At least the ones I’ve had experience with have been… But 120 format film isn’t where it stops. Oh, and the backs from the old ETR are interchangeable with the backs for the ETRS. I have two 120 film backs for my ETRS, one generally has colour negative film in, the other has black and white. This dark slide, when clipped into its little guides allows you to remove the film back and swap it for another at any point through the roll. This ‘film back’ as they are known simply clips onto the camera, but between the back and the camera body is what is called a dark slide. So as the camera is modular, one of the parts that comes off is the entire box that holds the film. …and the film backs.! Oh what a joy it is to use a camera that has interchangeable film backs.Īgain, if you’ve never experienced this let me tell you about it.
![bronica sq-a waist level finder bronica sq-a waist level finder](https://c8.alamy.com/zooms/9/22a70b52f7164c00a5c0fc2f6467a07b/s1dngm.jpg)
The handle allows you to hold it in the same way, and the thumb use film advance will be familiar to any SLR owners as well. You really can treat the camera in the same way you would use your traditional SLR. These speed grips change the feel and aesthetic of the camera to be more like a giant SLR camera, and for me at least when making that transition to medium format it made it much easier.
BRONICA SQ A WAIST LEVEL FINDER MANUAL
Mine has the manual speed grip which replaces the crank but you can also (if you can find one) get a motor winder as well. Zenza Bronica ETRS rotary finder (image credit: KEH.com)Īs standard, the camera comes with a hand crank on the right-hand side of the body for advancing the film. I’m sure Mike Butkus has a manual if you need one. There’s also flash sync but I don’t use it and have no idea how it works so sorry, you’ll have to head elsewhere if you want to know more about that. You’ve also got a ‘bulb mode’ (ish) by using the A/T lever on the lens (T for Timed, A is for Auto I assume) and a standard cable release socket for your long exposures. If the little 6-volt battery inside (A PX28A, or 4LR44) goes dead, it will also mechanically shoot at a standard 1/500th. The shutter is an electronically controlled Seiko leaf shutter in the lens, with a choice of 8, 4, 2 and 1 seconds, and 1/2, 1/4, 1/8th, 1/15th, 1/30th, 1/60th, 1/125th, 1/250th and 1/500th of a second. It’s certainly heavy enough that I’m pretty sure it’s all metal…! Mine is on the front, so I’m assuming mine is an early version. I’ve never used the later version, I assume its new nickname comes from its build.Īccording to Camerapedia you can tell the difference by the location of the lens release – the later version locates the release on the left-hand side of the camera.
![bronica sq-a waist level finder bronica sq-a waist level finder](https://lensfilmcamera.com/pictures/Bronica_SQ_A_Medium_Format_Film_Camera_105mm_f_3_5_S_Lens_WLF_RFH_Kit_05_uqxf.jpg)
There were supposedly two versions of ETRS released during its time, the early version is of metal construction and the later is known as the “plastic” version. I don't know when the AE -S was introduced but it may well pre-date the introduction of the SQ-Ai and an individual example could be over twenty years old.I’ve never personally used an ETR model, so I cannot vouch for any other differences that there may be. One factor you might want to take into account is that the newer prism might well be quite a lot newer and certainly when it was first introduced in the late 1990's carried a very large premium. Its not that the meter is inaccurate-more that a simple average reading isn't particularly useful particularly when like me you tend to use slide film. And as I'm generally pretty happy with my exposures I can only assume that if I followed the advice of my metered prism, then I may well be less happy than I am now. Fact is though that the exposure I actually go with is infrequently exactly the same as my AE prism indicates. In fact I still use a metered prism and I do use it, though only as a sense check for my mental arithmetic with several spotmeter readings.
![bronica sq-a waist level finder bronica sq-a waist level finder](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/901/41255195322_93d5467fb3_b.jpg)
I always compose first and I want to use a metering workflow that enables that not one that requires me to change it. Second because whilst the newer version has spotmetering I don't myself like the idea of having to disturb my framing to take meter readings from various places within the frame. Having gone the other way- from relying on a metered prism to using a handheld meter about a year after buying my first Bronica I think I ought to try and persuade you not to make this change.įirst because the meter is unsophisticated- a straightforward average meter so there's nothing there thats going to help you get to grips with variations in brightness within the scene.