antoniobravo

btw I asked them without much hope if they could ship to Norway, and of course the answer is no. But then next time I spend a week-end in SPb ... 🙂

I took two weeks holidays, drove a bit around through historical places in Northern Russia, mostly Vologda oblast and then went to Novgorod. This has resulted in 20 rolls of 120 with a Horseman-985 on 6x9. On the way back I checked on Yandex options for buying raw chemicals for BW developers, and there's a store in downtown SPb, near Griboedova canal. The thing is that over the years I walked tens of times there without paying attention... Their website Магазин химических реактивов Химмаг-СПб . I could park the car just around the corner. I only bought 3 kg natrium sulfit, 200g hydroquinone, 200g metol, 200 g pyrocatechin. (should have make home inventory before the travel... pfff). 5260 rb. ~ 57€/67$us as per now. Very convenient: tell what you want and weight, the operator goes in the backstore comes back with pouches or boxes of the chemicals. This is a dream shop. In the rest of Europe I don't know of anything similar, but of couple reseller businesses like Fototechnik Suvatlar in Germany, Disactis in France , online only. I attach few pictures: it was 20:30, august, so more relaxed car traffic, and I could park (the N car plate, black Subaru) just after Demidov bridge, from Sadovaya, so downtown core. From the car I walked to the left along thhe canal then right into Kaznacheyskaya and to the corner ~ 300m, where the shop entrance is. Couple shots near the counter and the guys working there. The stuff I bought and the receipt. I drove to catch the ferry in Hangö to Nynäshamn, which means I was unsure of any possible customs check by the Finns after russian border Torfyanovka-Vaalimaa. I am a EU citizen resident in Norway and so norwegian car plates, don't know if it plays a role, but anyway only quick passport control that's all. Later the norwegian border is prone to customs control because leaving Sweden you exit EU. I just rode on my usual small secondary district road, same as when doing shopping in Sweden, ie. no customs office, nobody, could have random customs mobile patrol sometime, but then as most the times, nothing. In case they want to check luggage they may seize a box of white powder labeled метол. Any similar stores elsewhere in Europe?

the manufacturer was Norderstedter Chemiewerke GmbH in Norderstedter, the town a bit north of Hamburg. They manufactured the E6, RA-4 and C41 kits for Tetenal and when they became bankrupt Tetanal has been left hanging in the air. But also the Compard/Digibase brand sold by Hans O. Mahn Gmbh ie. Macodirect has been affected. Jobo and Maco reseller have reacted the faster by selling kits manufactured in Japan. As per today Tetenal still shows 45 days delay for order and of course I will not trust that. An alternative are Bellini kits.

if you are interested, this is the real size file ready to print (I used glossy photo paper). Made of a colour shot of the viewfinder cover, for the Z, pasted with the old style Bronica logo:

so, another post about a bit of tinkering with the S2. Context is that I recently bought from Japan a S2, late model ie. a S2A. It came with two backs, and I just check everything is ok. There's little DIY doc online for these cameras. I had one back with light leaks, and posted about how I fixed it here in another thread. this time it's about the shutter speed dial, the one on the left side. It was hard to turn, so I had to have a look. I was bracing myself for some sleepless night into complex watch-like mechanics, but I didn't need at all, it was so damn simple. But then I guess some other cases will require to get deeper into the beast. so, remove the leatherette main circle and the narrower one, the metallic lock has one hole on the rim. One hole means it's not screwed, otherwise there would be typically 3 screws, so it's clicked inside somehow or glued. I inserted the tip of a spanner in the hole and played with it. In fact it did stick strongly and I had to force, the hole was getting wider and it was bending like it's a piece of tin. Strong glue. removed, we see the small deformation, but since it's so soft, easy to correct with some spanner for instance: then remove 5 screws and the bayonet: 3 screws hold the black ring with painted shutter times. Next step for delving into mechanism is obviously to peel some leatherette for underlying screws and remove the side panel. BUT, before going further I decided to check how it is with the brass ring with notches and the inner steel one a piece of bent copper works as passive spring against the notches. There's no grease residue there, it's clean. By the musty odour similar the one of clothes stored long time in an attic, when I received it, this camera hadn't been used in a while. Dried lubricant? But why would the spring pressure more than needed? No idea, whatever, I just stick a screwdriver and press a bit on the copper spring with the idea to lessen a bit the tension, and I apply a bit of light white grease: remove the excess: and exercise the dial many many times back and forth. That did it, the dial is smooth as butter but clicks well into speed marks. Happy! Meanwhile I had the bayonet and cover dipped into ethanol in order to remove the dried glue residues. Clean then screw the bayonet back: cut a piece of light cardbord to cover the inside of the lock before applying glue, to avoid getting it all over the screws under, then glue back the leatherette. Done. Ergonomic mod: ---------------------- I don't like the bayonet on the speed dial, because it can get dirt inside, can hook something else accidentally like in the bag, and fingertips get into it. the bayonet is for the sport finder, which it don't plan to use: So I I just cut some piece of thick cardboard that I insert there. Glue some decorative circle over, in this case I used red duct tape and finish with a piece of self-laminating clear sheet sticking on the external steel edge of the bayonet. Take extra care insuring it does stick well. Glue and plastic don't like extreme temperatures so we'll see how it goes in winter by -30 or some +40 sommer place. The laminating plastic well glued is required to avoid humidity sneaking its way into the cardboard. I found this an easy solution, and easy to remove in case I have to screw again. I did the same with my other S2, just printed some custom Z Bronica logo. The S2A is grey leatherette, the S2 is black, but they are also now easier to tell apart by the speed dial:

