Voigtlander RF

The Voigtlander Bessa RF

In the mid 'thirties, the replacement of glass plates and cut film by roll film was in full swing. 'Miniature' was the term used for any film size smaller than 'half-plate' and the premier miniature format was generally held to be '6x9', nominally 60mm wide by 90mm long, but typically somewhat smaller. The format had the advantage that it was just big enough for a contact print of a useful size (important when darkrooms with enlargers were the province of the wealthy or the seriously commited) but allowed a camera to be built that was just small enough to fit into a capacious pocket.

Voigtlander, founded by Johann Christoph Voigtlander in 1756 had been making cameras for the Daguerre and Fox Talbot processes as early as 1841. As the move to film fueled a marketing war with the newly formed arch rival Zeiss, Voigtlander was looking to produce cameras that could challenge the Zeiss conglomerate's immense manufacturing and marketing strength.

Introduced in 1936, The Bessa RF was the top end of Voigtlander's roll film range. It replaced the Prominent, which had been Voigtlander's first attempt at a coupled rangefinder, roll film folding camera. It seems reasonable to suppose that the 'RF' was intended as a direct competitor for the Zeiss Super Ikonta, the premier 'prosumer' camera of the day.

Voigtlander's offering was a deliberately understated alternative to the massively Tuetonic Super Ikonta. The RF's coupled range finder, from which the camera takes its name, is sophisticated and, even after seventy years, remarkably effective. The folding mechanism is rigid when errected, while the Heliar lens easily bears comparison with the Tessar of its rival and can certainly provide excellent images today.

(Incidentally, both the Zeiss and the Voigtlander cameras came in several versions, mostly varying by the quality of the lens supplied. For the Zeiss product, the two main offerings were the three element Novar and the four element Tessar. Voigtlander's equivalent lenses were the long proven Skopar and Heliar.)

So, what is the Bessa RF like to use?

You start by pressing the button on the side of the camera to release the back. With some effort, you prise open the shell to reveal an enormous film gate with a cradle on each side for the film. Virtually every roll film camera uses nipples to locate the film and take up spools but Voigtlander found a different and surprisingly positive solution. The cradles hold the film just as securely as nipples but are much faster to load.

When loading, each cradle swings out, providing a very easy way to insert film and take-up spool. Once loaded, they swing back in, clamping the film spools firmly in place. The user then pushes the wind key in to engage with the empty spool's slot and the back is closed.

To advance the film, the wind key is turned while watching the red glazed window in the back cover. This is the one point where the Super Ikonta out performs the Bessa RF. The Zeiss camera has semi-automatic loading; once the first frame is positioned, you take the shot and simply turn the wind knob until it locks, ready for you to take the next shot, although, like the Bessa, you still need to cock the shutter seperately.

The Voigtlander camera's completely manual winding is definitely slower than the Super Ikonta's system and makes the Bessa far less suitable for action photography. This is probably the main reason why photojournalists before and during WWII carried the Super Ikonta, if they wanted a larger negative than 35mm.

The lens board is opened by pressing the small button on the base of the camera. The board then swings out smartly and is pulled forward past a partial lock point and then pushed back to lock it in place. To close the camera after use, just press the large bar under the lens and the board is released, ready to close in a single smooth action.

The shutter and aperture, to modern sensibilities, have tiny figures and odd little pointers that are bereft of anything as effete as a click stop. You have to cock the shutter before taking the picture. There is no double exposure prevention but the Bessa allows you to make as many exposures on a single frame as you wish!

The Bessa RF is focussed with a large knob on the top left of the camera, which is turned to bring the coincident images of the rangefinder together. The rangefinder has its own seperate window from the viewfinder, common practice at the time. The Bessa RF's squinty little tube viewfinder is also pretty much the standard offering of the time and takes some effort to use, especially if you're accustomed to the big, high point finders of modern cameras.

The Bessa RF is clearly designed primarily for portrait imaging.

When the front cover is opened, a neatly curved silver lever slides out of a slot near the cover hinge. This is the shutter release. Although it's perfectly usable for landscape shots, orienting the camera for portrait shots reveals how well this whole process has been thought out. Holding the body of the camera cradled in the right hand, allows the index finger to fall naturally over the trigger. The left hand can then be used to focus the camera and a gentle squeeze of the trigger makes the exposure.

The viewfinder does have a clever trick: turning the little knob on the top plate, immediately above the front of the viewfinder, rotates a mask into place for using 6x4.5 instead of the standard 6x9. The only problem is that you will be very lucky indeed to find the required drop in mask for the film gate.

The impressive thing about the Bessa RF, though, is the sheer quality of the images you can get from that huge negative, via the Heliar lens. There is very, very little, even today that can match the ratio of quality to camera size offered by this 'pocket rocket'.