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

Bessa R2

Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back · 2002

Also known as: Voigtländer Bessa R2 · Voigtlander Bessa R2 · Bessa-R2 · Cosina Bessa R2 · ベッサR2 · フォクトレンダー ベッサR2

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Bessa R2, black Leica M 2002–2004 — Unpublished
Bessa R2, olive Leica M 2002–2004 — Unpublished
  1. Cosina dates the R2 to April 2002 and the Leica FAQ, writing at the time, to February 2002; announcement and shipping, most likely. Discontinued October 2004 when the R2A arrived.
  2. The Leica FAQ lists lenses the R2 cannot take because the body throat and the meter blades foul them: the Hologon 15mm f/8, the Super-Angulon 21s, some Elmarit 28s, the Summicron-DR 50. The same list applies to every later Bessa.
  3. No review of substance was found for the plain R2 — the reviewing began with the R2A/R3A and the R3M. The R2S/R2C page carries the contemporary Asahi Camera account of the platform.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The first Bessa with a viewfinder and the M bayonet together — a Bessa R body re-covered in metal with the screw mount swapped for the M
  • Only two colours, and the olive one is the one collectors ask for
  • Its Nikon-S and Contax-mount sisters, the R2S and R2C, have their own page; the Rollei 35 RF of the same year is this camera with 40/50/80 frames and Rollei's name

Bessa R2, black:

  • Splatter-textured black paint over magnesium-alloy top, base and back — the plastic covers of the Bessa R are gone
  • 0.7× finder with 35/50/75/90 frames selected by a lever; no self-timer (the R had one)
  • Cast, not pressed, rewind crank; trigger-winder socket on the base

Bessa R2, olive:

  • Olive body with chrome fittings, 7,000 yen more than black

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
Finder
Combined viewfinder and coupled coincident-image rangefinder, 0.7×, lever-selected bright frames, coupled 0.9 m to infinity · 0.7× magnification · 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 90mm framelines · selectable by lever — 35, 50, 75, 90 singly · automatic parallax correction
Shutter
Mechanical vertical-travel metal focal-plane with inner sun-shield blades · 1 s – 1/2000 and B · flash sync X at 1/125, hot shoe and PC
Film advance
Single-stroke lever, ratcheted; trigger winder optional
Back
Hinged
Meter
TTL centre-weighted off the shutter blades, EV 1–19 at ISO 100, three LEDs in the finder; ISO to 3200. Two LR44 / SR44.
Weight
425 g
Dimensions
135.5 × 81 × 33.5 mm
Country
Japan
Original price
78,000 yen black, 85,000 yen olive, before tax (Cosina); about US$586 and $639 at list, with a street price near $500 expected (the Leica FAQ).

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

History

A year after the finderless Bessa T, Cosina gave the Bessa R a Leica M bayonet and metal clothes. The Bessa R2 of 2002 has the R’s 0.7× finder with lever-selected frames for 35, 50, 75 and 90, the platform’s 1 to 1/2000 metal shutter and three-LED meter, and in place of the R’s polycarbonate covers a top plate, base and back in magnesium alloy under splatter-textured black paint, with a cast rewind crank and a socket for the trigger winder. The self-timer went, probably for want of room. It weighed 425 grams and cost 78,000 yen in black or 85,000 in olive with chrome fittings, roughly $500 on the street in America against an M6 at three times that.

The R2 is the trunk of the Bessa family tree. Cosina rebuilt it for the Nikon and Contax rangefinder mounts as the R2S and R2C, which have their own page here; Rollei sold it as the 35 RF with 40, 50 and 80mm frames; and the R2A and R3A of 2004 are R2 bodies with an electronic shutter and aperture priority. It was discontinued in October 2004 when they arrived. Nobody wrote a full review of the plain R2 that this entry could find — the reviewing literature begins with its successors.

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 R2
Bessa R2 in olive, with a Jupiter-8 — Stuart Grout, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $1,600 across 17 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $1,200–$1,800). First day tracked.

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

Show 40 more listings

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Listings updated 2026-09-06. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Bessa R2A / R3A · Bessa R2M / R3M · Bessa R2S / R2C · Bessa T · Bessa R

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

Sources (5)

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.