yes, and so it has to do with the "eye" not the lens itself. Film emulsions and electronic sensors work differently.. I ditched all my DSLR gear but a Canon 5D like three years ago and decided to only shoot film, yet was unsure how well it would go. But in fact I no longer feel a need for digital. On 120 roll, the old Nikkor lenses and couple germans and russians are razor sharp wide open, to the point that the level of zoom required to get into contour blur makes no practical sense. This summer I played with couple wide-angle lenses on 35mm SLR and same result: I don't see the point for digital. Some low ISO BW emulsions like Adox 20 are insanely high definition. for sharpness optical elements qualities and designs can't be made better past certain point and this point was certainly reached quite some time ago in the industrial age long before digital. for colour, coating is important, some old lenses were designed with BW in mind. Otherwise current lenses are just about the micro-mechanics and electronics around the autofocus and camera software.

thank you! well it's an easy job to do, really. next back I will do I could record in video. This one I just recorded what can be seen of the working of the back, without the cover. we can see a bit of it here. There's much on the net about brass as a weakness in the S2, but in the back we can see that the gears supporting the winding effort are steel, only the gears for the counter are brass: I didn't want to unscrew the winding block because I just lack time by now and it wasn't necessary. The spraying of electronic cleansing fluid is easy to do properly, fluid runs through without a mess. The design looks fine and is not cramped and needing three or four hands like on Salyut backs. So short video at work, without the cover, I loaded a roll and here we see the winding until cocking to first frame then a couple shots. (I ran two rolls in order to distribute the few drops oil I put there):

well, it was written in a hury, couple typos and possible grammatical mess here and there with english, but then to summarize: it's damn easy to cure that kind of light leaks. Want now to check and maybe do preventive servicing of my other backs. Main questions still about the thickness of the sealing felt (what is maximum) and lubricant type. But i used very little, hasn't yet run anywhere else and the back doesn't smell like a serviced Salyut :)

