Voigtländer Bessa

In 1997, the Voigtländer brand was licensed to Cosina, which subsequently introduced an unrelated line of 135 film rangefinder cameras using the Bessa name.

Voigtländer introduced its first rollfilm cameras in the 1920s; the line eventually included, in increasing order of quality and price, the Petito (1924–27; with 41⁄8-in.

[5]: 89  The Radiar is a typical four-element, four-group symmetric dialyte lens,[4]: 3  while the Dynar and Heliar share similar construction, using five elements in three groups,[2]: 2  and are considered modifications of the Cooke triplet.

The initial Bessa cameras (1929–30) took 6×9 cm frames on 120 film and used a waist-level finder; a button was used to release the front, which folded down and allowed the lens to extend.

[10] Detail improvements were applied to later models, including the removal of the waist-level finder (1942) before production was suspended for World War II.

In 1938, the Bessa (non-rangefinder) was available with either Voigtar or Skopar lenses, all with 10.5 cm focal length;[11] the slower f/6.3 and f/7.7 Voigtar lenses were equipped with simpler shutters and three-position scale focusing with settings for Landschaft (landscapes), Gruppe (groups), or Porträt (single person portrait).

[15] A 127 film folding camera was sold by Voigtländer starting in 1933 as the Perkeo, which took 3×4 cm pictures; it offered greater portability compared to the regular Bessa line.

[15] In approximately 1955, shortly after Voigtländer was acquired by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, the Perkeo line was discontinued.

[21] Later, a wide-angle version was sold, omitting the folding ability, as the 667W, with a 55 mm f/4.5 Color-Skopar lens.