Pulled the trigger and went half-frame!

[wogears]

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>Just traded my too-heavy RB67 for a Bronica ETRS with 75mm and Speed Grip. Tomorrow, I need to put a roll through it. Any advice, caveats etc.? I figure to get a 150mm for portraits, and a split-image screen to aid my weary eyes. Feels good to hold, and subjectively weightless compared to the RB. Shouldn't need a tripod as often either. Don't have the metered prism, but if people tell me it works well, I will put it on the GAS list. :) Downloaded the manual, so I guess I'm ready to go.</p>

<p>Les</p>

[Aoresteen]

Get a spare 120 magazine for it. The 40mm is a nice wide angle.

 

Congrats and good luck!!!

[SCL]

<p>Congratulations on your purchase. When I owned one in the 1990s I was impressed with its performance, but surprised that I really did need to use it on a tripod to achieve the sharpness I wanted. I had the metered prism (AEIII) on my ETRSi and it worked fine. My principal concern was image brightness and the diopter for my aging eyes.</p>

[John Seaman]

<p>I too was disappointed with the need to put it on a tripod to get maximum sharpness, except for flash exposures which were fine. I had an AE2 prism which worked well, giving an average rather than centre weighted reading. You certainly need a prism finder for vertical shots anyway.</p>

[henryp]

<p>The ETRS was my go-to med format system for decades, including many weddings. I still have 3 bodies, 3 lenses and a host of backs and accessories I cannot sell.<br /><br />The speed grip requires two strokes. Easy to forget and become frustrated. There is a small double-exposure tab on the side of the body. It must be in the "on" position to fire the camera w/out film but it is EASY to forget to change it back. I speak from painful experience. IMO a prism finder is mandatory, especially with the grip, but I never really liked the meter prism and always used a hand-held incident meter.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

[wogears]

<p>I've got the meterless prism, so I'm good for verticals. I'll have to do some tripod shots to see what the improvement is. (Even my X-E1 with OIS does better on a tripod, even though it looks silly.)</p>

[wogears]

<p>Henry: Seller warned me about the multi exposure lever--fortunately my Mamiya TLR has a similar "feature" so I'm used to it. Shot a roll today--noticed that the film wasn't quite wound to the end after the last frame. (I wound until the lever on the grip would wind no more. Not a big problem, doubt there will be fogging, but I'll be extra careful with the next roll.</p>

[allen_gara]

<p>One advantageous feature of the AE-II metered prism (and the -III) is that they allow 1/3rd step adjustments to the shutter speed. With manual viewfinders (prism or WLF), only whole steps are possible. I frequently use the AE-II on auto, and also manually meter to fine tune using the exposure compensation dial. </p>

[wogears]

<p>First roll now headed for the lab, and we'll see. AEII/III prism is definitely on the list, as is the 150mm and a second 120 back.</p>

[john_photos]

<p>Definitely a tripod camera if you want the ultimate in sharpness (unless using flash handheld which is fine). Compared to my GS-1 very lightweight and much much easier to handle quickly. Unless you are printing very very large I think 645 is a great format for medium to large size prints with fine grained film.</p>