A fraction of the price of a Leica Trigger winder is a fabulous mechanism to have on a camera 1/125th of a second flash sync. Great bright viewfinder.

Not Leica workmanship (but a fraction of the cost). Loud shutter

I purchased the Bessa R2 body with the rapid winder as an extra shooting platform for my Leica M system. I have always preferred older manual cameras. The camera is significantly light than my other M bodies. It is almost as compact as my Leica CL. The R2 has an exceptional brightfinder (sometimes I will swear that it is even better than my M4 or M5!). As an owner of Leicas, I must say that I am quite impressed with this camera. In my opinion, the trigger winder is a must. For taking candid photographs of my child, the trigger winder enables me to crank photos significantly faster than most electronic winding cameras. When shooting at f8-f16, I simply set the depth of field ring and have an awesome point and shoot; with the trigger winder it is better for this purpose than any of my Leica M's! At $635 (price I paid for the R2 body and winder), it's a steal, compared to the Leica MP with the Leicavit winder at a total price of about $3,500. I must admit, however, it is not a Leica in its craftsmanship and fits. The back of the camera wiggles a bit, but hey, I can buy 5 of these cameras for the same price as the MP. I use the camera primarily with my 50 and 90 summicrons. The R2 works quite well with the Leica M lenses. The viewfinder (requiring a manual setting)can be set for a 35MM, 75MM, 90MM and 135MM. Personally, I find 75MM to be a relatively useless lens. I would have rather seen a 135MM or a 28MM setting as this would make the camera a more rounded shooting tool. I also like the higher flash sync (125th of a second). Also, the camera has an exra f-stop at 1/2000th of a second, if you like to use higher speed films. To date, I have not shot at this speed, so I really don't know how necessary this is. The camera has a noisy, but relatively vibration free shutter. The shutter is a metal shutter ("clunk!"), however, I have been able to hand hold it to 1/30th of a second without motion. I can hand hold my M4 and M5 all the way down to 1/8th of a second, with sharp focus. The cloth shutters of the M4 and M5 have provided me with some opportunities that would be inappropriate with the voigtlander; several months ago, my niece had a recital at Carnegie Hall, where no picture taking was permitted. Needless to say, I snuck in a Leica with some 800 film and got great photos. I would have certainly been too obtrusive with a loud Voitlander! All-in-all, I find this to be a great extra platform for my Leica M system. With the trigger winder, I have a Leica MP at a fraction of the price. At some point, I will by a voigtlander lens (adapter necessary, as R2 is M-Mount), as I have heard that they are quite spectacular.

Customer Service

No experience

Similar Products Used:

Leica M4, M5 and CL

Build quality, reliability, simplicity of use, quality of lenses, compact.

Centre-weighted meter not a match for the matrix systems on a modern SLR pluse the problems inherent with all rangefinder designs.

I bought this second hand on Ebay which will explain the lower price I paid compared to some. I got this camera because I wanted something more compact than my SLR system for occassions when I couldn't be bothered carrying bulky equipment or when I wanted something less conspicuous for street photography or simply in places I was worried about being mugged! So I plumped for a rangefinder as I wanted something which gave me more control than a simple compact but was smaller and lighter than my Dynax 7. So far I've been impressed - its done everything I wanted and fulfilled my needs very well. Some reviewers have complained about build quality in some Voigtlanders but I havent had any problems - the Bessa R2 has an all metal body and seems well built, sturdy and reliable. I'm sure its not nearly as well made as a Leica but like most photography enthusiasts I will never be in a position to find out as a Leica simply costs to much. You get what you pay for and for the price it seems well made. Compared to a modern SLR its short on features but it is simple to use and does everything that you want it to do without fuss. Loading a film manually was difficult at first but I soon got the hang of it. The centre-weighted meter is a simple affair compared to my Minolta but the majority of my slides have come back well exposed and the times they haven't have been in tricky lighting conditions that are easily anticipated (and when you can always bracket). The quality of the available Voigtlander lenses is top notch - all the ones I've used are very sharp. The main drawbacks of the camera are the ones associated with all rangefinders - lack of through the lens viewing, not very close focussing, not so good on very long exposures, hard to focus on a moving target as I found recently trying to photograph a friend's highly active toddler! While rangefinders have some drawbacks they also have advantages over SLRs - more compact, less noisy, less conspicuous. To sum up I wanted something more compact than my present SLR to use in situations when I didn't want to take a heavier and more conspicuous camera. The Bessa R2 does this very well and I have no complaints. Its quite an expensive camera but try hunting around on Ebay for good deals.

Customer Service

N/A.

