antoniobravo

btw I asked them without much hope if they could ship to Norway, and of course the answer is no. But then next time I spend a week-end in SPb ... 🙂

I took two weeks holidays, drove a bit around through historical places in Northern Russia, mostly Vologda oblast and then went to Novgorod. This has resulted in 20 rolls of 120 with a Horseman-985 on 6x9. On the way back I checked on Yandex options for buying raw chemicals for BW developers, and there's a store in downtown SPb, near Griboedova canal. The thing is that over the years I walked tens of times there without paying attention... Their website Магазин химических реактивов Химмаг-СПб . I could park the car just around the corner. I only bought 3 kg natrium sulfit, 200g hydroquinone, 200g metol, 200 g pyrocatechin. (should have make home inventory before the travel... pfff). 5260 rb. ~ 57€/67$us as per now. Very convenient: tell what you want and weight, the operator goes in the backstore comes back with pouches or boxes of the chemicals. This is a dream shop. In the rest of Europe I don't know of anything similar, but of couple reseller businesses like Fototechnik Suvatlar in Germany, Disactis in France , online only. I attach few pictures: it was 20:30, august, so more relaxed car traffic, and I could park (the N car plate, black Subaru) just after Demidov bridge, from Sadovaya, so downtown core. From the car I walked to the left along thhe canal then right into Kaznacheyskaya and to the corner ~ 300m, where the shop entrance is. Couple shots near the counter and the guys working there. The stuff I bought and the receipt. I drove to catch the ferry in Hangö to Nynäshamn, which means I was unsure of any possible customs check by the Finns after russian border Torfyanovka-Vaalimaa. I am a EU citizen resident in Norway and so norwegian car plates, don't know if it plays a role, but anyway only quick passport control that's all. Later the norwegian border is prone to customs control because leaving Sweden you exit EU. I just rode on my usual small secondary district road, same as when doing shopping in Sweden, ie. no customs office, nobody, could have random customs mobile patrol sometime, but then as most the times, nothing. In case they want to check luggage they may seize a box of white powder labeled метол. Any similar stores elsewhere in Europe?

the manufacturer was Norderstedter Chemiewerke GmbH in Norderstedter, the town a bit north of Hamburg. They manufactured the E6, RA-4 and C41 kits for Tetenal and when they became bankrupt Tetanal has been left hanging in the air. But also the Compard/Digibase brand sold by Hans O. Mahn Gmbh ie. Macodirect has been affected. Jobo and Maco reseller have reacted the faster by selling kits manufactured in Japan. As per today Tetenal still shows 45 days delay for order and of course I will not trust that. An alternative are Bellini kits.

if you are interested, this is the real size file ready to print (I used glossy photo paper). Made of a colour shot of the viewfinder cover, for the Z, pasted with the old style Bronica logo:

so, another post about a bit of tinkering with the S2. Context is that I recently bought from Japan a S2, late model ie. a S2A. It came with two backs, and I just check everything is ok. There's little DIY doc online for these cameras. I had one back with light leaks, and posted about how I fixed it here in another thread. this time it's about the shutter speed dial, the one on the left side. It was hard to turn, so I had to have a look. I was bracing myself for some sleepless night into complex watch-like mechanics, but I didn't need at all, it was so damn simple. But then I guess some other cases will require to get deeper into the beast. so, remove the leatherette main circle and the narrower one, the metallic lock has one hole on the rim. One hole means it's not screwed, otherwise there would be typically 3 screws, so it's clicked inside somehow or glued. I inserted the tip of a spanner in the hole and played with it. In fact it did stick strongly and I had to force, the hole was getting wider and it was bending like it's a piece of tin. Strong glue. removed, we see the small deformation, but since it's so soft, easy to correct with some spanner for instance: then remove 5 screws and the bayonet: 3 screws hold the black ring with painted shutter times. Next step for delving into mechanism is obviously to peel some leatherette for underlying screws and remove the side panel. BUT, before going further I decided to check how it is with the brass ring with notches and the inner steel one a piece of bent copper works as passive spring against the notches. There's no grease residue there, it's clean. By the musty odour similar the one of clothes stored long time in an attic, when I received it, this camera hadn't been used in a while. Dried lubricant? But why would the spring pressure more than needed? No idea, whatever, I just stick a screwdriver and press a bit on the copper spring with the idea to lessen a bit the tension, and I apply a bit of light white grease: remove the excess: and exercise the dial many many times back and forth. That did it, the dial is smooth as butter but clicks well into speed marks. Happy! Meanwhile I had the bayonet and cover dipped into ethanol in order to remove the dried glue residues. Clean then screw the bayonet back: cut a piece of light cardbord to cover the inside of the lock before applying glue, to avoid getting it all over the screws under, then glue back the leatherette. Done. Ergonomic mod: ---------------------- I don't like the bayonet on the speed dial, because it can get dirt inside, can hook something else accidentally like in the bag, and fingertips get into it. the bayonet is for the sport finder, which it don't plan to use: So I I just cut some piece of thick cardboard that I insert there. Glue some decorative circle over, in this case I used red duct tape and finish with a piece of self-laminating clear sheet sticking on the external steel edge of the bayonet. Take extra care insuring it does stick well. Glue and plastic don't like extreme temperatures so we'll see how it goes in winter by -30 or some +40 sommer place. The laminating plastic well glued is required to avoid humidity sneaking its way into the cardboard. I found this an easy solution, and easy to remove in case I have to screw again. I did the same with my other S2, just printed some custom Z Bronica logo. The S2A is grey leatherette, the S2 is black, but they are also now easier to tell apart by the speed dial:

