Bessa who?

Remember this camera YJ used in his secret visit to Japan? I thought it was a new generation of Box Brownies. While surfing the net I saw a photo similar to this one in the Amateur Photographer site and the camera is called Voigtländer Bessa III. It's actually available in Japan and will be launched in the UK next month. Robert White the leading distributor of cameras and accessories have only ordered 20 units. Its retail price will be £1900, cheaper than the Leica. So what's good about this camera apart from its vintage look? It has a mechanism that switch between film formats, 6x7 cm to 6x6cm. It has the capacity to produce very high quality picture and comes with an 80 mm f/3.5 and powered with a CR2 lithium battery.It's known in Japan as GF670. Below are the key features.

Type: 6 x 7 type rangefinder folding camera
Film format

6 x 7 and 6 x 6 by selector switch
6 x 7 size: 56 x 69mm6 x 6 size: 56 x 56mm
Film
120 or 220 roll film
Frames
6 x 7 size: 120 – 10 shots, 220 – 20 shots
6 x 6 size: 120 – 12 shots 220 – 24 shots
Lens
HELIAR 3,5/80mm6 elements in 4 groupsAngle of view: 6 x 7 size = 57°Angle of view: 6 x 6 size = 53°
Focusing -Manually controlled helicoid
Focusing range- 0,9 m – inf.
Finder
Coincidence type rangefinder with bright frame and automatic parallax correction.
Macro ratio-X 0,7
Diopter correction
Eyepiece diopter (19mm tread) can be screwed on.
Indicators in view finder
LED- Aperture Priority Auto Mode and properly set shutter speed indicator lit. - Manual exposure mode- Battery consumptoin warning
Shutter
Electronically controlled lens shutter. Shutter speed 4s – 1/500 sec.
Exposure control
Center weighted average metering. Exposure compensation: +/- 2 by 1/3 steps
Film speed
Manually set. ISO25 – 3200 by 1/3 steps
Film winding
By film advance dial
Film counter
Additive type with auto reset, automatically switched to 120 or 220 type synchronized with film type selector switch on film pressure plate.
Battery
X1 CR2 Lithium battery
Size
178mm x 109mm x 138 mm or 64mm (closed)
Weight
1,000g

So you think it's the same camera? I'm not surprise if it is..

Source: Robert White & Amateur Photographer