The Beauty and the Beast IV

In my from-time-to-time-mini-series about camera variants of ‘The Beauty and the Beast’, this time I made a coffee break on a hot summer day in  my Homeland and put two wonderful cameras side by side. A Voigtländer Bessa R, armed with a Voigtländer Color-Skopar 2.5/35mm lens and a Fuji X100s with its fixed lens, the Fujinon Super EBC 2/23mm.

The Voigtländer Bessa R from 2000 is a full manual analog film rangefinder, using its battery for the exposure meter only. Technical specs and loads of reviews are available on the web, so I don’t repeat it here. This Bessa camera line from Cosina was an attempt to deliver affordable rangefinder-style cameras to the audience from 1999 on.

The Fuji X100s from 2013, as all cameras in the X100 line, is Fuji’s successful retro attempt to bring back manual controls and the visual replica of the legendary rangefinder era. An APS-C size X-Trans sensor, fully digital, with all the automatic-modes one might need and all this packed in a body resembling the Leica M style.

So it’s all going down to analog vs digital and fully manual vs fully automated. Shooting both of them is a pure pleasure and this time I’ve no clue which is to be named the beauty and which the beast. So what, let’s have a cup of coffee and enjoy the haptical and visual impressions.

Do you have pairs of cameras which you’d call ‘The Beauty and the Beast’ too?

In case you’d like to comment, it’s appreciated … and maybe, you want to visit my website or my flickr page too.

So long … and thanks for all the fish.

2 comments

    1. Hi Frank, thanks for stopping by.
      I like your post and its a nice comparision of two Canon landmarks IMHO.
      I had the same starting issue (affordability) regarding the A-1 and I landed at Minolta’s X-700 in the old days.
      Last year I fulfilled my young-boys dream and got a mint A-1, whereas my first sessions using it left me with mixed impressions.
      Regarding the T90, so far I never reached out for the tank – as it’s really ugly.

Leave a Reply to Frank LehnenCancel reply