yes, and so it has to do with the "eye" not the lens itself. Film emulsions and electronic sensors work differently.. I ditched all my DSLR gear but a Canon 5D like three years ago and decided to only shoot film, yet was unsure how well it would go. But in fact I no longer feel a need for digital. On 120 roll, the old Nikkor lenses and couple germans and russians are razor sharp wide open, to the point that the level of zoom required to get into contour blur makes no practical sense. This summer I played with couple wide-angle lenses on 35mm SLR and same result: I don't see the point for digital. Some low ISO BW emulsions like Adox 20 are insanely high definition. for sharpness optical elements qualities and designs can't be made better past certain point and this point was certainly reached quite some time ago in the industrial age long before digital. for colour, coating is important, some old lenses were designed with BW in mind. Otherwise current lenses are just about the micro-mechanics and electronics around the autofocus and camera software.

thank you! well it's an easy job to do, really. next back I will do I could record in video. This one I just recorded what can be seen of the working of the back, without the cover. we can see a bit of it here. There's much on the net about brass as a weakness in the S2, but in the back we can see that the gears supporting the winding effort are steel, only the gears for the counter are brass: I didn't want to unscrew the winding block because I just lack time by now and it wasn't necessary. The spraying of electronic cleansing fluid is easy to do properly, fluid runs through without a mess. The design looks fine and is not cramped and needing three or four hands like on Salyut backs. So short video at work, without the cover, I loaded a roll and here we see the winding until cocking to first frame then a couple shots. (I ran two rolls in order to distribute the few drops oil I put there):

well, it was written in a hury, couple typos and possible grammatical mess here and there with english, but then to summarize: it's damn easy to cure that kind of light leaks. Want now to check and maybe do preventive servicing of my other backs. Main questions still about the thickness of the sealing felt (what is maximum) and lubricant type. But i used very little, hasn't yet run anywhere else and the back doesn't smell like a serviced Salyut :)

