Voigtländer - Cosina 107SW

Description: Cosina 107SWaka Voigtländer Bessa L The very first Cosina-Voigtlander body A history lesson - forgive me. In the early 2000's, the owner of Cosina decided to go Leica style. The result was a slew of new Bessa bodies and Voigtlander lenses of awesome quality. But there was a starting point. Cosina did not have a quality brand name at the time so they bought the licence to use the Voigtlander name from the German photo store that still owned it. BUT - before Cosina owned the rights to use the Voigt name, they released their first camera body and lenses under their own name. Not a well known fact. The 107SW was released in Asian markets with the original screw mount 15mm and 25mm lenses - hence SW for 'SuperWide'. This one was sold originally in Singapore. Very soon afterwards it was rebadged as the identical Voigtlander Bessa L, the first Cos/Voigt Bessa and based on the common Cosina body. It has some commonalities with the last film Nikons (FG?) for instance as those were Cosina bodies as well.So it is a Leica screw mount body with LED metering and no finder or rangefinder - remember it was originally used with very wide lenses so zone focusing was easy. I used this myself with the 25mm and 15mm lenses - brilliant. Also used a Leica MDa in a similar way. I still have a great shot of the then new Bolte Bridge in Melbourne taken from the river (with the 25mm) hanging on my wall. And for playing with old Leica lenses like the original 28mm f5.6 screw mount or my favorite Summitar - great! I do have a nice old 35/50mm finder available to go with.A really nice low cost body to use with wide screw mount Leica's/Voigtlanders like the 15mm and 12mm as a snapshot unit - with a separate viewfinder or even with a Leica style add-on rangefinder for longer lenses. And a little bit of history. NOTE:I am a recognised authority on some camera types and I have written a series of film camera collector’s reference books and other books, through Blurb (print on demand). These are ‘Compendia’ on the Prism SLR, TLR and Half Frame/24 square formats and on early Kodak/Eastman. In each case, they list and describe EVERY camera in that category that I could find (and I'm good at research so that's probably all of them). Search Blurb/afildes to find the books. Important!I KNOW – IT’S EVERSO BORING BUT – PLEASE READ!I’m infamous for talking a lot – I used to be a High School teacher so I can’t help it. But most of regular customers seem to think I’m worth listening to! But please read - there's some good and important stuff down below. Including jokes and anecdotes. Important NOTE:IMAGES – I try to provide high quality, hi-res images but, if you pixel peep the images, you’ll often find that they seem to show a camera or lens covered in mysterious white spots and whatever. These are usually digital artefacts and reflections, not real. And no matter how well you clean the item, there are always dust spots and hairs and UFO's. It’s frustrating. I had an image of a camera recently where it looked for all the world as if the lens had a huge crack in it up front. You wouldn’t buy it in a fit. But the crack did not exist and did not show in any of the other images. It was an odd combination of reflections and the lines of shutter blades inside. It was so worrying that I had to go in panic and recheck carefully. Had I dropped it? No, there was nothing there! Perhaps I need to use better light diffusion?So, please look at all the images carefully and accept my word if I say it’s in good or fair condition. I will refund if there is a problem. In 20+ years I’ve sold well over a thousand items online and I have a 100% record.For all listings I have described the condition here as best as I can. If it does not measure up, then contact me immediately so that we can discuss it and I can make it good. __________________________________________________Joke of the Week (To keep you going)My father, a travelling salesman, was well pleased when he got a promotion to senior troubleshooter and the company fitted a telephone in his car. This was in the sixties when that was quite rare. No mobiles back then. He was happy that he was so well regarded that they'd redirect him quickly to difficult clients and jobs.Then one day he was driving out to an urgent job and the car phone rang. It was Joe, back in the office. "Better get back here quick, Jack. There's been a reshuffle and you've been promoted to Sales Manager!" What?! Strewth! He turned around and headed for the office but within a couple of kilometres, the phone rang again. Joe again. "It's bloody pandemonium here mate! George just quit as well and so apparently you've now been bumped up to General Manager!"Jack was a bit excited by this. So much so that he skidded off into a small tree by the roadside. A woman rushed up to see if he was all right as he staggered shakily out of the car. "No worries," he assured her while leaning on the open door, wiping his brow with a handkerchief. I just careered off the road!It's a rework of an old Tommy Cooper joke and one reason why I love the English language.___________________________________________________________ But wait - there's more, much more....If you want to check me out, put three 'w's in front of - soultheft - and add the usual dot and com after it. I've been in this business full time for over ten years, twice that online and I stand behind all my my stuff - if I say it works I've checked it as best I can and I'll make good any reasonable problems. I deal in gear up to 150 years old so I have to be philosophic about such things. I started using eBay in the dark ages, when it was USA only and only had used stuff! I sold stuff to Americans mostly, back then. In over twenty years of trading on ebay I've had just one negative feedback response - from an irritable French buyer who did not even contact me first. I would have given him a refund, quite happily, but... So any problem, contact me so we can sort it. I try to describe fairly and honestly and I do distinguish between collectible examples in good cosmetic condition, ‘users’, display only collectibles and…a useable beater! I have missed a fungus spot or a mark in a lens before now (we all have) and of course apologised/refunded where appropriate but every old lens has a few dust motes inside – that’s unavoidable. Please do not expect something that looks perfect unless I say it is! This is mostly quite old gear.Condition claims? MINT you say?Be aware that ‘Mint’ strictly means ‘new in the box and never used’. Yes really – it comes from collectible coins where a coin is mint only if it came directly from the mint and was never even touched except with cotton gloves. Anything else is ‘used’ whatever the Tokyo sellers think. Japanese sellers used to be good but now they think that ‘mint’ means 95% of original finish. No it does not and as a collector myself, I’ve had disappointments. Sure, they’ll offer to refund but by the time you’ve fiddled with postage and tried to get the import duty back (!) then it’s all a mess. I had a bit of mint stuff to sell recently, as in never used, but that’s very unusual. Stock Clearance – Closing DownBargains online!I’ve closed down my store after many years and I’m selling off most of the stock– the better items online. The good stuff and some items perhaps I’d only get an interested customer every few months - so online makes more sense anyway.I also tend to buy odd and special interest stuff myself sometimes to resell or out of curiosity, and then pass it on. These items are bargains in two senses – either they are really good items offered at a regular, everyday price or they are unusual items at a reduced price on the usual listings I see. Some are things like rather special lenses and cameras that I bought to play with myself for a while. Others are my own personal collectibles or gear that I used myself. Either way, it’s tested, checked, guaranteed.I will post cheerfully to anywhere in Australia - but only with appropriate insurance cover and tracking for high value items. The ebay postage indicator above only shows basic postage cost calculated by eBay, often inaccurately - insurance is extra and I make no charge for handling/packing of course. I use recycled packaging where possible and I’m known to pack very well. Discuss it all with me if you have special requirements. Special items, collectibles and so on I'll post overseas but again, tracked postage and insured for high value items to protect us both - so these days it won't be cheap! For very valuable items, I will insist on courier/EMS unless you specifically agree to accept the risk of loss. You are responsible for all import duties, fees and taxes of course and you will have to discuss that with your own national customs agency - they should notify you when an item is ready for clearance but...not always! If you want to reduce GST/VAT import tax exposure, please ask. Sometimes it’s possible, sometimes not. NOTE – There has been a rise in creative online scamming of various kinds. And eBay is not always particularly good at protecting sellers despite their very high fees – they emphasise protecting buyers, sometimes to my cost and recently to my benefit as well! Due to a few actual or suspected or obvious scam attempts on me on eBay, I reserve the right to reject bids from some international 'buyers' - in particular those with zero, low and unrelated previous feedback on cheap items - or from anyone in or outside Australia who asks for the item to be posted to a different address, especially in another country - for however plausible a reason. This would void my seller protection and allows charge backs without my control. I lose. These are almost always scams. I may accept bids from those I deem to be legitimate bidders by personal negotiation – contact me. If you try what appears to me to be a scam bid and then win, I will send an explanatory rejection message and then offer a second chance to what appears to be the last legitimate bidder. If this seems to be a problem for you, please message me through eBay and discuss it.Oh, and please do not bid if you have no intention of going through with the purchase. It’s annoying, causes me a lot of extra work and I’ve been exploring creative ways of getting my revenge! :-) A little true story to finish off...“Hi Ginger…”I met Ginger Baker once, briefly, although ‘meeting’ might be a grandiose caption for such a brief encounter. Back stairs inside the Leicester College of the Arts, one mid-sixties night.I was ascending the back stairs with friends, All of us a bit drunk and stoned and serious in that hairy late 1960’s sort of way. He was out on the landing – having slipped out for a crafty toke himself perhaps and the honour of his own company for a change. It was a surprise, for the greater Gods did not often present themselves closely and unguarded before such grubby, star-stuck minions. But Cream were virtuoso’s and used to do solo ‘bits’ to give each other a break – Ginger was notorious for brilliant drum breaks lasting up to thirty minutes and not a dull moment in it. He was also notorious for a difficult and ‘in-yer-face’ personality.“Hey,” I exclaimed, astonished. “Hi Ginger”, timidly.“F**k off.”, he replied, with a well seasoned scowl and well within that character.I’ve always treasured the familiar insult fondly and felt a strange kinship. A friendly response would have been unremarkable.These were the beginning times of Cream, playing out the cheap and early midweek starter gigs and we could afford to follow them, those of us clever enough to spot the rising greats. Me and Bazza and Plug and Swillpig and others from the Advertising Department of Shoe Machinery Megacorp; not yet brave enough to piss off to London and live the life. I did later, leaving the lads behind.It was a good and regular venue. The Who played it. Even Jimi Hendrix once I saw in 1967, working up the girls in the front row of a ‘crowd’ of 700 and me side-stage next to the stack of Marshalls. Tagging along with a mate, the College’s official student magazine photographer. And with a neatly forged ticket – and muffled hearing for three days afterwards. So then later I could snarl in turn at whey-faced juveniles that ‘I done things you can never ever do’, and get some shocked respect when I told them just what.Three times in three months we got to see Cream – Hinkley Community Centre, Leicester College of the Arts and in far hills at Maldon Town Hall where a fight broke out in the stalls between the students of several colleges and the resentful townies. Slowhand watched down from the stage in bored amusement, riffing along until the fuss died down a bit and far too cool to intervene or show emotion or interest. Maldon, Derbyshire hills were they make Morgan sports cars. That was a bit further out than normal and I had no wheels and so I slept mildly stoned in the shrubbery afterwards and stuck out a thumb to get home. Simpler, better times when ‘social media’ meant talking over a beer, in person, about what was in the really, really alternative press this week. Changing the world we were, we thought, on a daily basis but as usual the kids studying accounting, economics and commerce got in before us in their shiny suits and stuffed it all up again. Bugger.

Price: 250 AUD

Location: Selby

End Time: 2024-11-09T22:33:02.000Z

Shipping Cost: 35.08 AUD