed each other in the post - my old stuff went and the new R4A arrived (only 5 days from CameraQuest to the UK)

I've never really been a fan of black cameras, and I also had reservations about the matt finish. But I do actually quite like it (even though I suspect it will wear shiny and will attract greasy fingerprints from miles).

It is a bit heavier and feels generally a bit more solidly built than the Bessa-R that went out in the post.

But the thing about it that has really impressed me is the viewfinder - it's stunning. I'm going to like this

(Thanks to everyone who offered me their opinions when I was asking about it)

[peter_n]

Congratulations Alan, I think you'll love it! Yes the VF is awesome!

[rover]

I actually went out Saturday with out my new best friend, and missed her dearly. Enjoy your R4a, but beware, she is addicting.

[oscroft]

Enjoy your R4a, but beware, she is addicting.

Hehe, yes, I'm getting that feeling already. She'll be coming with me in a few weeks time when I head out to Thailand to join my wife, and I'm really not sure which of them I'll be fondling the most

One slight problem that I hadn't thought of is my 25mm Snapshot Skopar. I'm not bothered about lack of focusing and just wanted the 25mm framelines, but it's only just struck me that the framelines are at the maximum parallax error position of closest focus. And on top of that, seeing the rangefinder patch looking seriously out of focus looks very distracting.

Still, I won't be taking the 25 with me to Thailand (I think the 21 is going to be stuck on the R4A pretty much permanently for the summer) so it's not a problem for now. And there's a fairly obvious solution - I suspect I'll be selling and buying again later in the year

[oscroft]

My 28mm canon serenar came today,goddamn small, too small to even see in the R4A VF unless you try hard to see it. I got it for low contrast so a change from the 25 and the 35, both a bit contrasty in the harsh Oz sunlight

As it happens, I was looking at a 28mm serenar for sale very recently (I can't remember where I saw it now) and it looks really tiny. And yes, the contrast of the CV lenses is a problem I have in the harsh Thai sunlight too - in due course I might look for something with a bit less contrast for transparencies.