Earlier Bronica S2 backs have a curtain rolling over the frame of the back. From the service manual, circled in red: only the curtain and roller: the backs I have are, both on my S2 and on a recently acquired S2a, the newer type, without curtain. ------ the problem: I shot a first roll with a back, Negative shows these light leaks: positive of the lower frame: back home put two strong lamps on the sides and shot a roll: the negative: a positive of a frame: the cause ??? : I have never experienced this with a Bronica S2 and have not much idea. The design of the back seems quite light proof to me. The back does mates tight with the body, no rattling when I try some force, but then light can sneak in very thin slits. The frame of the back has two rollers inside, here seen with film holder removed: film holder in place , no dark slide, potential risk at the gap between the film plane and the edges : the service manual says nothing about light leaks with the newer model. the fix: tried a disassembly on a dirty desk I use for whatever not clinical and took shots on the go with my mobile phone. Maybe these could be of some interest, I haven't found this documented on the net- easy to remove the cover of the side with counter, 120/220 knob setting. Lift upper leatherette corners, be careful it can stick quite, a screw in each corner, remove the lower thin stripe of leatherette, two screws there. Screws are brass. The one top left is recessed and had glue residue I had to scrap then I needed a strong loupe in order to find the slit. At first I tried to unscrew while the screwdriver was wrongly placed and as a result brass was worn out but luckily not enough to "erase" the slit. So careful there: under the cover it's very clean. Seems no lubricant was used, or so excellent that it dissolved without leaving residue: next, unscrew the plate. First remove the dark slide by pressing the round lock at the top right corner. All screws are black painted brass and come easily but the two up and down on the slit side of the back. I hold the back with the plate vertically, slit down and did carefully pull from the other end: then put the back down again and lift, taking care these two remaining screws don't jump away. On the inner side of the plate some kind of felt and at couple corners and a side residues of black sealant? (not glue, it offered no resistance there) an insight of the mechanism: the felt on the inner side of the plate did stick like hell, and after ripping bits I just dipped the whole into acetone. Luckily japaneses must have used an excellent paint, it didn't come off. The sealing is certainly not foam otherwise it had been eaten by the acetone, but it's a fabric with a silky side, I kept the three pieces after drying (the two others were ripped when attempting a removal with a screwdriver). I use only the pierced broader one to make a replacement, this is the original one: since no foam was used I will not use either. I opted for a sheet of self-adhesive flocking material: on the utter side of the plate, the one mating with the body, the acetone was affecting the rubber frame, I removed it, rinsed let to dry and it kept its shape and property. Did reglue it with neoprene: on the slit side of the back, there's a long piece of same felt material, the one under the two screws that were harder to remove (they did unscrew easy but didn't come out). Inserting a screw driver in the opening back the dark slide lock, I take it out. The felt is strongly glued around the edge, which has a lip, and it does cover a rod inside. The road is maintained by a simple spring in the back. i had to rip away the felt covering it: that's the simple locking device for the dark slide as well as the guide for it: when positioning it, we see how it works, when looking at the utter side (to the body) in relation with the strong pin protruding from the body. Simple and effective. It beats swedish engineers of Göteborg :) (ie. Hasselblad). it also means that one must ensure this part is put back correctly, and the seal must stick strong. The flocking felt I use has a strong glue, so god. I put the felt seals on the inner plate, the felt on that guiding rim with lock, pierce holes with a nail through the felt of the rim, put a bit of glue in these holes, screw the rim to the plate and check the insertion and sliding of the dark slide: not sure about the remains of what did look like some black sealant when I remove the plate (4th picture, middle, in that "Fix" section), and wanting to take no risk with glue i opted for liquid rubber/tape, easy to remove if needed, damages nothing: then, of the mechanism: lubricate or not to lubricate? the disassembly (picture #2) showed no residues and when gears are machined and mated at very high precision, not much is needed. These gears are running like an automotive gearbox either, so unsure, but I consider some little bit of some lubricant does easy the surfacing and friction effect anyway... First I generously sprayed, holding the back over a sink in a way residues and liquid run only through the mechanism only, with electronic cleanser. Electronic cleanser isn't damaging, dries fast and the application straw of the spray works like a slow pressure cleaner- Let it dry then I lubricated with three tiny drops of weapons oil (the picture on the right shows the can but I didn't spray, instead i used a needle near gears axles and teeth : then put screw back the plate, the cover over the mechanism and neoprene glue to put the leatherette back in place. Some masking tape, a toothstick, remove the masking tape at once before it sticks to the glue by the edges, wait couple minutes for the excess glue to start drying and rub the excess with an ethanol impregnated cloth. The end result bears not much of the surgery: Results: again put the camera on a tripod, two lamps casting strong light on the side and shot a roll. freshly dried roll, looks good: positive of a frame: Happy.

