bronica rangefinder

[trevor.y]

just picked up a bronica rangefinder. have a question about the flash though. from what i was told, you have to use the bronica flash. can anyone clarify this? i have a vivitar 285 that is use with remote triggers. do you think i could use that? either with the remotes or the hotshoe?

thanks in advance,
trevor

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Any hot shoe mount flash should work, but for full AE
operation you must use the Bronica RF20 dedicated flash.

Chris

 

[FrankS]

I remember that there is an issue with older Vivitar 283/285 units having too high a flash trigger voltage that can damage some electronic cameras. The newer types have a green dot sticker on the inside of the battery door. You may want to do some research on this before using your flash on the Bronica. Great camera BTW!

 

[Pablito]

the original Bronica flash for this camera had a vertical flash tube and reflector to match the vertical format of the camera (when it's held "normally"- or horizontally) If you put a "normal" flash on the camera there might be coverage issues at the top and bottom of the (vertical) image. Of course this depends on how wide the spread of light is from the flash. A vivitar 285 set at "wide" might give you enough coverage. But then there is the trigger voltage issue mentioned above. Could not hurt to check into that.

 

[trevor.y]

thanks for the information. i'm looking forward to shooting this new (to me) camera.

trevor

 

[Doug]

Welcome, Trevor, both to RFF and to RF645 ownership; hope you enjoy both! I'm very fond of my RF645 kit, but it doesn't include the dedicated flash, and I've never used flash with the camera. (I do have the dedicated flash for my Fuji GA645Wi, with similar orientation, but I've not used it.) That's not much help to you, but I'd agree that any other flash should be mounted on a bracket that allows it to be tipped 90° to vertical orientation.

 

[MichaelHarris]

Wonderful camera, I love mine. You should get the flash soon, they have been going up in price for a while. Now if I could just find someone to rent me the 45mm lens.