Bronica SQ-Ai deal of the YEAR!

I was on eBay looking and saw a decent price for a body that had a viewing screen. Mine has a few scratches on

one of the cameras, (at this point I had 2. One really good, and 1 so-so). So I figured I'd bid up to about $60

since the screens are hard to find. I won the auction for $21.61 and with shipping the whole total came to only

$28.56. This was the auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291688380089?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT so I did not get

too excited.

Well, it came yesterday afternoon. It had a batter holder and I put 4 fresh batteries in there, put on a lens

and back and low and behold everything, and I mean EVERYTHING works! On my second Bronica it pretty much works

but the metered prism won't work on it and neither does the mirror lock up. On this one, my metered prism not

only works, but so does both settings for the mirror lock up just as they should. Fresnel viewing screen is like

new condition. Took a picture with my Polaroid back and it turned out great. It did not come with a winder

crank, but I had one from when I put a speed grip on my #1 camera/body. I put the winder crank on my #2 camera

and swapped out the nice speed grip for this camera as it outshines my #2 several ways.

 

Now, I do have another SQ-Ai body that even if I put in batteries, nothing works. No shutter, no LED lighting

up,nothing. Someday I'll have to open it up and see what might be wrong, but as far as cosmetics, the body is EX

++ condition... just don't work.

 

Not often one stumbles across a working 6X6 body for under 25.00. :)

<p>That was good fortune! Congratulations, and enjoy.</p>

Congratulations! Sounds like you got a great deal. It is nice when that happens. I was at an auction in January and picked up a mint condition Nikon F3 with a motor drive, 50 mm f1.4 lens and 55 mm F3.5 Micro-Nikkor, extra focusing screen and even the instruction manual. Got it all for $45.00. Everything works!

Wow, Robert! I had an F3 Nikon a while back and those are super cameras! I think the body new was around $1100.00 or thereabout. A decent Nikon lens would cost you just that much alone!... USED!

 

I did get in another body with 200mm lens, but both that body and lens are non-functional. I was hoping that putting in a battery pack would make the body work as it is in EX++ condition. Nope. Lens is very clean glass elements, but the shutter is locked shut. I found a pdf file on the internet to disassemble it, and might try to get it "unstuck" sometime. Unfortunately it was a 79.00 hope for the best.

<p>Great find! Always good to have a working back up camera.</p>