there was a time i was considering for a while buying one of the Mamiya or a Yashica. My interest in TLR is for the small size and mostly dumb design, relatively to Hasselblad-like modular designs. But I spend already too much time with my Bronicas, Kiev-6, Salyut and Moskva-5, plus once in a while some 35mm cameras, so no point in parting with much money for an occasional TLR. Also my experience/results with old Zorki-1 rangefinder has convinced me that german classical stuff can be overpriced a lot, so it's totally out of the question that I will buy a Rolleiflex, not even a Rolleicord. So in order to play with TLR, I got a Flexaret, one with the Mirar-II 80mm f3.5 and Prontor-SVS (1s to 1/300s), for an equivalent 60£. Did cleaning of the viewing area (very easy), and replaced the focusing screen with one from a Kiev-6s I had around. Very nice dumb camera (no mechanisms but the shutter around the lens) and good optic. Easy with little tinkering to adapt a Salyut/Kiev-88 prism. Otherwise i had bought a Mamiya, an old one like C22, for the interchangeable lenses capability. as for triplet lenses, even a Lubitel can be good enough for playing, at least from f8. Last month I got a Lubitel-2 with yellow filter and case for ~16 GBP, for curiosity's sake, put in a Lomography-400 roll. Colors are more or less wonky because I used chemicals nearing end of life and there's some vignetting. Not too bad: 200% zoom on the street name: couple mores: that said, the Lubitel is a horror for framing and focusing, don't get one, you don't see s**t inside the tunneled finder over the luminous focusing blob. I will use it again only after I have time to replace the "focusing" loupe with a Kiev-6 screen (have to mount it somehow at the right distance to get correct focus). Just to show there's not much required in order to play with TLR. but the Flexaret is very nice, I have pictures burried somewhere in an archived disk on some shelf, it has been a while since last time i took it out. I'd say it will get someone started into TRL and provide much joy. But then it seems they are getting overpriced too...

it has been some little while I wasn't visitng photo.net, and well in the meantime I tried to keep slowly making myself a list of available repairmen. So good to know this Frank Marshman is still active. Myself I look more for Japan (it's a japanese camera...) and Europe, and there are few addresses online in french, spanish, polish, russian, german that I have to check (ask, get answers). The comparisons with the ubiquitous Hasselblad 500 are like comparing apples and pears, this Bronicas have the shutter mechanism in the body, while Hasselblad they just transferred the complexity to the lens and shutter makers ie. Compur and Zeiss; the 500 is a dark cubic chamber with a lens mount and a winding mechanism, well what an achievement, ha! ... The more I read about it the more it appears the first Bronica Z/D was an engineering marvel. congratulations with your Bronica S. I bought my S2 end May and after now 3 months of use, I love it. I guess it got some bad fame back in the time from careless professionals, the kind of guys who if they drive a regular manual car would kill an engine and gearbox in no time, at which point give them a Lada or a Volvo it would make no difference. so I want to buy another body, but after quite some time spent gathering docs, I'd like to buy an S, because the focusing by the right-side knob instead of the front removable helicoid. Shinsaku Hiura from Japan has a great site and couple videos on Youtube, like this one comparing the S and S2: the problem is that these S models are extremely scarce :( scarcity also in the current offering of lenses besides the 40, 50, 75,100, 105, 135, 150, 200 by Nikon and bit of Zenzanon itself. scarcity in 6x4.5 backs, spotted three in the last three months, two on Ebay, one on Avito and other bidders where faster than me. I look of course on Ebay, but also locally for Norway on Finn, for Poland on Allegro, for Russia on Avito, for yet some more of Europe on dutch-based Catawiki, for Japan Yahoo has become little as it seems most offerings end on Ebay, there are some occasional other stores like the Finns of Kameratori, and whatever small brick and mortar shop here and there. For instance I am thinking of a 40mm lens, and for the last 3 months I saw around only the big Nikkor-D, and found only ONE smaller Zenzanon 40mm at a shop in London, but it was part of a base S2a kit (camera, back, viewfinder) sold for 500£ (Zenza Bronica S2 + Zenzanon 40mm f4 + 6x6 back. Excellent condition. SOLD – Camera City) add postage and import tax+fee in Norway and it became a hefty price. Had been cheaper to flight early morning from Oslo to Stansted, buy/pick the camera at the shop downtown, flight back to Oslo in the evening, but there was covid-19... my feeling too, handholding is fine. The S2 body is chunkier than the regular Hasselblad cubic standard (I have been using Salyut for years, same form factor) but ergonomics is good unless maybe for small hands. The chunkier volume may give the impression it's heavier, and because the helicoid is on the body for most lenses, it is indeed, but then lenses are very light, so all in all no problem. recently I used it often at 1/30s and 1/60s. here the 75mm @f2.8 1/30, Portra-160 ( the cemetery of Trondheims cathedral and I found this stone ironic, guy cremated in Stockholm, but then buried in Trondheim, text in transitional mix of swedish (ö) and danish (æ) script of the time...) : the Nikkor-50 f.28 @f8 1/60: recently playing with BW Fomapan iso400, here the 75mm @f2.8 1/30: these Bronica lense can focus a quite short distance. Nikkor-50 f2.8, close-up late evening, @f2.8 1/60: here almost on the windows glass of a book store, late evening, Zenzanon 75mm @f4 1/30:

