Film Cosina stops production of all cameras.

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This is a Google translation from this page: http://photoscala.de/Artikel/Voigtl%C3%A4nder-stellt-Bessa-R-Messsucherkameras-ein

Voigtlander Bessa-R provides a rangefinder cameras

Martin Vieten on Wednesday, September 30, 2015 - 16:01
How Cosina, owner of the trademark rights for Voigtlander, notifies on its Japanese website, the production of rangefinder cameras of Bessa-R-series has been discontinued. Affected by the halt in production is also a range of accessories for the Bessa-R cameras.

I'm sorry to see this happen, though I'm not surprised. It's a numbers game, and without the sales to support it, there's no way to keep it going. I still wish Cosina had followed up the RD1 commercial failure with a digital Bessa.. Maybe that would have sold enough to help support the film camera line. Or maybe that's just the wishful thinking of someone seeing the world he came of age in disappearing.
 
Sad news, indeed. I was also waiting for a follow-up to the RD1.

Is it possible that someone else will continue to make the Bessa..... and/or a digital version.

The Voigtlander lenses I assume are still "good enough" sellers. The relationship between Cosina and Voigtlander is not clear to me. Maybe I need to go to the rangefinder forum to get the dirt on this. Seems this story is from the end of September, but it's the first I've heard.
 
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I also wonder if this won't play out like when Panasonic (who owned and manufactured the famed Technics 1200 turntable) discontinued the iconic DJ turntable WAAAAAYYYYY AFTER the original demise of LP playback and around 2 years BEFORE the enormous comeback in popularity when every brother and their mother started making turntables again (including several clones of the discontinued Tehcnics).

Hopefully some camera companies will see the void and fill it up. Ricoh? Fuji? Remnants of Kodak? Anybody?
 
Sad news, indeed. I was also waiting for a follow-up to the RD1.

Is it possible that someone else will continue to make the Bessa..... and/or a digital version.

The Voigtlander lenses I assume are still "good enough" sellers. The relationship between Cosina and Voigtlander is not clear to me. Maybe I need to go to the rangefinder forum to get the dirt on this. Seems this story is from the end of September, but it's the first I've heard.

My understanding is that Cosina bought the Voigtlander name. I would usually cringe at such an idea, but they seem to have done right by an old and venerable name. I don't own any Voigtlander glass, but I'd like to get some, the 35mm Color Skopar if nothing else. I may just have to get an RD1 to satisfy my digital rangefinder cravings. I'd have to sell my housing to get a Leica.
 
As far as I know, Cosina currently owns the rights to use the Voigtlander name. Voigtlander lenses and cameras are produced at Cosina facilities, which also produce lenses for other brands like Zeiss.

It's quite disappointing that they will no longer produce cameras, but the writing has been on the wall for film for a long time. The CEO of Cosina is a huge film fiend, so it is telling that they are ceasing production.
 
There is always wikipedia:)
Cosina - Wikipedia

They are on the full run with the lenses eg M-Mount Voigtlander with new 15mm ver III/35mm 1.7, Zeiss Otus/Milvus Canikon mounts with new 28/50/85mm designs + older lens revamps, m43 Voigtlander, Sony/Fuji mount Zeiss Touits, Zeiss Loxia 21/35/50mm, Zeiss Batis 25/85mm, and Voigtlander 10/12/15mm for Sony FE mount...
 
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