Bessa R4A / R4M
Cosina Voigtländer · Leica M mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back · 2007
Also known as: Bessa R4A · Bessa R4M · Bessa-R4A · Bessa-R4M · Bessa R4 · Voigtländer Bessa R4A · Voigtländer Bessa R4M · Voigtlander Bessa R4A · Voigtlander Bessa R4M · ベッサR4A · ベッサR4M
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bessa R4A (2007–13) | Leica M | 2007–2013 | — | Unpublished |
| Bessa R4M (2007–15) | Leica M | 2007–2015 | — | Unpublished |
- The 19 mm effective base is Macfilos's figure — 0.52 × the platform's physical base — and it is the price of the finder: a 35mm f/1.4 wide open is, in Rau's word, tricky. The camera was built for 21s and 25s at f/4, where it does not matter.
- English Wikipedia and several reviewers give 2006 as the introduction; Cosina's own pages give March 2007 for both bodies, after a Photokina 2006 announcement. The entry follows Cosina.
- Both bodies cost 13,000 yen more than an R2A or R3A. Nothing else on the market offered 21 and 25mm frames without an accessory finder, and nothing has since.
How to tell them apart
- A 0.52× finder — the lowest magnification on any interchangeable-lens rangefinder — with frames for 21, 25, 28, 35 and 50
- The frames are selected by lever in pairs and singles; the 21 runs to the edge of the finder glass and beyond it for spectacle wearers
- Rangefinder coupled to 0.7 m, closer than the other Bessas' 0.9
Bessa R4A (2007–13):
- Electronic shutter with aperture priority, 8 s – 1/2000 on A; matte black; discontinued with the other A bodies in June 2013
Bessa R4M (2007–15):
- Mechanical shutter, nine-LED manual display as the R3M; classic black; the last Bessa, discontinued September 2015
Specifications
- Format
- 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
- Finder
- Combined finder and coupled rangefinder, 0.52×, bright frames for 21/25/28/35/50 with automatic parallax correction; effective base about 19 mm (Macfilos) · 0.52× magnification · 21mm, 25mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm framelines · selectable by lever · automatic parallax correction
- Effective baselength
- 19 mm
- Shutter
- R4A: electronically controlled vertical metal focal-plane; R4M: mechanical · 1 s – 1/2000 and B; 8 s – 1/2000 on the R4A's aperture priority · flash sync X at 1/125, hot shoe and PC
- Film advance
- Single-stroke lever; trigger winder optional
- Back
- Hinged
- Meter
- TTL centre-weighted off the shutter blades, EV 1–19 at ISO 100; aperture priority with lock on the R4A, nine-LED manual display on the R4M. Two LR44 / SR44.
- Weight
- 440 g
- Dimensions
- 135.5 × 81 × 33.5 mm
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- 98,000 yen before tax, either body (Cosina); £594 new in Britain in 2013 against a Leica M7 at £3,600 (Visual Miscellany).
What reviewers say
- Jörg-Peter Rau (Macfilos), R4M with the 21mm f/4 and 35mm f/1.4 (blog) — For internal 21mm frames "you have no other option," and the tiny 21/4 pancake is sharp from f/4 with fine colour. The 19 mm base makes fast focusing tricky, and at 0.52× the frames themselves are small enough to hinder focus wide open.
- davidde, R4M (blog) — "A fun-to-use camera that occupies a unique place in rangefinder history": no accessory finder for anything from 21 to 28, and lever-selected, parallax-corrected frames. The finder cannot show a 21's distortion, and longer or fatter lenses — the 21-35 zoom especially — intrude on the 35mm frame.
- nickspur (Visual Miscellany), R4A (blog) — "Cheap does not necessarily mean poor quality": £594 new against an M7 at £3,600 and a Zeiss Ikon at £1,270, a bright finder, and Voigtländer lenses at a quarter of Leica's prices. It is plain to look at, and the frames must be chosen by hand — the body cannot read the lens.
History
Cosina’s Voigtländer lenses were wide — 12, 15, 21, 25, 28 — and every one of them needed a finder in the shoe. In March 2007 it built the body that did not. The Bessa R4A and R4M take the Bessa’s finder down to 0.52× magnification, the lowest on any interchangeable-lens rangefinder, and put frames for 21, 25, 28, 35 and 50mm inside it. No camera had shown a 21mm frame in its finder before, and none has since. The A has the electronic aperture-priority shutter of the R2A; the M the mechanical shutter and nine-LED display of the R3M; both weigh 440 grams and cost 98,000 yen, 13,000 more than their normal-finder siblings, and about £600 in Britain against a Leica M7 at six times that.
The cost of the finder is the rangefinder: at 0.52× the effective base is about 19 mm, and Macfilos found a 35mm f/1.4 tricky to focus wide open, which is not what the camera is for. At f/4 on a 21 it does not matter, and the reviewers agree on the rest — a bright finder, no accessory finders to carry, frames chosen by lever because the body cannot read the lens, and a 21’s distortion that the finder cannot show. The R4A went with the rest of the A series in June 2013; the R4M lasted to September 2015 and was, with the R2M and R3M, the last Bessa.
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
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $2,900 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $2,000–$2,900). First day tracked.
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
- Voigtlander Bessa R4M 35mm Rangefinder Film Camera Body
- BESSA R4A Excellent Cosina Top RF Camera
- Voightlander Bessa R4A 35mm Rangefinder Film Camera Body
- Used Voigtländer Bessa R4M Black Rangefinder 35mm Film Camera Body
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