Similar Products Used:

No other rangefinders but Minolta SLRs - Dynax 7, Dynax 5

M-Mount exact TTL light metering exact rangefinding 1/125 X-Syncro

shutter noise (klonk!!) carefully film-loading is necessary

I was looking for a classic rangefinder to put excellent lenses on. The Leica M6 oder MP are too expensive, so I decided to buy a Bessa R 2 for use with Leica M-lenses. The Bessa R2 is not a M-Leica in aspect of build quality, but it has nearly the functionality of a M6 or MP - in some cases it is still better: 1/125 X-Sync for example. I use the R2 with a 50mm Summicron and a Metz 28 C flash. The results are very pleasing - in technical aspect.

Customer Service

not used yet

Similar Products Used:

Kodak Retina IIc Leica R5 Canon FTb Canon EOS 30

Simplicity Elegance Excellent lens quality

Dumb-ass lens shade / filter mount Sharp edges on bayonet mount

I gought an R2 body, 21mm F4, 50mm F2.5 & 90mm F3.5 lenses I have wanted a rangefinder for a looooong time, but the choice (Contax G1, G2, Leica M) have been out of my price range and the Contax has more electronics than I like to see in my cameras. Along comes Voigländer with their super lenses and viewfinder cameras. Personally I was not keen on a viewfinder camera and I read lots of problems with quality control on the bodies, up to the Bessa R. The R2 seemed to have addressed many of the issues. So far I am happy with the basic camera. What amazes me is that Voigländer makes their lens shades in such a way that a filter cannot be used without removing the lens shade ! And when you remove the lens shade, it exposes the (external!!) thread, making it subject to being damaged easily. The users manual states that after removing the lens shade and fitting the filter, one simply refits the lens shade: makes me wonder what filters they found that were so thin that they could fit inside the lens shade, and how they expect one to use a polarisor (assuming you could get it under the lens shade) when it is no longer accessible. Nope, I think that the designer who thought up the lens shades has never used a filter in his life. Considering that it is an all manual camera, it is clearly not targeted at the general public, and the likelyhood that the average R2 user will want to use filters must be very high. I guess the only workaround will be a small ring which basically protects the lens shade thread mount, but doesn't interfere with mounting filters. Why on earth couldn't Voigländer simply have used the filter thread for the lens shade attachment ? OK, rant over. Otherwise the workmanship is OK, the subjective quality of the machining of the lenses is several steps higher than the body. The bayonet adapter could quite easily have been machined in such a way as to remove some of the sharpest corners, to keep your skin intact when changing lenses in low visibility.

Customer Service

Not required yet

Similar Products Used:

Errr... Fuji GS series Linhof monorail Linhof Technika Yashica Electro 35

Solid built. All metal.

Noisy

It is a great 135 format RF, light weight but solid built. Since the lens is high quality but with good price, I can easily set up a system with 15mm, 25mm, 35mm and 75mm lens. The only complain for me is the noisy shutter sound, I prefer it should be silent since it is a RF.

Customer Service

No so far

Similar Products Used:

Nil

Easy to use good solid feeling in comparison with the R Voigtlander optics. Bright viewfinder. Easy film loading. Good value for money. Mechanical shutter works even if batteries die. TTL metering.

Flimsy film rewind mechanism The LED exposure indicator tends to change readings just as you're pressing the shutter

Lets get something first Leica is not. Now R2 is a pure manual camera, meaning no AF no AE no motor no nothing except a TTL CW meter. Of course it works perfectly without any batteries, ex the meter. I use it mainly for BW and Low light Photography and I use 50 1.5 from the same company Its a pretty nice camera to carry with u 24/7 if u shoot from 15 to 50 or 70 mm. Beyond that I m afraid u must look for something else. Having M screw mount and M bayonet mount means u can use the bigest selection of lenses for an RF camera available. Comparing it with the previous R its much heavier and better camera and the percentage of problems from what I know from my readings in the topica list is very low. I think that the quality problems at cosina are mostly solved. I suspect that this is due to the involvment of others in the manifacturing line. Now I have no proof for that but if u check the new Rollei RF u ll be surprised to see that it's the same camera. I ve handled the rollei at a shop and in my eyes is the exact same camera. And for 3 times the price of the R2. As for the lenses, this is not the place for them since we are reviewing the body.

Customer Service

?????????

Similar Products Used:

Electro 35

Light, straightforward and convenient to use. Top quality glass available. Not reliant on batteries to operate the shutter, only the meter.

Film advance and rewind are just a bit stiff. No framelines for 28mm although I'm told the edge of the viewfinder frame works ok but with poor eye relief.

This is an extremely fun and convenient camera to use. It has all the character of older rangefinders combined with the ease of use of more modern cameras. It seems solid and well built but still light and handy. The film advance and rewind is a little on the stiff side but not really a problem. I outfitted it with a Konica 35mm f2 lens which is extremely sharp. The whole package makes a great go anywhere, do anything camera.

Customer Service

Haven't needed to find out. Can't possibly be worse than Nikon.

Similar Products Used:

Contax IIa