long lenses - is Bronica adequate

[ruvy]

I am rethinking my gear. This includes a thought about adding a large

format field camera that is restrictive for longer lenses. I own a

Bronica SQai w 3 lenses longest is 150 and a 2X tele converter which I

use. I am wondering if I should get a 250 lens and use it with the 2X

or sell all my Bronica gear and go for another brand with longer

lenses. I need it for focusing on details that are not that far off

such as brunch structure of a moderately distant tree (but no wilde

life) and I am using it also to highlight a detail (flower, sculpture

etc.)on a very short DOF with blared background. I think both are

doable with 400-500mm lens - single or with tele converter.

 

Question is for those who are familiar with the Bronica as well as

other long lenses: will I get substentially better/sharper images with

a different camera and lenses that will relatively reasonable also

economically.

?

[ilkka]

The problem with 2x teleconverters is that you lose two aperture stops of speed (making it less useful for very narrow DOF) and the quality is seldom good wide open, losing another stop or two. So your 5.6/250 may end up as F16/500mm.

 

Pentax, for example, has a very wide range of fast aperture long lenses at reasonable prices.

[ben conover]

The Pentax lenses are very reasonabley priced and there are some long ones. Check out the Luminous Landscape site of Michael Reichman for a detailed survey of the Pentax system.

 

Personally I go with 35mm and save my MF cameras for normal lens stuff, environmental portraits etc.

 

I bought a Mamiya DTL1000 with 400mm 5.6 for $80.

[david_henderson]

There's a few points here. I have a Bronica 250mm lens that's just fine and a good match for my others. I also have a 2x converter; and I find that using them together is hit and miss though it has improved since I started using better viewing screens so I can see to focus well. The importer tells me I'd get better results with a later (PS) teleconverter to match with my PS lenses. I'm insufficiently persuaded to try.

 

I don't know what brands of MF have much longer lenses than Bronica. Bronica has a 500mm for the SQ series but its expensive; its heavy; its very large and you don't see a lot of them about. But if a really long lens were what you need then that might well be a better route than replacing the Bronica.

 

But, is it what you need? You can't assume that you can get a bigger image close-up with a longer lens and frankly for you flower/detail stuff you'd be a lot better off with the 110mm macro which will get you down to 1:4 since it focuses a lot closer than a normal lens. Its possibly the best Bronica lens I've got.

 

If you want to reach distant objects then the advice to use 35mm looks about right to me rather than struggle with a very big and unwieldy mf outfit. Why do all the bird photographers go down that road? But of course that sort of outfit will on your tripod/head and you might need to rethink those too. Another option is of course to use crop a MF neg/slide to give the emphasis you want. Bear in mind you can crop a lot whilst still having the same film size as 35mm and I'd feel confident about doing that with a Bronica 250 but not with a TC attached.

[anand_raghavan1]

It seems to me that you need close focusing as well as long focal length to an extent. The 110 macro might give you greater magnification at shorter distances but might not have the reach you want for the branches that you mentioned (unless you want to crop). Again, a longer lens doesn't necessarily focus close enough, so while it may give you reach, you might not be able to highlight that flower. I don't know if I'm getting it right, but could you not use an extension tube with a long lens? Something that can be used with a 250? Will that get you anywhere? Maybe David can answer.

[ruvy]

Thank you all so very much. It has been a great help though I still don't know where to go. There is one more thing that I thought possible and that is using other brand lenses. As far as I know there are no adapters made for the Bronica SQ. Does anyone know something to the contrary?