the price of a Zodiak-8 these days go from 5000 to 10.000 rubles, depending if it comes with the colored filters set (part of the optical path, one, clear, is on the last back element by default) and case. https://www.avito.ru/rossiya/fototehnika?q=%D0%97%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BA so no big deal to get an additional cheap one, and an extra S2 helical, and tinker with it. In fact the helical only may cost me the price of the lens it seems... On Ebay I see Distagon 30mm for SL66 at twenty times the price :confused:

on the Salyut, no, it's a Vega-12 , 90mm, which was the normal lens coming with the late Salyut version, then Salyut-S, before Arsenal switched to the Volna-3 with the Kiev-88, (renamed Arsat 80 after soviet time). But i took the shot when the collapsible rubber hood was screwed on it. Here I put by the side another Salyut body I have, with my Zodiak-8, which is the 180-d fisheye, then renamed Arsat-30 in independent Ukraine: and I remove the rubber hood of the Vega-12: not at all the same beast.... I have the project to hack a Zodiak-8 on a S2 helical. The S2 register distance is 101,7mm, the Salyut is Hasselblad-1600/1000 82,1mm, so 19,6mm for the Zodiak into the S2 body, it seems the proturing will not hit the mirror, but I didn't yet take exact measurements and the S2 mirror flips down not up, so all good. The task will be to place the helical S2 mount correctly on the lens, and see if the diaphragm can still be operated, otherwise hack this too. Not easy but worth to be tried. the Zodiak-8 is really good and my only option for some architecture close-ups and some urban landscape. The fisheye curvature isn't too much and can be somewhat straighten in software. Otherwise it's fun to play with. For instance, here I am sitting across the table and took the shot almost point and shoot: here also a on the spot point and shot, despite strong difficult sun: the light artifact in the corners, strong on the top right, is caused by a protective filter I have on when I use it as a walk lens. I made it with plexiglass and clear silicone seal. It gives the vignetting, but I am quite maniac about protecting this huge glass: the SL66 will be my next acquisition hopefully

I loaded a roll of Ektar and used it this evening. By now we are in the very long days and the weather has been incredibly sunny. Evening sun from 60°N and up has very strong luminance and some glittering. I put a collapsible rubber lens hood: developed in the kitchen as usual, in Fuji X-press, scanned with Epson V700 @3200, batch converted in software the whole roll without paying much attention to detail. Colours are sometimes wonky, need attention, but that was not the goal. TIFF files are in the ~270mb/frame, here 1024x jpg, so strongly degraded, from unsharpened scans. I took first a couple shots home, on tripod. f8 1s: the Nikkor-50 was some 25/30cms from the Kiev-6s: 100% crop of the tiff, converted to jpg. I don't know how sharp that lens can be, so unsure if it's the best. Also sometimes I focus better on ground glass, but there it was on small split circle. f5.6 1s : f11 1/60 f2.8 1/500: trying to find the spiders with 100% crop: f2.8 1/250: f8 1/125:

thanks all. which I learned after I removed completely the mirror frame :) as illustrated in the middle of the post, these two small screws were a bit challenging to put back. Yet without removing the frame, it will stay inside the body, and the removal of the two upper pads there and cleaning may be tricky as I see it. I was wondering what procedure Bronica repairmen have there. When I will do it again (which will happen as soon I buy an extra body....) I think I 'll do the same way, removing the whole frame. But it will be much faster. and now that I am into this old camera, I bought online a reprint of the service manual: ---- as follow up regarding test of focus after the foam replacement AND the Salyut split screen, I went to shoot a roll of Lomography-100 yesterday evening. Developed in Fuji X-Press, scanned this morning. It seems ok. here with the Nikkor 105mm f3.5 leaf shutter, f3.5 , on the church/infinity: f3.5 on the foreground tombstone: f3.5 : f11:

