bronica,should i buy?

[du a gwyn]

hello,i'm mew to the forum having change my slr's for the voigtlander around two years ago,very happy that i have done so,nice and light.my question to you all is i now fancy the bronica 645rf so i can have a slightly bigger neg to print.what are the range of lenses available for the 645 and your views regarding the overall handling of the bronica.

dioch yn fawr.

 

[RObert Budding]

Great camera. But the neg isn't slightly bigger - it's 2.7X larger. That's a huge difference.

As for the camera, it handles really well. Everything just feels right in my hands. And it's light and compact compared to a MF SLR. Lens choices are limited - the 45mm (28mm equiv. on 35mm) and 65mm (40mm equiv.) are readily available, but the 100mm is rare and the 135mm is rarer still. So you'd better bank on just 2 lenses. Lense quality is excellent. Very sharp with nice bokeh.

No regrets that I bought the RF645. And I was really lucky to find a 100mm lens, too.

 

[du a gwyn]

Robert,thanks for your reply.i've ordered one today,should be with me in the next couple of days.at the moments i'm using two voigtlander,one fitted with 35mm and the other one fitted with the latest 90mmf2.8 elamrit.the voigtlander 35mm lens is a great lens but i'm very dissipointed with the leica.most properly it me after been using a mamiya rb67 for many years.why is the 100m bronica lens so hard to come by?

 

[Talisker]

I guess they just didn't make many of them and the run sold out, none of which was helped by the mess they made with the 135mm - and now the whole system has been discontinued... I managed to pick up a 100mm second hand, but it wasn't cheap, and is one of only two I've seen recently from the usual dealers in the UK. The cameras and the 45mm and 65mm lenses are quite plentiful just at the moment though. If you ever see a 100mm its a great lens (although irritatingly it has a 62mm filter mount, unlike the 58mm on the other two!).

 

[Turtle]

You wont regret the RF645. I used mine heavily for the first time since buying recently and canot say a single bad word about them. The ergonomics are as good as the first impressions, the negs super sharp, the meter good. I got shots of shifting fog/sun I could never have gotten with anything other than a 35mm or fast MF rangefinder. I am really mad that I did not bring it to Afghanistan with me. I was too worried about the dust here but the opportunities are taunting me. Would have been perfect.

I too need a 100 or 135 🙁

T

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I read about two months ago about Bronica discontinuing the rangefinder camera... so that may drive prices up and beyond. In any case, it seems Bronica users were happy... so you'll have to chalk up the decision to discontinue this camera to the bean-counters in every business.

 

[RObert Budding]

du a gwyn - Looks like your questions about the 100mm have been answered. It is worth watching for.

 

[du a gwyn]

Talisker,what was the 'mess they did with the 135mm',is it something that been carried over to the 65mm lens ?