Voigtländer Bessa

Bessa is the best-known line of folding viewfinder and rangefinder cameras manufactured by Voigtländer, which was a dual-format camera that took 6×9 and 4.5×6 pictures on medium format rollfilm. The Bessa was introduced in 1929 and an improved version incorporating a coupled rangefinder was introduced as the Bessa Rangefinder in 1935; the line was supplemented by the single-format Baby Bessa (aka Bessa 46 and Bessa 66), which took 4.5×6 and 6×6 pictures, respectively. Production was interrupted by World War II; after the war, the Bessa resumed limited production, but was succeeded by the Bessa I and Bessa II (both 1950), the latter including a rangefinder. Similar rollfilm cameras manufactured contemporaneously by Voigtländer included the Petito (1924), Rollfilm (1925), Inos (1931), Jubilar (1931), Prominent (1932), and Perkeo (1950, 6×6).

In 1997, the Voigtländer brand was licensed to Cosina, which subsequently introduced an unrelated line of 135 film rangefinder cameras using the Bessa name. However, Cosina also manufactured and sold a folding rangefinder medium format camera as the Bessa III (aka Bessa 667; rebadged and also sold as the Fujifilm GF670) from 2008 to 2014. There also was a version with a rigid body and wide-angle lens sold as the Bessa IIIW.