instead of setting back the native Bronica ground glass with central focusing circle, I wanted to use an old Salyut-S glass with a small split screen, that i had around, It's an older kind not the newer that was used on Kiev-88. so I load a roll of Delta 100 and went for some shots, developed in D76, scanned with Epson V700 @3200dpi, and no fine hand tweaking in software for inversion, but instead quickly applied a set of PS procedures ("actions") from this guy: CNMY film inversion results on the hi-res tifs seem okay. But will keep testing a couple rolls, in color Nikkor 135mm: Nikkor 75mm:

so I bought a Bronica S2 that had no been used the last ten years. Being well aware from tons of comments on the net that it uses foam to position the mirror and the focusing screen, the first thing I did yesterday before going use it, was to check that. It's very easy, yet a couple screws were tricky to put back. The fix is explained at many places, and for the mirror the more detailed seems to be there: Bronica Z, D. S, C, S2, S2A, EC, EC-TL, and EC-TLll besides a couple good screwdriver, I used ethanol, cocktail sticks, swabs and paper for cleansing, a bit light cardboard and masking tape for prophylactic protection inside the body, glue to hold non-magnetized screws, a mobile phone screen suction cup, and self-adhesive 3mm open cell foam. as I take shots for my own archival, I think it may of interest to others. So, if you get an old S2, don't hesitate, it's easy. See: remove the viewfinder, and there are four screws holding a frame over the focusing screen. The two screws near the focal plane do also hold the bracket for the viewfinder. These four screws have same size, and are non-ferrous,as I couldn't hold them on the magnetized tip of the screwdriver, but it's no problem. under the bracket, a brass spacer and a tiny shim under: this is how the foam under the frame had turned over the years: I dipped the frame first into a dilution of soap, and rubbed away some of the stickery gum, but rinsed and dipped it for a while into ethanol removed the sticky gum by the edges on the top of the matte glass with a piece of cleaning paper with a bit of ethanol, and washed the matte side under tap water without touching it: the fresnel under the matte was clean. the edges on the body required some ethanol and gentle scrapping stick and swab; Put focusing matte, fresnel and retaining frame aside, and now the mirror. I position the body upside down at an angle, so the mirror is horizontal: put a piece of thick paper for protection on the mirror: four screws hold the mirror frame. The two upper ones are shorter and non-ferrous as I can't hold them with the magnetized screwdriver tip: remove the mirror frame and then the mirror: so the mirror plate with the three foam pads: they left a mark on the back of the mirror: by just touching with the finger, the foam crumbles: I use light glue painter masking tape to protect the opening where we see the ribbon in the top middle and the gap between mirror plate and body, so to avoid foam rests get inside: I had to use to ethanol and rub gently with a screwdriver tip and a cocktail stick: cleansed: foam. I have some kit with different kind and size. Under the mirror I think 1mm could be enough. But open cell foam with be pressed well even if thicker (reasonably). I opted for a 3mm open cell foam with an adhesive side. Used it under the mirror and under the frame of the focusing screen: new foam pads: next step could be a bit tricky even if the foam is only 1mm. This new foam pushes the mirror up, and the lower edge of the mirror frame is rounded and catches under the mirror plate. So I start with the two lower screws, put loose only, they will keep the frame on place but allow for sliding the mirror into correct position: the two lower screws are easy, longer and can be hold on magnetized tip of screwdriver. But I found the two upper ones finicky to manage, they screw under the mirror frane, not on the plate, but on a tiny support that rotates around an axe: at the same time, the mirror under the frame must be slided down into the lower edge. The small rotating piece for the upper screws must be aligned and nor move when putting the screw back. Here I used a nail for positining: in fact when that small rotating part is correctly aligned under the mirror frame, by pressing the frame, there was a slight "click", so holding pressure on the frame with a finger, I could screw back. But the damn screw isn't hold magnetically on the screwdriver tip. Used a drop of liquid paper glue, which is very light but enough for the purpose, to hold these screws: Of course the mirror, which is pushed up by the new foam, must be correctly slided down, for the frame to set in place. But that's easy, I just used a small suction cup for mobilphone screens: mirror back in position: then the frame of the focusing screen with new (3mm) foam: that's it.

