Voigtländer Bessamatic and Ultramatic
35mm SLR camera
The Bessamatic and Ultramatic were lines of 35mm SLR cameras made by Voigtländer in the 1960s, featuring a selenium meter. It uses a leaf shutter, similar to competing SLR cameras manufactured by Kodak (Retina Reflex) and Zeiss Ikon (Contaflex SLR) in Germany, rather than the focal plane shutter almost universally adopted by Japanese SLRs such as the contemporary Nikon F and Pentax Spotmatic. The Ultramatic was released in 1963, which used the same lens mount and added a shutter-priority autoexposure mode.
Design
The leaf shutter is a Synchro-Compur unit mounted behind the interchangeable lens, which uses the DKL-mount, although lenses made for the Bessamatic are not generally compatible with other DKL-mount cameras, and the Bessamatic DKL-mount will not generally accept non-Voigtländer lenses without physical modifications. The shutter speed settings range from 1 to 1⁄500 sec plus "B"ulb.
As implemented, leaf shutter SLRs have two separate sets of blades: one to control the exposure time, and another to control the aperture. Because the shutter and aperture are held wide open while the photograph is being composed, there is a complicated sequence of operations required once the shutter release button is pressed:
Shutter is closed and aperture is stopped down
Mirror (and capping plate) are raised
Shutter is opened to expose the film
Shutter is closed to end the exposure, aperture returns to wide open
This introduces an unavoidable shutter lag of approximately 1⁄50 sec. Then, as the film is wound on to the next frame, additional operations follow to make the camera ready for the next composition and exposure:
Mirror (and capping plate) are lowered
Shutter is cocked and opened
The Bessamatic has a reputation as a tricky camera to repair, although if looked after it can be reliable and pleasant to use. It is certainly worth seeking out someone familiar with this model for servicing and repair, as the reputation is not totally unfounded. The mechanism is very precisely made with many small components and can be damaged if any of the controls are forced.
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