![]() ![]() The camera (cameras, given the number of bodies and other bits you’ll need), the film, the processing none of it makes sense when I’ve got plenty of other cameras that give you much more for your money. Super-fine grain (none detectable) and vivid colours (skin comes out a bit on the magenta side). Not as close as I’d like – the 150mm lens has a minimum focussing distance of nearly a mile. All the bokeh, sharp but a more soulful sharpness than digital. The picture above is exactly what I was hoping for. I forgot I put the camera on multiple exposure while I was trying to get the shutter to cock. The pic above is down to using the body with a slipping winder. Resultsįar better than anything I’ve got out of any other 120 camera. What’s nice though is that labs deliver scans over the interweb, so you only have to wait for the film to get there, be processed and scanned. 6: Unload the film, send it off, and wait You have to wind the film on and cock the shutter before the mirror swings down and you can use the finder again. Press the shutter button and there’s a clunk as the mirror swings up. There’s a flip-up magnifier and a split ring to help get the focus spot on – which it needs to be depth of field with a large film area is razor thin at wider apertures.īronica viewfinder 5: Press the shutter button The speed grip probably makes more sense with an eye-level finder.įocussing is manual, of course. And I prefer the crank to the thumb winder. The speed grip makes it easier to lug the camera around, but it’s more comfortable to shoot without it. That said, don’t underexpose (as is tempting with slow films and slow lenses). Close is good enough – any film other than transparency has miles of leeway. Then transfer the settings to the Bronica. Tweak away until you get the exposure you want. Set the ISO to match your film, set the aperture and shutter, and there on the live view is the end result. Set it to manual and it’s like having a light meter with a built in preview. I recently realised (duh) that I have a perfectly good solution my Ricoh GR. I have used a light meter, but I’ve yet to find one that’s accurate. You can get a metered prism finder, but I like the waist-level finder. Curiously, since getting it I’ve slowed down using my digital cameras also. That aside, there’s something about the way this camera feels and works that begs you to slow down and think before you even start taking the photo. A roll costs around £5 to buy and £12 to process. ![]() With the 6×6 format you get 12 shots on a roll of 120 film. The darkslide 2: Think about what you are going to photograph ![]() The back knows whether the film is wound on or not, so you can swap backs while shooting without ever taking an accidental double exposure or wasting a frame. With the darkslide in, you can take the back off even when there’s a film in it. Thanks to interlocks, you can’t take a back off the camera without a darkslide in it. The shutter is cocked and you are ready to go. Thread the film, close and mount the back, wind it on until it stops automatically at the first frame. 1: Load your filmĮasy as long as you get the film the right way around. Once you’ve got a set of parts that work, using the camera is a joy. These old cameras are complex they all need mending now and again. I’ve had Leica’s, Contaxes and Rolleiflexes go wrong. On my dodgy lens this only works every other time you wind on again much faffing getting it cocked in multiple exposure mode.Īre Bronica’s unreliable? In my experience, yes, but then any old camera is. Cranking the winder cocks the shutter, which is in the lens. Fortunately you can get reasonably cheap bodies and now I’ve got one that works.Īnd one of my two lenses (an 80mm 2.8) has a dodgy shutter coupling. This locks the shutter up and you have to faff around trying to cock the shutter in multiple exposure mode. On my dodgy SQ-A body you can keep turning the winder. Normally the winder stops when shutter is cocked and the film is advanced. ![]() I’ve got one body where the winder slips. Some of the components won’t work and you will need to swap them out. And that’s a good thing, because when some of the components don’t work you can swap them out. I wanted square format, something solid, with a decent range of decent lenses, and not too ancient.īronica SQ-A without speed grip. Hasselbald, Mamiya, Contax, Pentax all too expensive. I wanted a new toy, so I decided to give 120 another chance.
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