yes the 90° prism has surprised me. For the Soviet prism there's an easy hack.... In order to have an idea I just unscrewed the mounting plate on boths, it's 4 screws on the Bronica, 7 on the Arsenal, and checked dimension: the bottom of the Arsenal is just ~1mm wider than the bottom of the Bronica, position the Bronica plate and duct tape, without covering the slits. It works. Duct tape adhesive is strong enough I can grab the S2 from the prism, but I won't do it normally it would comes off after repeated tractions. For a clean, nice and solid assembly, I'll get an extra Soviet prism, and an extra Bronica wlf in order to cannibalize the mount and either bore holes for the 4 screws of the Bronica plate, or for a permanent alternative, epoxy the mount. The screw removable assembly will require to tap 4 holes and find matching screws which indeed means rights tools or machinits. But then for the cheap price one can have a Soviet prism, I'll just epoxy glue permanently the S2 plate with an added tin metal ribbon around as reinforcement (epoxy becomes brittle with time) I may also just look after buying a 45° Bronica prism, but they seem very uncommon, while the Soviet ones are everywhere.

guess what, after spending the last 10 days hunting exhaustively for a SL66 kit with extra back, I was about to decide for one offering, but yesterday morning near me an ad popped up for a Bronica S2 set and few hours after it was mine :) Body, two 6x6 backs. wlf, 90 prism, loupe, lenses with caps and filters 50, 75, 105 with leaf, 135, 200 (with couple close-up lenses) , couple shades, pistol grip, the funny sport finder, polaroid back, strap: here with the 50mm f4 (the prism in an Arsenal/Salyut one) the seller had received the estate of a former pro, but himself had no clue about photography at all. He was puzzled by the sport finder, didn't know what it was: an antenna? a radar? with normal lens and prism, compared to a Salyut, the S2 is a bit bigger and 300g heavier, so no big deal. the "model A" 90-prism is bad, bad, bad, bad. Dark and too small eyepiece: so I hacked the Salyut one to fit on the S2.

so, this is a post I did also on USSRphoto forum and on Photrio. I am taking care of some Salyut bodies and one Kiev-88 I have that are in need of service and some repairs. For some steps it's good to check the technical reference, assemblies details, parts involved. Only online resources are the Tento booklet for the Kiev-88, and it's very succinct. I have a like-new exemplar of the repair manual printed in Moskva back then for the Kiev-80, an export rebadging of the Salyut-S: when I tinker with the camera, I don't use the booklet itself but prints of a scan I did, high-res., cleaned of scan artifacts. This may be of interest to some. It will be put on a site I have which is being redone, but I uploaded it too on Yadisk: Remont_Kiev-80.pdf when I get some time, I'll do an OCR too.

