john_newman3

<p>Mark Tate:</p> <p>Thank you for correcting me there. I would have loved to sit down and have a good chat about Bronica gear. At the risk of turning this thread into something else entirely: Back in the late 70s / early 80s when I was fresh out of college, I could hardly afford a 2nd hand Yashica 124G TLR I bought from a friend. I somehow recall glossy Bronica adverts in the photog. magazines of the time (my memory is probably playing tricks on me - was David Bailey using Bronica gear back then?) over which I could merely drool, dream and covet ... And now fast-forward to today, much older but absolutely no wiser at all, have some spare cash at hand and I find it very hard to NOT respond to eBay auctions where gear that was impossible for me to afford back then, is now going for a song!</p> <p>So... I'm sort of in a Reverse Situation than you, actually - I'm beginning to think that I am going to need a Pelican case or two soon, unless I can manage to exercise some self-discipline... </p> <p>-- JN</p>

<p>A last shot on the subject: I ordered and paid for a Bronica waist level view finder from a gentleman in Kasugai-shi, Japan on Friday evening. This afternoon (the following Wednesday, 4 1/2 days later) the item was delivered in my hands. I don't think a courier service was involved at all and the postage was no higher than what North American sellers tend to charge. The WLF itself looks like it is brand-new.<br> So... Thank you very much for the great advice!<br> -- Sixbysix</p>

<p>All points noted, thank you all. David, TBH i got so nervous about the longevity of "mechanical" cameras in general (as opposed to the modern DSLR) that I looked around and found a virtually brand-new SQ-A body from KEH (it was advertised as "almost like-new" but I cannot find any sign that it's ever been used - no tell-tale scratches around the film back mounting slots, the leatherette is perfect - looks like it came out of the factory yesterday). Perversely and very ironically, the outfit I bought was from an Australian seller was delivered 6 days after being mailed in Aus. - and yet another item (metering prism) I bought around the same time from an American seller still has not turned up at all.</p> <p>So... I withdraw everything I said about slow mail between Australia and North America, it seems like there is absolutely no hard rule.</p> <p>Further to David's comments about the longevity of Bronica - Judging from the other gear included by the seller with my purchase I would have to guess that the previous owner was a Professional. The body (SQ-A as well) has seen some hard use judging by the cosmetic condition but it works absolutely flawlessly, fires every time, shutters on the 3 different lenses it came with works great, the shutter timing unit built into the body seems 100% accurate, everything in the manual works as advertised. I would furthermore then guess that the original owner had his gear serviced regularly, although I can't see evidence that the body was ever disassembled at all. The outfit came with 4 different film backs, (2 6X6 + 2 6X4.5) and I'm busy running some "cheap" film through it to see if any has light leaks (which I understand can be an issue as well).</p> <p>Mark, thank you for the tips. I read just about everything I could lay my hands on in regards to the whole Bronica series (well at least the "SQ" 6X6 versions made after the old S/S2) and my impression was that the "B" model was really developed for Studio use, where hand-held light meters are used for the most part and the added cost of the AE circuitry was neither needed nor wanted... So I would assume that a SQ-B **should** theoretically be as reliable as a SQ-Ai, at least mechanically. The metal-bodied SQ series (SQ, SQ-A, SQ-AM) IMHO are a bit annoying in that you need to treat it a bit more carefully in order to preserve the cosmetic appearance - something I'm big on, but the average Pro would probably just shrug and laugh. I can't help wondering if the old Hasselblad 500 series were also prone to showing its age if it was "somewhat roughly" treated over a period of years.</p>

<p>@Rick Jack: I noticed the same in regards to gear from Japanese sellers. Either Japanese photographers are very meticulous about keeping their gear neat an clean, OR there are still NOS available to sellers in Japan. I have seen some VERY cruddy and dirty-looking stuff on Ebay recently - one that was memorable in a bad way was a Mamiya C330 that looked like it was left outside in the sun and rain for a couple of months.</p> <p>@Leszek Vogt: I did end up buying a Bronica (someone's kit - included a few lenses and a whole bunch of other accessories) but right to the end I had an internal struggle on the Age Old Question - no, not if there really is a God, but if I should rather go the Hasselblad path. The way I see it is that I inherited a lot of stuff from my dad (who was also an amateur photographer), including a 70 -year old Voigtlander 6X7 view camera (not sure how to describe it) - which is still working perfectly fine. My old Pentax ME Super that I bought in the early 1980s also still works great (including the battery that I replaced 8 or 10 years ago), and so does my first camera I ever bought - a Pentax Spotmatic (the old stop-down metering one) in the early 1970s. So... it would have been fantastic to own a Hassy but.... I have seen enough images done on Bronicas over at the Bronica sub-forum @ Flickr to be firmly convinced that I still have a LONG way to go and much to learn - my problem is NOT the equipment! :D </p> <p>I expect anything can or will go "ker-plunk" :) sooner or later. I very much expect my Canon 7D or any of the AF lenses I own to fail any moment, considering the amount of electronics in it - but I somehow have a feeling that the Bronica will end up outliving the 7D! FTM, it will probably outlive Yours Truly - I'm on the wrong side of 60 already, if I get 10 years out of the Bronica (or myself) I'll be ecstatic and die a happy man (thinking about my family AND the happy moments I captured using it).</p> <p>-- John</p>

Thank you for the responses, gents - very helpful. I am adding Japan to my list of sources. Very much appreciated! -- JN

<p>Not wanting to resurrect an old thread, but I believe (and willing to be corrected) that the bright fresnel type focusing screens that became popular back in the 70s tend to be moulded from plastic - manufacturing a fresnel focusing screen from a non-synthetic material such as glass is very expensive.</p>

<p>Good day gents</p> <p>(Long-winded run-up to a simple question, please consider it as my introduction to this Forum)</p> <p>I have been stalking this (and other) film photography forums for quite a while now. I'm on the west coast of BC (Canada) and have caved in to the "pull" of going back to film photography... I'm purely an amateur photographer, work in the field of Software Engineering, and am sick & tired of the Pixel Race and the latest flavour / gadget of the moment (dealing with it on a daily basis at work, thank you very much).</p> <p>I had a lot of fun in Medium Format back in the early 1980s when I accidentally discovered how much difference the negative size can make - someone GAVE me a Yashica Mat-124G and for giggles I put a couple of rolls throughit, developed and printed a few 8X10s (had a complete darkroom setup back then). Compared to my not-too shabby 35mm setup the gifted Yashica was miles ahead in image quality. So.... Fast forward to 2016, I already started assembling the basics of a darkroom again (bought a Omega B600 for $20 at a local community store about 5 years ago, and not realizing that the B600 will do 6X6 I then also recently bought an older B22 plus enough other B22 bits & pieces to have a fully complete and functioning Omega B22 now too. Oh well, I like the retro look of the B22 better).</p> <p>So... I now want to buy a Bronica SQ-A/Ai or perhaps a -B setup. Suffice to say, lots of research & reading many heated arguments between the main MF SLR brand supporters etc took place. I am looking at Ebay as a potential source for a MF setup. I have done a lot of trading with Ebay sellers in the US & Canada, Australia (can take 2 months before the item arrives from Oz though!), the UK & Europe etc - but never with sellers in the Far East. Do anyone have any experience with traders in Japan etc - and what shipping times are like? I don't really want to use international courier companies, as shipping cost can very quickly double the price of the item I'm buying (it's happened to me). There are some interesting / very hard to get items available from sellers in Japan at times.</p> <p>All opinions welcome and thank you in advance<br /> -- JN</p>