Bronica EC by Richard de Bulat
The Bronica EC is an advanced version of the Bronica S2A, the camera that it replaced in 1972. It requires a battery for its electronically controlled shutter.
Using the camera is straightforward; it has a waist level finder as standard and in use is similar to other 6x6 system cameras such as Mamiya and Hasselblad. The controls are positive, it has interchangeable film backs and good focusing screens. I used the camera with a roll of Tri-X, which is among my favourite films; unfortunately the weather, when I was able to go out and shoot, was horrible. In the end, I decided to shoot the roll at home and channel my inner Josef Sudek. The day was gloriously gloomy with low contrast and heavy showers of rain hitting the windows, which were my only source of light. Keeping the images tight in the frame I was working around the closest focussing distance at F5.6 or thereabouts, means some image softening and fall-off towards the edges, something Tri-X handles well along with grain structure and contrast. Unfortunately, several of the negatives have some streaking either from the water wash or overdoing the Ilfotol. I didn’t notice this until after scanning and editing, so my bad in this respect.
The Bronica EC is a mid-range medium format camera, but like all medium format cameras, performance is very good, with peripherals not overly expensive, so you can build up a reasonable system by adding a wide-angle and short telephoto, neither of which are essential, but probably useful in the general run of things, along with a prism-finder.
It is a clear step-up from 35mm, not just in the square format, but in the detail a 6x6mm negative can produce. Clearly a 1:1 format and waist-level finder requires a different way of looking with regard to composition, chopping out a lot of redundancy in the wider formats and great for portraiture and, I would argue, landscape photography, especially trees and woodland, generally.
The Bronica EC is a fairly heavy camera and, while it is not at all difficult to use hand-held, it is, nevertheless, better to use it with a slower, more considered approach and with a tripod. It will reward this approach, especially in low light conditions, with good images that are full of detail in shadow areas and highlights. A beautiful camera to look at and a great performer, overall.
