Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks to everybody who advised me, on and off list. I went to the flea market (in Hamburg, Germany) this morning just around opening time, but there was not much in the way of folders. One stall holder told me he regularly sells Bessas by the dozen to a guy in Arizona, who then resells some to Japan. Still, there were two Bessas, one with a Skopar 3.5/10,5cm (I guess it is a prewar model a most people have been talking about Color-Skopars) and a Compur that goes to 1/400 sec. It had a quaint green filter on a hinge in front of the lens, and all optical surfaces were very clean, as was the folder itself. Asking price was $ 125, but after we had folded it together we could not get it open again. I offered $50 and I am now the proud owner. Particularly proud because I have fixed the opening/closing mechanism and it opens and closes very nicely. However the shutter does not work, and I am not sure I can fix it myself. Any tips on how to open the thing? Any other advice also gratefully accepted, like should I only fold it with distance set to infinity? what is the little knob on the top for (changing viewfinder to 6x6 - the camera has two red windows on the back for the film numbers so it is obviously intended for 6y6 as well)? and why does it have two rangefinder windows on the back, (three on the front, but thats because of the coupled rangefinder)? I also got five old books for $ 7,50: Beutler's 1961 book on darkroom work, an East German (communist era) book on artificial light, a pre-war book on nude photography by an Austrian doctor, a 1928 pocket manual for the amateur photograper (had sold 720 thousand copies) and a recent book on the Zone System with a type of round slide rule calculator. I also got some half price Technical Pan, so this is to warn you, there will be some test result with developers other than Xtol coming up some time.