again, enlightening summary about the Rollei SL66. I didn't know the story. Well this one it seems more about a market failure than technical issues. The great thing for us in forums like this is that savvy pros like you can cast an instructive light and help make a decision when I was looking at few dedicated photographic stores in Germany, and also of course en Ebay, prices for a basic kit body+back+wvf+Planar are similar than for Hasselblad 500 and available lenses cheaper in SL66 than in Hasselblad. Average price for a base kit is around 1000€. Indeed there are few backs and prisms, but when spotted, sold for lesser that the average Hasselblad back. Right now in Poland on Allegro a kit body+wvf+back+Planar + Sonnar 150, Sonnar 250, Distagon 40, prism, TTL magnifying hood for 11.000 zloty.: Duży zestaw Rolleiflex SL66 - Kup teraz za: 11000,00 zł - Warszawa - Allegro Lokalnie that listing is interesting, it comes with the 40mm Distagon, and the wide-angle lenses seem to be really expensive, in Hasselblad or Rollei. And fisheye: 30mm Distagon costs at least 10x the price of a Zodiak-8 bought in Russia (~8000 rubles). Now, worshipers of Zeiss name can go on singing with mystical and religious tones the praises of Zeiss glass and bow in the direction of Oberkochen as much as they want, there's no way a Distagon 30mm can be 10x times better than a Zodiak-8. At this point such price makes no sense, yet that's the norm with the Hasselblad despite the swedish bodies being as common around as Coca-Cola. I don't use very often the 30mm but it happens once in while it spend the day and few rolls on one of my Salyut body. On travel I use a travel friendly tripod, so the tilt capability of SL66 is a good point. Bigger body than the Hasselblad/Salyut but smaller than a Mamiya RB67. I guess I have decided what will be my next 6x6, after I will feel I have exhausted the potential of all my Arsenal/Kiev lenses and knowing the limitation about the 30mm lens I may also buy first a body sold defective for parts, so I could play with the inner mechanism. I didn't mention an important point: I am an amateur not a pro. The few photos I take indoors I use B, no flash, I don't make a living with confirmations, weddings, models, press or whatever. I meter with an old Sverdlovsk or a Leningrad, I don't need the best possible Zeiss glass, I don't have a studio :). Yet a do macro once in a while so the reverse mounting of SL66 is a good feature too. The scope of nowaday amateurs is different of the pros who used these cameras back in the time. After I became fed up with digital, i kept a Canon 5D rarely used and my mobile phone, and otherwise everything else is mechanical, so I won't break my promise of no electronic, with a Hasselblad 200 or 2000. These are electrically powered shutter curtains. If I break my promise I would be for the Bronica GS-1 probably.

thanks for the detailed overview orsetto. Very helpful. So i'll stick with my Salyut bodies. About compactness it's because everywhere I travel, for a weekend or even for a walk in the city, I have a Salyut with me, in fact I am a bit addicted and have to force myself to use my other cameras once in a while. If I win the lottery I think I will treat myself with a Rolleiflex SL66 and a set of lenses... This camera has tilt and shift and lenses can be mounted in reverse.

As an amateur, for 6x6 and 6x4.5 with removable backs I use Salyut (I have also Salyut-S and one Kiev-88). I ilke it because it has all I want: - compactness - fully manual - easy to find used bodies for parts - still quite some guys left for professional repairs in case of need - range of lenses - reasonably priced yet I am curious to try some other brand/model. fully manual, no electronic at all, and compactness are mandatory to me. So: because the size I won't buy Mamiya RB67. because insane prices for lenses I won't buy Hasselblad because insane prices of everything I won't buy Rolleiflex SL66, which seems to me the dream camera. the only fully mechanical compact 6x6's left that I am aware of are the Kowa Six but it's a rarity, and the Bronica S2/S2A my question is; how it feels to tinker with it when needed, which like with any mechanical camera, will happen. I tried to get an idea of the guts, and according to the pictures at the bottom of this page: Zenza Bronica it seems way more complex than a Salyut (Salyut is a hell of tricky to put together correctly adjusted but is simplier mechanically than what I see on that link. The S2 has more moving parts anyway because the cover for the flipped-down mirror, the blind for the viewfinder and the extra clutch for winding. Wondering how difficult it may be to fix problems.

sorry it took so long time to get back here. Thanks guys for your enlightenments. so yes I was suspecting no steel tanks had possibility for central spinning rod like plastic one, but well, had to check. Vertical agitation isn't good anyway, it must be horizontal, but it's still convenient for washing or for some BW. I recently acquired a Kindermann with 3x 120 spirals, it's quite compact: am considering possibilities of rotary agitation. It would be easy to set repeatable and consistent developing cycles instead of the hand shaking/inversion. i am thinking of this: a cheap plastic box, some small plastic wheels or cylinders for rolling of the tank on the bottom, a cheap agitation top of a small ice cream/sorbet maker, the sous-vide circulator I already use in the kitchens sink for development. Bore a lateral hole in the smaller side of the box, some pin/rod instead of the sorbet blade, the necessary plates, gaskets, screws and silicone for waterproof sealing and holding the small rotating engine outside, some kind of holder inside for the tank. Just need some free time to play with this rough sketch:

Just to be sure, as I have never seen one in real life but many on pictures online: no steel developing tanks have options for central rod rotation? They are all cocktail shakers, or?