Does anyone know why Cosina Voigtlander have not made a 135mm lens to compliment their excellent range?

I suppose 135 is the least popuplar focal length among rangefinder users, but I guess more would buy that than the zany 12mm!

-- Paul Hart (paulhart@blueyonder.co.uk), May 11, 2002

Answers

Paul:

An easy answer here: No Bessa R or R2 bodies have the framelines for a 135mm lens...

From an inteview of Cosina's Chairman on Stephen Gandy's site, it seems Cosina Chairman doesn't consider the 135 mm paractically usable with a rangefinder camera...

My best guess is simply but for the Bessa T and its exceptional rangefinder effective base (beating Leica 0.85 and even the M3) the rangefinder effective base of the Bessas won't permit accurate focusing of reasonably fast 135 mm... No wonder the Apo-Lanthar 90mm has been limited to f/3.5, I think because of the same reason...

From your question (and despite I consider very fine the Bessa range) I also wonder why these cameras are so many times considered a more valuable alternative to an M than the Hexar RF... True the magnification of the Hexar is 0.6 instead of around 0.7 on a Bessa R (or R2) but as the distance between the finder and the rangefinder window is very limited on a Bessa R (or R2) the effective base is much less so the resulting precision of the rangefinder is much less important...

It really seems the manual - mechanical party here is blind to some evidences...

I praise much more the Voigtländer lenses than their bodies, excepts the "wide angles only" L and the very awkward to use T (this last one being an eventual cheap solution to the problem of the Hexar RF to focus properly Noctilux and 75mm Summilux)...

May be with a Bessa R3 we will find a real viewfinder with large magnification which wil complete an Hexar RF or M 0.58 outfit faithfully...

Friendly.

François P. WEILL

PS: However, take heart, the 135mm Tele-Elmar, almost as good as the present 135mm f/3.4 Apo is generally available on the second hand market a fair price.

-- François P. WEILL (frpawe@wanadoo.fr), May 11, 2002.

Hello Paul; The 135mm lenses that I have used on my Bessa R are the 135mm F3.5 Nikkor and the 135mm F4.5 Steinheil Culminar..For wide open shots the slower F4.5 gives better focus consistancy. It has a wide dept of field with the smaller aperture..

The short effective rangefinder baseline means the Bessa R's focusing consistancy is wider than with an M series Leica....It is a statisitical event..If one shoots many different shots say 12 feet away with the 135mm wide open ; the focus point will be perfect on some; and off on others..The spread will vary with object type; lighting angle; and of course the persons visual quality level..The zorki 3c of mine yields better consistancy in the above test; and the Leica M3 way better than the Bessa R or Zorki 3c..... (The zorki3c has no roller cam; so the lens will not mount to the above two lenses without some trickery ie placing ones finder thru the shutter to lift up the lens cam!)..Russian LSM lenses have a cylindrical lens cam surface on their lenses...

-- Kelly Flanigan (zorki3c@netscape.net), May 11, 2002.

trickery ie placing ones finger thru the shutter to lift up the lens cam; before one places film in ones camera!

-- Kelly Flanigan (zorki3c@netscape.net), May 11, 2002.

You can buy a late-version Leitz Hektor 135/4.5 in LTM for a pittance and in M for a bit more than a pittance. The lens is head-and- shoulders above the 90mm's of the same day, and will focus fine on the Bessa's short-base rangefinder. Leitz and other brands 135 B/L finders are commonplace on the used market.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), May 11, 2002.

Jay; thanks for the added input ..The last completed Ebay Leitz Hektors went for: 147.40 , 118.38 reserve not met) , 18.07 (reserve not met), 45.77 (reserve not met) but buy it now of 200.00 , 100.00(reserve not met) but buy it now for 150 bucks

So it looks like the ebay price is 150 to 200 bucks! my LSM steinheil culiminar 135mm F4.5 was purchased last fall for around 30 to 35 bucks! it is a 4 element lens from the early 1950's

-- Kelly Flanigan (zorki3c@netscape.net), May 12, 2002.

Because they already have a 125mm!

http://www.cosina.co.jp/sllenses/125.html

-- Andrew (mazurka@rocketmail.com), May 12, 2002.

I agree with the above answers in the its the Voigtlander models dont have framelines for a 135 and the baselength is not great enough to cope with such a lens. To what Francois said about why dont they make bodies with a larger baselength apart from the Bessa T I say why should they? Their largest lens is the 90 f3.5 and it doesnt require a larger baselength than what they already have. You seem to miss the point of Voigtlanders range in that it offers a supliment to areas that may already be void in the overall lens availability. You will notice that rarely does any Voigtlander lens have the same speed of anyone elses lenses. The do however offer some more compact slower lenses for those of us who dont need the fastest. the 90 f3.5 for example is great for CL users who shouldnt go faster than that in a 90 but also want a compact lens. Offering 15mm when no one else does. Its not about going head to head with the otther manufacturers its about filling the gaps and getting some lower cost alternatives out there as well. To this they have succeeded. If you feel the Bessa R2 is not well made for the money I suggest you take another look. They are definately viable alternatives for some, just because you may want to use a 135 doesnt meant everyone else has too. (PS the 125 lens mentioned above is not a rangefinder lens thats why its not considered)

-- Joel Matherson (joel_2000@hotmail.com), May 13, 2002.