An advert for the Voigtländer Bessa III medium-format folding rangefinder camera has appeared in a German photography magazine.
The full-page ad, which describes the film-based camera as ?remarkably compact?, seemed to suggest that a launch date is imminent.
However, a spokesman for Voigtländer?s UK distributor Robert White told us: ?The latest information we have is that prices will be announced in the first quarter of 2009 and possible production in summer 2009.?
He added: ?We suspect that the advertisement is trying to drum up interest.?
As we reported in September, the Fujifilm-developed camera will be known in Japan as the GF670 and was developed in conjunction with Cosina.
Outside Japan it will be sold by Cosina as the Voigtländer Bessa III.
In response to the German advert, a source at Cosina?s Tokyo office told us that neither a price, on-sale date or ?sales channel? have yet been decided.
We already know that the camera will be equipped with a mechanism for ?switching between two film formats, 6x7cm and 6x6cm?.
It will come with an 80mm f/3.5 lens (made from six elements in four groups) and will be powered by a CR2 (3V) lithium battery.
The company first announced plans to develop such a camera at the Photo Marketing Association show in the United States earlier this year.
The ad appears in the December issue of fotoMAGAZIN.
