Bessa r4a lens recommendations

allicio

allicio

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Andrew cowman
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Hi there
I've got a voigtlander bessa r4a on order from the states and was wondering if anybody on here has/owned one of these and could give me some recommendations for glass?
I've got my eye on the 21mm f4p colour skopar which seems to get good reviews but thought I'd ask you good folks
Thanks for any advice
Andy
 
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I have the 40mm,21mm and 15mm Voigtlanders, I would say they are all superb value for money and do a great job.

If you go for the 40mm it is a great all round lens,but, the R4a does not have 40mm frame lines it has 21,25,28,35 and 50mm,so perhaps the 21mm is a good choice,it depends on your shooting needs. I find this lens(21mm) faultless,however you have to decide between f1.4 in the 40mm and f4 in the 21mm.

Interesting write up,s here.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/voigtlander/21mm.htm

http://jonasraskphotography.com/2013/10/04/voigtlander-nokton-40mm-f1-4-review/
 
Hi Andy, I had the 40mm Nokton which was an extremely sharp lens. It depends a bit on what you want to shoot, the 40mm may be not quite wide enough for landscapes, the 21mm is very wide and may be of less use generally. They are both excellent though.

Andy
 
That's great! Thanks for the info chaps it's very much appreciated!
The 40mm noton certainly gets a good write up as well as the 21.
If your using the 35/50 frame lines in the r4 is the image area quite small or is it useable? I've been looking at the 35 1.4 also but I read on one forum that the frame line area for 35/50 is small and hard to focus on the r4a. It had me panicking a bit thinking I should have ordered the r3a instead as I do fancy a 35 lens.
 
allicio said:
It had me panicking a bit thinking I should have ordered the r3a instead as I do fancy a 35 lens.
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Best to have both..! :)

PS I had the 35mm f2.5 on a R2. It was a nice combo.
 
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I would love to buy both haha unfortunately didn't have enough cash!
Thanks for the recommendation though I'll look into the 35 f2.5!
 
I have the 40mm Nokton on my R3M - It's fantazadooooozy! :)
 
allicio said:
It had me panicking a bit thinking I should have ordered the r3a instead as I do fancy a 35 lens.
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R3A doesn't have 35mm framelines either, 40mm are the widest... however, the full extent of the viewfinder is said to be roughly 35mm view. I think you need the R2A for the 35mm framelines.
 
The r4a has the 35 frame lines but I'm just trying to find out if there useable or not
 
you could look at the zeiss 35mm think theres a couple, i went for a zeiss 50mm f2, but not using it alot as i just prefer 40mm :x
 
There does seem to be a lot of very highly rated glass from voigtlander as well as others for this camera. I'm just gonna have to try a few and be permanently skint haha!!
 
That's a possibility too! Nice suggestion!
 
That's a nice website! I've not seen that one before the gents got some very nice stuff! Particulaly that m6! Thanks for that! I'll have a good peruse
 
not used them, google or bing stumbled across them.... and didnt find the lens i was looking for xD

think the canons might be really good with black and white, steve huff the gush might of done some mini reviews on them
 
Steve hush the gush lol! Now you mention it he does have a tendency to doesn't he!
I'm going to do some reading up on the cannons. Cheers for this!! Certainly brightened up my night shift!
 
Vintage classic cameras is a very good website, lots of stuff and everything is as described or even better and usually at a fair price. I've had a few things for Rob and I'm never disappointed.
 
Thanks very much for all your help chaps it's very much appreciated and has given me some great ideas
 
My baby.... #justsayin' :)

 
Very nice indeed sir!! You've made me even more excited for mine now which is somewhere over the Atlantic!
 
@allicio Andrew, take a look at the mwclassic website. In their new updates they have new copies of the Voigtlander 35mm 1.4, 35mm 2.5 and 40mm 1.4 lens for very good prices!
 
I've just taken a look. Your not kidding! There not bad prices at all on new lenses! I'll be hitting them up when I get some cash back in!
 
I've got the 35mm Nokton 1.4 (which is very closely related to the 40mm) and I love it, but it's flawed in a lot of ways. There is lots of barrel distortion, vignetting and a small amount of focus shift. None of those matter for the majority of the shooting that I do with it, but might matter to you. On the plus side though it's small, fast, well made and produces some lovely sharp images. All depends what you want to use it for!
 
After lots of reading up I've just placed an order with Robert white for the nokton 35 f1.4 sc.
Many thanks for all the advice chaps!
 
What you really need is a nice Bessa R3A to partner the R4A... :whistle:
 
Haha! I'd love to believe me but I'm well and truly skint now!!
 
@desf I tried to buy the 35 from mw classic but they'd sold it 10 mins before I rang! Got a good deal on the lens hood from them though so cheers for the tip!
 
allicio said:
@desf I tried to buy the 35 from mw classic but they'd sold it 10 mins before I rang! Got a good deal on the lens hood from them though so cheers for the tip!
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Unlucky! Enjoy your new kit - look forward to seeing some results. (y)
 
I was gutted I should have picked it up when you first told me but wanted to do some research first
Hey Ho I'll know next time!!
 
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