Earlier Bronica S2 backs have a curtain rolling over the frame of the back. From the service manual, circled in red: only the curtain and roller: the backs I have are, both on my S2 and on a recently acquired S2a, the newer type, without curtain. ------ the problem: I shot a first roll with a back, Negative shows these light leaks: positive of the lower frame: back home put two strong lamps on the sides and shot a roll: the negative: a positive of a frame: the cause ??? : I have never experienced this with a Bronica S2 and have not much idea. The design of the back seems quite light proof to me. The back does mates tight with the body, no rattling when I try some force, but then light can sneak in very thin slits. The frame of the back has two rollers inside, here seen with film holder removed: film holder in place , no dark slide, potential risk at the gap between the film plane and the edges : the service manual says nothing about light leaks with the newer model. the fix: tried a disassembly on a dirty desk I use for whatever not clinical and took shots on the go with my mobile phone. Maybe these could be of some interest, I haven't found this documented on the net- easy to remove the cover of the side with counter, 120/220 knob setting. Lift upper leatherette corners, be careful it can stick quite, a screw in each corner, remove the lower thin stripe of leatherette, two screws there. Screws are brass. The one top left is recessed and had glue residue I had to scrap then I needed a strong loupe in order to find the slit. At first I tried to unscrew while the screwdriver was wrongly placed and as a result brass was worn out but luckily not enough to "erase" the slit. So careful there: under the cover it's very clean. Seems no lubricant was used, or so excellent that it dissolved without leaving residue: next, unscrew the plate. First remove the dark slide by pressing the round lock at the top right corner. All screws are black painted brass and come easily but the two up and down on the slit side of the back. I hold the back with the plate vertically, slit down and did carefully pull from the other end: then put the back down again and lift, taking care these two remaining screws don't jump away. On the inner side of the plate some kind of felt and at couple corners and a side residues of black sealant? (not glue, it offered no resistance there) an insight of the mechanism: the felt on the inner side of the plate did stick like hell, and after ripping bits I just dipped the whole into acetone. Luckily japaneses must have used an excellent paint, it didn't come off. The sealing is certainly not foam otherwise it had been eaten by the acetone, but it's a fabric with a silky side, I kept the three pieces after drying (the two others were ripped when attempting a removal with a screwdriver). I use only the pierced broader one to make a replacement, this is the original one: since no foam was used I will not use either. I opted for a sheet of self-adhesive flocking material: on the utter side of the plate, the one mating with the body, the acetone was affecting the rubber frame, I removed it, rinsed let to dry and it kept its shape and property. Did reglue it with neoprene: on the slit side of the back, there's a long piece of same felt material, the one under the two screws that were harder to remove (they did unscrew easy but didn't come out). Inserting a screw driver in the opening back the dark slide lock, I take it out. The felt is strongly glued around the edge, which has a lip, and it does cover a rod inside. The road is maintained by a simple spring in the back. i had to rip away the felt covering it: that's the simple locking device for the dark slide as well as the guide for it: when positioning it, we see how it works, when looking at the utter side (to the body) in relation with the strong pin protruding from the body. Simple and effective. It beats swedish engineers of Göteborg :) (ie. Hasselblad). it also means that one must ensure this part is put back correctly, and the seal must stick strong. The flocking felt I use has a strong glue, so god. I put the felt seals on the inner plate, the felt on that guiding rim with lock, pierce holes with a nail through the felt of the rim, put a bit of glue in these holes, screw the rim to the plate and check the insertion and sliding of the dark slide: not sure about the remains of what did look like some black sealant when I remove the plate (4th picture, middle, in that "Fix" section), and wanting to take no risk with glue i opted for liquid rubber/tape, easy to remove if needed, damages nothing: then, of the mechanism: lubricate or not to lubricate? the disassembly (picture #2) showed no residues and when gears are machined and mated at very high precision, not much is needed. These gears are running like an automotive gearbox either, so unsure, but I consider some little bit of some lubricant does easy the surfacing and friction effect anyway... First I generously sprayed, holding the back over a sink in a way residues and liquid run only through the mechanism only, with electronic cleanser. Electronic cleanser isn't damaging, dries fast and the application straw of the spray works like a slow pressure cleaner- Let it dry then I lubricated with three tiny drops of weapons oil (the picture on the right shows the can but I didn't spray, instead i used a needle near gears axles and teeth : then put screw back the plate, the cover over the mechanism and neoprene glue to put the leatherette back in place. Some masking tape, a toothstick, remove the masking tape at once before it sticks to the glue by the edges, wait couple minutes for the excess glue to start drying and rub the excess with an ethanol impregnated cloth. The end result bears not much of the surgery: Results: again put the camera on a tripod, two lamps casting strong light on the side and shot a roll. freshly dried roll, looks good: positive of a frame: Happy.

