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sage !i/euDJmWr2
So my Bessa R finally came in the mail today. I haven't been able to shoot anything with it yet considering I haven't even left the house today except to sign for it, but I will try to get into town later with it.

It's in better shape than the auction made it look, the paint was wearing off in a few spots, but a quick little pass over with a sharpie made that as good as new. It had a lot of sticker residue from the first owner on it, including a sticker with his personal info on the inside, a university of oklahoma sticker and a blood donor sticker. Not really sure why he had any of those except the personal info...

but anyway, like I was saying, it appears to be in perfect working order. The framelines are very bright, as bright as I've heard they should be, and the focusing patch is easy to see with just a little bit of contrast. The frame count window is missing I noticed, which is odd, but that's not a huge problem. I can just cover the hole with a small piece of clear tape or something if I need to. The film advance feels great, really smooth, and that's a really huge plus for me with film, I hate using automatically advancing film bodies or rough advances.
EXIF data available. Clickhereto show/hide.
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>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
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that's whats left of the blood donor sticker, just a little greasy mark. It's loaded with a half-used roll of Kodak BW400cn just because I had it laying around.

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>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
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The Jupiter 3 lens looks okay too, but I wont really know for sure until I test it with film. The glass appears clean and it's got a speck or two of dust, but it's smooth inside and out except for that. The focusing scale seems accurate to the rangefinder, so as long as the element is accurate to the ring I guess that should be okay. The aperture ring is kind of funky though...it's smooth and easy to use, but the scale for it seems off; at the widest aperture, 1.5, it sits a few millimeters to the right of the 1.5 mark. Same for 22.

Size wise, it's about the same size as my other pseudo-rangefinder, the AF35M. The lens protrudes further, but they're seemingly the same proportions other than that. The R's framelines are far brighter, however, not that the Canons are necessarily hard to see considering the fact that it's autofocus.

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>> Anonymous
>>224609
>>224610

Sounds great, now come back with some photos.
>> Anonymous
why didnt you just leave the sticker on rather than trying real hard and failing?
not trying to make fun, just sounding like it.
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
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>>224613
I plan to, just felt like updating on it

>>224616
because they were ratty, torn up stickers and there was residue everywhere you put your hand; I don't like sticker-goo on my hands.

The greasy stuff is just because I soaked that sticker with goo-gone, it wiped off fine.

Uh...this is the back before I cleaned it up

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>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
>>224619
also I was wrong, he's an organ donor, not a blood donor :P
>> Anonymous
I don't know, op, but imo, brassing/paint-unflecking on rangefinders or old cameras make it look better. i.e., shouldnt have sharpied it.
>> Anonymous
>>224623
That said, cute camera, have fun.
>> Anonymous
>>224623
I don't agree, but I don't look how sharpied edges look either.

Have fun, shoot some pictures soon. This /still/ is a gear thread. Hope you enjoy.
>> Anonymous
go take pictures with it. nobody cares that it's on your desk.
>> Anonymous
>>224630
Speak for yourself, will you. :)
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
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>>224623
Bessas are different, the outer body is plastic and when the black paint starts flaking off, the silver undercoat it has starts flaking with it. I'd have preferred a silver or grey color, but black was easiest to find.

>>224629
the sharpie is just temporary, it will wear off pretty quickly anyway, I'll probably go back over it with black paint again though.

Anyway, Im about to head to town with it and see what I get. I might drop by the thrift store and see if I can sneak it in with me, though I doubt the store really even cares. I managed to use the AF35M in there before without anyone getting too angry, and the Bessa is practically silent compared to that thing...those have the loudest motors I've ever heard in a camera.

Uh...pic related to AF35M. More pictures to steer this towards being a picture thread later hopefully.
>> Anonymous
>>224657
They're plastic? That's too bad.

Yeah, compacts with motors are utter crap.
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
>>224659
I'm pretty sure they have a metal skeleton, just the outer body is plastic. I don't mind really anyway, it makes it lighter :)

I always wished the Canon could have the motor turned off, that's the only thing I don't like about it because it's really an amazing camera, it's got an extremely sharp f/2.8 lens and the autofocus on it is better than a lot of modern autofocus, it's basically an electronic rangefinder that uses infrared to line itself up. The viewfinder tells you what distance it's focused at and all, it's fun to use.
>> Shu
I like your writing style, and find /p/ incredibly useful + interesting.

Do you have a blog? If so, mind sharing the link here?
[and if not, please consider starting one... ]
>> Anonymous
ITT: obvious flirting with questionable female.
>> Serenar !m827jEgWi.
Congrats, looks like it's in great shape. Tell me if the J-3 sucks because I may want to take it off your hands (yes, in non-working condition)
>> Shu
No.224669 LOL

Message was genuine [shock, horror!]

The camera looks interesting, and I do actually like the OP's writing style.

And I don't live under a tree!
>> Haddock !!xREx2m9lgBs
nom nom nom
I gotta say, I'm slightly jealous. I've got a silver R and a Jupiter 8. Yours is the slightly better version of both parts of my setup.
>> Anonymous
>>224680
>>224666

wow.
>> noclue !!2yUmAID3520
congrats! have you posted about getting the bessa? can't remember, or maybe missed it. now have fun woth your your new toy. we're all waiting to see pictures!
>> Shu
No.224702

/p/ is special y'know?

Is it so wrong to show some love here every now and again?

PS I meant bridge, not tree.

