Bronica 35mm rangefinder

M

MarkWalberg

Established
Local time
11:48 AM
Joined
May 25, 2022
Messages
156
View My Gallery
I've just reread Tony Hilton's book about Bronica 6x6 cameras. The history of Bronica is very interesting. Zenzaburo Yoshino sure was an innovative guy.

Anyway, in the back is a description of a 35 mm rangefinder with interchangeable lenses that Bronica made in about 1980. It looks like they brought them to 1980 Photokina, then decided to not go ahead with production.

It was called the VX. Three lenses made - 40/2.8, 28/2.8 and 85/4.5. They used leaf shutters. The shutter blades also made the aperture. That is a new one on me. Do any other cameras do this? All of my leaf shutter cameras have two sets of blades.

It was electronic. There was an attachment that you could bolt on that allowed manual operation. There was also a flash attachment that was intended to make fill flash easy.

There were two models. VX-1 had a bright line Galilean viewfinder. VX-2 had a Real-image finder and was more expensive. I don't really know what a Real-image viewfinder is. A google search pulls up patents and Instax. Does anyone have info about these?

Sounds like it would have been a very interesting camera. Has anyone seen one?
 
Without seeing any of the information on this VX, I would guess that they sat on the technology for about a decade, then resurrected it for the RF645. That was a camera high on my wish list, but it seems to have not aged well, besides having become quite pricey, and I'll probably never own one. Bronica was a company that could have gone up against the Big Boys, but somehow always fumbled. Nevertheless my S2A and my ETRSi are a couple of my favorites, precisely because of their quirks.
 
Sounds quite a bit like my RF645. It could be some of the technology made it into that camera, though it was launched many years later.
 
I use an RF645 and love it, and I gave another to my son. The viewfinder is every bit as great as an M3. The finder goes dark when I'm wearing polarized subglasses though. The film wind on my son's developed an issue. KEH fixed it earlier this year. Maybe the VX evolved into the RF645.
 
hap said:
I have an S. Want an EC Tl body. Is that crazy?
Click to expand...
Doesn't sound crazy to me, but I'm not exactly the gold standard for sanity! Actually, I want one too, though the ageing electronics scare me a bit. However, a while ago, I went over to The Dark Side and embraced some cameras that aren't totally mechanical. Too many useful features to ignore, and being in my seventies, I figure my circuit boards will probably crap out before theirs.
 
Significantly smaller than a CLE! But the metering system sounds awkward, as does the attachment for manual override of the auto exposure. Nevertheless, had they ever been made, I'd be scouring ebay for one, for sure. And apparently they are available in France at "non-specialized garage sales". Now, wouldn't that be the find of a lifetime!
 
MarkWalberg said:
Here is a page (in French) that has a picture of the Bronica VX-1.

https://www.collection-appareils.fr/x/html/appareil-3352-Bronica_VX-1.html

The picture looks a whole lot like an RF645. So, that probably was the path of evolution of these cameras.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the interesting read. I also think this was the predecessor of the better known RF645 (which I'm guilty still lusting for).
Funny these french pages doesn't mention the exsiting RF645 but concentrates only on the VX-1 and VX-2 prototypes. Of course, in the integrated forum of the site the RF645 is discussed too.
 
If I'm reading the French page correctly, it's a review of the 1980 Photokina. The RF645 didn't come out until 2000, hence no mention of it. Sadly, it was only produced for 5 years, which probably accounts for its scarcity and high price. I suspect that it didn't sell well, as those were already becoming grim times for film cameras. But I'll never forgive Tamron for killing the Bronica line, instead of bringing it forward into the digital era. Imagine an ETRSi III with an integrated digital back, much like what Pentax did with the evolution of the 645N into the 645D. I'm getting weepy thinking about it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: dct
Retro-Grouch said:
Doesn't sound crazy to me, but I'm not exactly the gold standard for sanity! Actually, I want one too, though the ageing electronics scare me a bit. However, a while ago, I went over to The Dark Side and embraced some cameras that aren't totally mechanical. Too many useful features to ignore, and being in my seventies, I figure my circuit boards will probably crap out before theirs.
Click to expand...
Completely understand. Logic prevails
 
Retro-Grouch said:
But I'll never forgive Tamron for killing the Bronica line
Click to expand...
The writing was on the wall the moment Tamron took over. Anyone remember the PS50-100mm f4-5.6 that came out after Tamron took over? It didn't seem to make sense; a variable aperture zoom lens for a camera that sees a lot of studio use with flash, or with an external meter. To me it signaled that Tamron didn't really understand medium format..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom