the unofficial Cosina-Voigtlander User Community

As first mentioned by Roger Williams of the CVUG mailing list, the Japanese techno-Photography magazines Asahi and Nippon are chock full of Voigtlander Bessa 4A/4M stuff this month. But that's not all. They also mention 2 new lenses to be released in April along side the new Bessa body: the 21/4P and 25/4P. The CV 25/4P is the long-anticipated replacement to the non-RF coupled CV 25/4 Snapshot Skopar, which was sadly discontinued last year. Obviously, the new 25/4P is rangefinder-coupled. The "P" designation indicates that both lenses are pancake-styled, similar to the current CV 35/2.5P II (including focusing tab). With the already-more-then-adequate 21/4 Skopar also being replaced, it seems as if Cosina may be looking to eventually replace all its Skopar-styled lenses with pancake-styled lenses? Price (converted from Yen) is set at US$410 for the 25/4 and US$450 for the 21/4. The rather slowish maximum aperture of f4 is retained from the Skopar versions of both lenses and neither comes with a viewfinder...so best to make sure you buy them paired with a new R4 :)

On the subject of the Bessa R4, some interesting plus and minus points about the viewfinder were brought up by the magazines reviewers. On the minus size, the "wide angle" aspect of the viewfinder makes it very susceptible to it being blocked by lenses. How serious an issue this is depends on the lens and Asahi goes into some good detail on what to expect here. On the plus side, the viewfinder is high eyepoint and all the framelines, including the 21mm, are easily visible even to those with goggles on like me. In addition, the 21mm frameline is parallax corrected.

The estimated sale price for the R4A/R4M remains US$649 and all three are expected to go on sale in Japan in April. 

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