there was a time i was considering for a while buying one of the Mamiya or a Yashica. My interest in TLR is for the small size and mostly dumb design, relatively to Hasselblad-like modular designs. But I spend already too much time with my Bronicas, Kiev-6, Salyut and Moskva-5, plus once in a while some 35mm cameras, so no point in parting with much money for an occasional TLR. Also my experience/results with old Zorki-1 rangefinder has convinced me that german classical stuff can be overpriced a lot, so it's totally out of the question that I will buy a Rolleiflex, not even a Rolleicord. So in order to play with TLR, I got a Flexaret, one with the Mirar-II 80mm f3.5 and Prontor-SVS (1s to 1/300s), for an equivalent 60£. Did cleaning of the viewing area (very easy), and replaced the focusing screen with one from a Kiev-6s I had around. Very nice dumb camera (no mechanisms but the shutter around the lens) and good optic. Easy with little tinkering to adapt a Salyut/Kiev-88 prism. Otherwise i had bought a Mamiya, an old one like C22, for the interchangeable lenses capability. as for triplet lenses, even a Lubitel can be good enough for playing, at least from f8. Last month I got a Lubitel-2 with yellow filter and case for ~16 GBP, for curiosity's sake, put in a Lomography-400 roll. Colors are more or less wonky because I used chemicals nearing end of life and there's some vignetting. Not too bad: 200% zoom on the street name: couple mores: that said, the Lubitel is a horror for framing and focusing, don't get one, you don't see s**t inside the tunneled finder over the luminous focusing blob. I will use it again only after I have time to replace the "focusing" loupe with a Kiev-6 screen (have to mount it somehow at the right distance to get correct focus). Just to show there's not much required in order to play with TLR. but the Flexaret is very nice, I have pictures burried somewhere in an archived disk on some shelf, it has been a while since last time i took it out. I'd say it will get someone started into TRL and provide much joy. But then it seems they are getting overpriced too...

it has been some little while I wasn't visitng photo.net, and well in the meantime I tried to keep slowly making myself a list of available repairmen. So good to know this Frank Marshman is still active. Myself I look more for Japan (it's a japanese camera...) and Europe, and there are few addresses online in french, spanish, polish, russian, german that I have to check (ask, get answers). The comparisons with the ubiquitous Hasselblad 500 are like comparing apples and pears, this Bronicas have the shutter mechanism in the body, while Hasselblad they just transferred the complexity to the lens and shutter makers ie. Compur and Zeiss; the 500 is a dark cubic chamber with a lens mount and a winding mechanism, well what an achievement, ha! ... The more I read about it the more it appears the first Bronica Z/D was an engineering marvel. congratulations with your Bronica S. I bought my S2 end May and after now 3 months of use, I love it. I guess it got some bad fame back in the time from careless professionals, the kind of guys who if they drive a regular manual car would kill an engine and gearbox in no time, at which point give them a Lada or a Volvo it would make no difference. so I want to buy another body, but after quite some time spent gathering docs, I'd like to buy an S, because the focusing by the right-side knob instead of the front removable helicoid. Shinsaku Hiura from Japan has a great site and couple videos on Youtube, like this one comparing the S and S2: the problem is that these S models are extremely scarce :( scarcity also in the current offering of lenses besides the 40, 50, 75,100, 105, 135, 150, 200 by Nikon and bit of Zenzanon itself. scarcity in 6x4.5 backs, spotted three in the last three months, two on Ebay, one on Avito and other bidders where faster than me. I look of course on Ebay, but also locally for Norway on Finn, for Poland on Allegro, for Russia on Avito, for yet some more of Europe on dutch-based Catawiki, for Japan Yahoo has become little as it seems most offerings end on Ebay, there are some occasional other stores like the Finns of Kameratori, and whatever small brick and mortar shop here and there. For instance I am thinking of a 40mm lens, and for the last 3 months I saw around only the big Nikkor-D, and found only ONE smaller Zenzanon 40mm at a shop in London, but it was part of a base S2a kit (camera, back, viewfinder) sold for 500£ (Zenza Bronica S2 + Zenzanon 40mm f4 + 6x6 back. Excellent condition. SOLD – Camera City) add postage and import tax+fee in Norway and it became a hefty price. Had been cheaper to flight early morning from Oslo to Stansted, buy/pick the camera at the shop downtown, flight back to Oslo in the evening, but there was covid-19... my feeling too, handholding is fine. The S2 body is chunkier than the regular Hasselblad cubic standard (I have been using Salyut for years, same form factor) but ergonomics is good unless maybe for small hands. The chunkier volume may give the impression it's heavier, and because the helicoid is on the body for most lenses, it is indeed, but then lenses are very light, so all in all no problem. recently I used it often at 1/30s and 1/60s. here the 75mm @f2.8 1/30, Portra-160 ( the cemetery of Trondheims cathedral and I found this stone ironic, guy cremated in Stockholm, but then buried in Trondheim, text in transitional mix of swedish (ö) and danish (æ) script of the time...) : the Nikkor-50 f.28 @f8 1/60: recently playing with BW Fomapan iso400, here the 75mm @f2.8 1/30: these Bronica lense can focus a quite short distance. Nikkor-50 f2.8, close-up late evening, @f2.8 1/60: here almost on the windows glass of a book store, late evening, Zenzanon 75mm @f4 1/30:

