Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Bessa R

Cosina Voigtländer · LTM mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 2000

Also known as: Voigtländer Bessa R · Voigtlander Bessa R · Bessa-R · Cosina Bessa R · Voigtlander Bessa-R

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Bessa R, silver LTM 2000–2004 — Unpublished
Bessa R, black LTM 2000–2004 — Unpublished
Bessa R, olive and navy blue LTM 2002–2004 — Unpublished; Japan, perhaps only (camera-wiki)
  1. Finder magnification: 0.7× in Cosina's specification; Casual Photophile measures 0.72× and others 0.68×. The effective base is short, about 25 mm (Osborne).
  2. The last camera designed for the Leica screw mount. Cosina moved the Bessa to the M bayonet with the R2 in 2002.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Finder window, rangefinder window and a frame-selector lever on the front — the L has none of the three; self-timer lever (the R2 dropped it)
  • Polycarbonate covers, pebble-finished; the R2's are magnesium

Bessa R, silver:

  • ¥68,000 before tax; polycarbonate covers; 395 g; self-timer

Bessa R, black:

  • Black covers

Bessa R, olive and navy blue:

  • From 2002, at the same ¥68,000 in Cosina's list

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film
Finder
Combined viewfinder and coupled coincident-image rangefinder, 0.7× (Cosina; reviewers measure 0.68–0.72×), bright frames selected by lever — 35 with 90, 50, 75 — automatic parallax correction · 0.7× magnification · 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 90mm framelines · lever-selected: 35/90 together, 50, 75 · automatic parallax correction
Shutter
Mechanical vertical-travel metal focal-plane · 1 s – 1/2000 and B · flash sync X at 1/125, hot shoe and PC · self-timer
Film advance
Single-stroke lever
Back
Hinged
Meter
TTL centre-weighted, three LEDs in the finder, ISO 25–3200
Weight
395 g
Dimensions
135.5 × 78.5 × 33.5 mm
Country
Japan
Original price
¥68,000 before tax, all colours (Cosina) (today ¥76,000)

What reviewers say

History

A year after the finderless L, the same body with a finder: March 2000, ¥68,000, a 0.7× combined finder and coupled rangefinder with lever-selected frames for 35 and 90 together, 50 and 75, the platform’s mechanical 1–1/2000 shutter, a self-timer, and three meter LEDs in the finder — the first Leica-thread camera ever built with a meter behind the lens. Silver or black, and from 2002 olive or navy at the same price. 395 grams, polycarbonate covers over a metal chassis. It was replaced in 2002 by the R2, the same camera in magnesium with an M bayonet, and discontinued in July 2004.

Chris Cushing: a finder brighter than most classic rangefinders, a crisp patch, and “as a tool the humble Bessa R leaves the Leica M-A and my Canon P for dead.” Christopher Osborne finds it “smooth and easy” despite the plastic, and notes the short effective base — about 25 mm — that makes it a camera for f/2 lenses rather than f/1.2. The last camera made new in the Leica screw mount, and the cheapest good one.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Bessa R
Voigtländer Bessa R — pkmk, via Openverse (flickr) (BY 2.0)
Bessa R
Bessa R, body only — pkmk, via Openverse (flickr) (BY 2.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $550 across 19 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-10 (middle half $500–$800). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 36 more listings

Listings updated 2026-09-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Bessa L · Bessa R2 · Bessa T

Lenses for this body: Super Wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 SL Aspherical · Ultra Wide-Heliar 12mm f/5.6 SL Aspherical

Sources (4)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.