PPS For the record, I'm a bloke, not a bird.
>> Shu
No.224717

Disregard that. I suck cocks.
>> Shu
No.224720

Just failed at trolling, attempting to impersonate a proud tripfag and pretty much everything else in life rofl.

Fuck off to /b/ or something, /p/ doesn't need idiots like you hear. Don't bother trying to ruin this thread, now everyone knows you are a dickhead and don't have anything more constructive to do with your spare time on Earth - 0/10.
>> Anonymous
>>224722
I'll do this once because your posts haven't been too bad, but I have my doubts if you are just an elaborate troll.

1. When quoting someone, click on the number to actually quote.

2. You are also not a tripfag, because you have no tripcode.

3. Do not feed the trolls.
>> Shu
No.224743

Just to say, well, thank you.

I am neither a troll, nor an elaborate one.

I love photography and wish I had popped into /p/ when I lived in Japan as I would have probably taken better photos there, and find /p/ pretty inspiring to be honest.

I suppose a lot of shit goes down on /p/, from trolling to downright nastyness, but the majority of posts I see are positive and encouraging.

I really do like the OP's style of writing and am intrigued both by the camera, and what the pictures the OP will take with it.

Thanks for clearing up those points.

I'll refrain from feeding trolls from now on.

Back on topic now all? Its a good one!
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
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...what the hell happened to my thread while I was gone? This is weird...

>>224672
It seemed to work pretty well today, the aperture ring is still funny but it doesn't appear to cause much of a problem. If I ever do decide to let it go, though, I'll let you know. :)

>>224710
yeah, I posted about it when I was still bidding on it.

>>224686
Well my lens can't count its own aperture correctly, so we can call it even. :P

I didn't get any good shots really, it's hard for me to get used to the framelines since I'm so used to the 400d, so today I just tried to get focusing down and get used to the functions of the camera. Even though the pictures, for the most part, are all terrible I had a lot more fun shooting today than the last time I tried to do anything candid. My 400d is bulky and somewhat bizarre looking to most people (battery grip all the time, my battery door is broken), so it gets noticed a lot easier.

But again, they're just basically snapshots, so don't concentrate too much on c&c, I'd just as soon throw all of these in the trash.

>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
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and another snapshot, with flaring! yay!

Being stuck with 400 iso film all day really sucked, too. I really like to use a more limited dof, but it was too bright to get anywhere wider open than f/8.5ish outside.

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>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
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Last one, a lot more of the film was already used than I remembered it being (I had been running this same roll through my film Rebel before the shutter in it died), and I ended up with lots of trash on the film because of that. It's fine though, Walgreens charged me next to nothing to develop and scan it because they thought it was their fault, lol. I used Walgreens because there was no point in spending money on getting it developed properly and I don't have any of the chemicals or experience yet to do it myself.

This I obviously missed the focus on the guy majorly in it, I didn't use the rangefinder for this and just went with the distance scale, but I over-estimated the distance (meter conversion is le confusioso to Amerifag)

Despite the fact that he's completely OOF and the focus ended up falling on the wall, I still kind of like it for no apparent reason. It's probably the only one I'm going to keep a print of, just because I like how it came out all things considered.

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>> Anonymous
>>224619
aaah i see.
i hate that goo shit!
>> Anonymous
>>224762
This one is really pretty good.

What's the fastest shutter speed on the Bessa?

As for only having parking lots, etc. to do street in- it could be a blessing in disguise. Everyone has done street in big metropolises (metropoli?) but except for Brian Ulrich I don't know of anyone really exploring with street photography the sorts of areas where the average Middle American lives out most of their life.
>> Haddock !!xREx2m9lgBs
>>224762
If you hadn't said anything about missed focus I would have liked it. :P
Just kiddin, I like it quite a bit.

You lucked out on this J-3 it seems, and got a good sample: Sharp, contrasty, and able to focus correctly.

>>224788
1/2000
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
>>224790
yeah, I'm very pleased with it so far. It seems to be every bit as sharp as my Canon and Sigma lenses

one thing that does bother me is the that I'm left eye dominant, and using it with my left eye is a little bit cumbersome, I can force myself to put it to my right eye though, so I will probably just do that.
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
I forgot to ask earlier, does anyone know a way to loosen up the focus ring a little? It's not a major problem, but my J-3 is kind of stiff, it's smooth, but it's a little bit stiffer than rewinding film so it's hard to focus really fast with it.
>> Serenar !m827jEgWi.
>>224827
http://www.pentax-manuals.com/repairs/j3service.pdf
>> noclue !!2yUmAID3520
>>224759
i'd rather be flexible for more situations with the 400 and bring an ND to be able to use wider apertures.

>>224762
interesting result! i kinda like it, too!
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
>>224901
I didn't see this until now, thanks a ton though.

>>225006
I wish I had an ND to take with me ;_;
>> Anonymous
How quiet is the shutter?
>> sage !i/euDJmWr2
>>225994
Compared to Leicas, loud. Compared to SLRs, quiet.

It's a distinct clicking sound, at slower speeds you hear the click twice because of the dual shutters. It's not a sound that really draws attention like a mirror slapping up in an SLR though, even though it's loud for a rangefinder the sound pretty much blends into the background sounds. No one seemed to notice me the other day because of the shutter sound
>> Anonymous
Just got a R2M the other day, this is heaven compared to bulky DSLR'S, M mount is a plus