Description
This listing is for an original vintage Voigtländer Bessa folding camera, dating from approximately the early 1930s.
The camera is a classic German folding roll-film camera designed to produce large 6 x 9 cm negatives on 120 film.
It features a leather-covered metal body, folding bellows, a 10.5 cm lens, Prontor leaf shutter, brilliant waist-level finder and folding frame finder. A brass depth-of-field table is fitted to the rear of the camera and is marked:
“Tiefenschärfentabelle für f = 10,5 cm”
The shutter speed control is marked PRONTO, with T, B and timed shutter settings.
The camera folds down into a relatively compact body when not in use, an important feature of these early medium-format cameras.
Conditions:
The camera is in original vintage condition and shows considerable age-related cosmetic wear.
There is wear and deterioration to the leather covering, surface oxidation and tarnishing to the metalwork, paint loss, marks and scratches throughout. There is also visible verdigris/corrosion around some of the metal fittings.
The leather carrying strap is heavily aged and worn.
The bellows appear complete from visual inspection, although they have not been tested for light-tightness.
The shutter and other mechanical functions should be regarded as untested unless otherwise stated, and the camera is therefore offered primarily as a vintage collectible/display piece or for restoration.
Please study all photographs carefully as they form an important part of the description.
Details:
- Maker: Voigtländer
- Model: Bessa
- Country: Germany
- Serial number: 3681767
- Approximate date: c.1930–1934
- Film type: 120 roll film
- Image format: approximately 6 x 9 cm
- Lens focal length: 10.5 cm
- Shutter: Prontor
- Shutter settings include T, B, 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100 sec
- Folding bellows construction
- Brilliant waist-level finder
- Folding frame finder
- Rear depth-of-field reference table
- Original leather-covered body
This is an attractive example of one of Voigtländer’s important early medium-format folding cameras and would suit a collector of vintage cameras, German photographic equipment or early 20th-century optical instruments.
