RF645 100mm lens

[kenneth_rowin]

Well, the Bronica website (www.tamron.com) finally has the official

announcement of the 100mm lens for the RF645. However, there is no

mention of a change to the viewfinder, nor do they say what they plan

to do for those who own the camera (perhaps with the 135mm from

Europe) in terms of the finder. Any plans for a RF645II? Any other

information out there?

[john_sparks1]

I was at PMA and asked the Bronica people about this. You send your camera to Bonica and they replace the viewfinder mask for the 135 with the one for the 100. It's a free replacement. I'm sure that new cameras coming from Bronica have the new mask now, but there are cameras on dealers shelves with the old mask. If you own the 135mm, you are probably out of luck if you want the 100mm too (second body or just guess and difference or maybe find a viewfinder for a 35mm that has similar coverage to use with one of the lenses).

 

John Sparks

[randall_shafer]

I own an 645 system with the 45mm and 65mm lenses. It has always struck me as a system with a serious "gap". I never could figure out why they don't offer a "normal" focal length lens and why they had two lenses so close together (45 and 65) and then this huge gap all the way up to a 135mm telephoto. I consider rangefinder cameras to be fairly useless in the telephoto range due to focusing accuracy issues, and there should be something around 80mm or 90mm. I also find Bronica's reliance on an electronic aperture with no intermediate stops to be a bit bizarre. Yes, I know the settings are stepless in the auto modes, but I really need 1/2 stop control in aperture-preferred or manual mode when shooting chromes. I do not shoot chromes with auto modes and with a primitive metering system like the one on the Bronica, since the results seem to be a bit random.