"New" RF645 arrived - Sweet....

[Igor.Burshteyn]

Congratulations! Post some nice MF images in Keith's thread.
I am tempted to get RF645 for portability alone (have ETRSI/75mm/40mm, nice cam&great optics). I've seen more than once 65mm Zenzanon-RF standard lens for RF645 going for less then 100$ on ebay, anybody has an idea why? As kit RF645 always costs ~600$, at least.

 

[picker77]

One possibility to account for the many low cost 65mm's might be Tamron cranking out a boatload of the standard "kit" focal length lenses early on in the program, in anticipation of stockpiling them for later when the RF645 body production line caught up. But then the bean counters killed the camera early in its life cycle, leaving them with a bunch of 65mm lenses and no bodies to put them on. I'd like a 45m for my RF645 but the prices are a bit much, and forget about the 100mm, I haven't seen one of those under $900 US. As you said, 65mm's are a dime a dozen, though, even though they are the same outstanding quality build as the "accessory" lenses.

My RF645 is at Tamron again, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed this time. I'm having fun playing with this ZI in the meantime--it's certainly a beautiful camera and the viewfinder is stunning to look though. I've also added a really nice old user M2 to the 35mm mix in the past week, so the Zeiss has a German brother to share lenses with. Both are very nice cameras, but it's hard to get used to those teeny tiny little negatives again. My scanner thinks I'm feeding it postage stamps!

 

[Jay Decker]

Put some film through your RF645 when you get it back and we'll have a RF645 Photo Fest Thread.

Received a 45mm lens the other day, it is fun to shoot, and I'm looking forward to developing some of the film shot with the 45mm.

My RF645 is at Tamron again, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed this time. I'm having fun playing with this ZI in the meantime--it's certainly a beautiful camera and the viewfinder is stunning to look though. I've also added a really nice old user M2 to the 35mm mix in the past week, so the Zeiss has a German brother to share lenses with. Both are very nice cameras, but it's hard to get used to those teeny tiny little negatives again. My scanner thinks I'm feeding it postage stamps!

 

[Duncan B]

Does anyone have any shots with the 100mm f/4.5?

 

[Matus]

Somewhat OT, but what actually happened to the RF645 - why was the production ceased? It indeed looks like a nice and well done camera without any obvious problems. Was it solely the problem with the long lenses (focusing issues)?

 

[Doug]

Does anyone have any shots with the 100mm f/4.5?

Duncan, suggest you search the RFF Gallery for "100mm Bronica" and you'll get several pages of results, including some of mine and some of ShutterFlower's. Here's one... (House mover takes a break on a very hot day as he prepares this century-old house to be moved. Said it's not worth moving but the owner is paying...)

 

[Doug]

Somewhat OT, but what actually happened to the RF645 - why was the production ceased? It indeed looks like a nice and well done camera without any obvious problems. Was it solely the problem with the long lenses (focusing issues)?

I think it was several factors, as is usual with bad results coming from more than one cause (pilot tired/distracted + ice on wings = crash).

The RF645 was introduced about the time medium format film camera sales took a nosedive. Especially ones with no possible digital future. The 135mm lens issue was embarrassing and expensive, and caused customer hesitation and bad PR. Bronica was taken over by Tamron, I think in the latter stages of development, probably some company upset from that. The camera never really had a chance to prove itself and build a solid customer base.

There are only two serial number ranges, the early bodies with 135mm framelines (most recalled for a change to 100mm mask) start with serial 000xxxx. And the later ones shipping with 100mm framelines had serial numbers with 110xxxx. My older one is numbered a bit below 0005000, so that initial batch may have been 5000 or 10000 units, perhaps the same for the second production batch. My later one is below 1100100. These were being cleared out of the warehouse with sales rebates for a couple years, for the later part of which the 100mm was sold out. ($450 rebate on body+65mm kit, $50 on the other lenses).

 

[Duncan B]

Duncan, suggest you search the RFF Gallery for "100mm Bronica" and you'll get several pages of results, including some of mine and some of ShutterFlower's. Here's one... (House mover takes a break on a very hot day as he prepares this century-old house to be moved. Said it's not worth moving but the owner is paying...)

Doug that looks awesome, as always.