Week 19. Zenza Bronica
A week of such promise and excitement, I have doubled up a few previous
weeks with the social media fun of FP4party, this has now transformed into TMaxparty
so a move from Ilford to Kodak. I have shot a couple of their 400asa with mixed
results but optimism and the sight of the Bronica gave me renewed hope. The
Bronie – medium format big SLR system, basically a central body with a huge
array of options surrounding it with a few of those open to me for this week. The
camera checked, I loaded the detachable 120 back with TMAX 400. 220/35mm/Polaroid
are also available. I had the one lens but there are others as with any SLR but
this one was an F2.8 75mm Zenzanon EII. I chose to fit a speed grip with
advance lever and shutter release which would gave me a more traditional SLR setup
coupled with the prism finder!
Roll 1 – Monday arrived and just awful weather! Nothing doing… Tuesday
repeat… ditto Wednesday! Its worth noting I also have a 35mm TMAX 100 loaded
in my Pentax to run at the same time so pressure to shoot was mounting.
Thursday was as dull as dishwater but dry so I set about trying to shoot things
without sky but still having something interesting in it, a yellow and orange
filter on hand to squeeze anything out of the grey skies. I plucked up courage
to request a few portraits from strangers and we got through the roll. I was
spot metering as there is no on board meter and the aperture ring of f2.8 to 22
and shutter knob - 8sec to 1/500th are all full manual which is
beautifully simple. When you trigger that shutter the mirror retracts with a
sound striking fear into small children and attracting the attention of all
around not already admiring its behemoth good looks. Fear not though I
successfully hand held at 1/60th with ease!
Roll 2 – Sticking with the Kodak theme I loaded a Portra 160nc, a little
out of date from 2012 but should be like new. I switched to the little crank
advance arm and moved to a familiar waist level viewer. The frame sizes of
4.5x6cms with this set up would and did prove much harder to use in portrait.
Friday/Saturday were just impossible with weather and work but a productive
Sunday saw the roll off easily shooting on and around Plymouth Hoe and Barbican
with a Polarizer to help. I tried playing with depth of field, angles comfort
zones etc. to test myself and the camera.
Thoughts? Loved it! BWs I got good exposures and the set up while heavy
gave me lots of options. I felt good carrying it around and heaving its mass up
to my eye gave me a feeling of gravitas. The Portra pics are coming through the
scanner right now and look pretty good but for a bit of glare here and there as
I used a hood far to short really – lesson learned!
The best way I can put this is if wifey told me I had to get rid of all
my cameras and have just one then the Bronica would be a serious contender, but
I would need both viewing options. With the flexibility of multiple film backs
for 120/35mm and swapping out mixed emulsions as and when needed I could
overlook the weight and limited 1/500th max shutter speed…a lovely,
lovely camera but somewhat out of my budget!
