Cosina Voigtlander Camera Comparison

Gentle reader,

Although this is another beautiful weekend, and I should be outside doing things, I mowed the front lawn after lunch and gave myself a heck of an Asthma attack. Pollen doesn't make me sniff and sneeze, it apparently makes me cough and wheeze.

So, I've been cleaning the house making changes/improvements to the smaller audio system in the den, and making/editing photos of some eBay-to-be items.

One of said items is an almost new, in the box Cosina C1 purely manual simple film SLR camera. This one was made in 1996 and made in Japan. A fact they noted all over it and the lens. I found it at Salvation Army on Wednesday. T'was $14.99, but Wednesdays are 25% off days.

The other camera I'm going to compare it to was also made around then but is called Voigtlander Bessa R. Voigtlander (there's supposed to be an umlat above the O) went out of the camera business some years ago. Cosina of Japan bought the rights to the name and produced numerous cameras that use Leica, Nikon or Contax lenses in both bayonet and screw (threaded) mount. The Bessa R, the first they made is Leica screw (M39) mount. I have tried to bookmark the official importer's web page, but for some reason, it won't let me bookmark it! So, Google it if you really want to know more.

The Bessa line of cameras were the first affordable modern interchangeable lens rangefinder cameras that have a built-in TTL meter. FED made later model Leica M39 cameras with a selenium meter on the front of the body, but it did not read the light through the lens which is what TTL means. Now, Leica has made top-of-the-line interchangeable lens rangefinder cameras for decades. They never made one in M39 mount with a meter of any kind, however.

OK, now that I've established what the Bessa R is, BTW, my wife bought it for me! Gotta and DO love her! This was in the mid-late 1990's. 

First, price: The Cosina retailed for $299 with lens, strap and case. The Bessa R, JUST the body, retailed for $599. A case of paying for the name perhaps, but it was an exciting new camera and the dealers were pricing it accordingly.

Below are various photos of the two for comparison. It is quite easy to see that the black Bessa R was based on the Cosina C1s model. The "s" stood for self-timer which the C1 below lacks.

 

I have numerous lenses for the Bessa R. None are Leica brand. I did have a Summarit 50mm f1.5, but sold it when various sources stated that the Contax Sonnar 50mm f1.5 was a superior lens. My lenses are shown below. The one that is on the camera was more recently purchased. It was the standard lens on the Soviet Zorki 4K camera. It is a 50mm f2.0 Jupiter 8. The Jupiter 3 is 50mm f1.5. I have one in chrome. The black bodied ones are expensive which is why mine is chrome. All the Jupiter lenses are Soviet copies of the Contax Zeiss lenses.

The lenses range from 28mm, (Japanese) 35mm, 50mm, 85mm (the fat one, all Soviet) 100mm (Canon, Japanese) and 135mm (Soviet). I used to have aside from the Summarit mentioned above, a Leica 135mm Hecktor lens, but sold it as well. It was slower than the Jupiter lens, the one on the right. Slower meaning the maximum aperture opening was not as wide as the Jupiter 135mm. Therefore it required a slower shutter speed at maximum aperture.

Finally, if you are interested in buying the Cosina C1, let me know or look for it on eBay. 

Thanks for looking!

Scott