the price of a Zodiak-8 these days go from 5000 to 10.000 rubles, depending if it comes with the colored filters set (part of the optical path, one, clear, is on the last back element by default) and case. https://www.avito.ru/rossiya/fototehnika?q=%D0%97%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BA so no big deal to get an additional cheap one, and an extra S2 helical, and tinker with it. In fact the helical only may cost me the price of the lens it seems... On Ebay I see Distagon 30mm for SL66 at twenty times the price :confused:

on the Salyut, no, it's a Vega-12 , 90mm, which was the normal lens coming with the late Salyut version, then Salyut-S, before Arsenal switched to the Volna-3 with the Kiev-88, (renamed Arsat 80 after soviet time). But i took the shot when the collapsible rubber hood was screwed on it. Here I put by the side another Salyut body I have, with my Zodiak-8, which is the 180-d fisheye, then renamed Arsat-30 in independent Ukraine: and I remove the rubber hood of the Vega-12: not at all the same beast.... I have the project to hack a Zodiak-8 on a S2 helical. The S2 register distance is 101,7mm, the Salyut is Hasselblad-1600/1000 82,1mm, so 19,6mm for the Zodiak into the S2 body, it seems the proturing will not hit the mirror, but I didn't yet take exact measurements and the S2 mirror flips down not up, so all good. The task will be to place the helical S2 mount correctly on the lens, and see if the diaphragm can still be operated, otherwise hack this too. Not easy but worth to be tried. the Zodiak-8 is really good and my only option for some architecture close-ups and some urban landscape. The fisheye curvature isn't too much and can be somewhat straighten in software. Otherwise it's fun to play with. For instance, here I am sitting across the table and took the shot almost point and shoot: here also a on the spot point and shot, despite strong difficult sun: the light artifact in the corners, strong on the top right, is caused by a protective filter I have on when I use it as a walk lens. I made it with plexiglass and clear silicone seal. It gives the vignetting, but I am quite maniac about protecting this huge glass: the SL66 will be my next acquisition hopefully

I loaded a roll of Ektar and used it this evening. By now we are in the very long days and the weather has been incredibly sunny. Evening sun from 60°N and up has very strong luminance and some glittering. I put a collapsible rubber lens hood: developed in the kitchen as usual, in Fuji X-press, scanned with Epson V700 @3200, batch converted in software the whole roll without paying much attention to detail. Colours are sometimes wonky, need attention, but that was not the goal. TIFF files are in the ~270mb/frame, here 1024x jpg, so strongly degraded, from unsharpened scans. I took first a couple shots home, on tripod. f8 1s: the Nikkor-50 was some 25/30cms from the Kiev-6s: 100% crop of the tiff, converted to jpg. I don't know how sharp that lens can be, so unsure if it's the best. Also sometimes I focus better on ground glass, but there it was on small split circle. f5.6 1s : f11 1/60 f2.8 1/500: trying to find the spiders with 100% crop: f2.8 1/250: f8 1/125:

thanks all. which I learned after I removed completely the mirror frame :) as illustrated in the middle of the post, these two small screws were a bit challenging to put back. Yet without removing the frame, it will stay inside the body, and the removal of the two upper pads there and cleaning may be tricky as I see it. I was wondering what procedure Bronica repairmen have there. When I will do it again (which will happen as soon I buy an extra body....) I think I 'll do the same way, removing the whole frame. But it will be much faster. and now that I am into this old camera, I bought online a reprint of the service manual: ---- as follow up regarding test of focus after the foam replacement AND the Salyut split screen, I went to shoot a roll of Lomography-100 yesterday evening. Developed in Fuji X-Press, scanned this morning. It seems ok. here with the Nikkor 105mm f3.5 leaf shutter, f3.5 , on the church/infinity: f3.5 on the foreground tombstone: f3.5 : f11: