Friday, August 27, 2010

The ETRS of DOOM!

Bonjour readers! This Saturday afternoon finds me happily sitting in front of my computer a little bit wiser about Medium format cameras than last night.

If you don’t know, I recently purchased a second-hand Bronica ETRS off eBay and got it in the post yesterday. It is in good condition apart from some peeling of the leatherette stuff that’s on it and some dust (it did come from Mildura so that is to be expected). When it turned up it didn’t have a lens cap or a dark slide, but I got around those issues and gave it a once-over. I was glad to find out that the film back could be opened whilst attached to the back. Loading 120 roll-film is different to 35mm, but it’s not difficult. For a camera that takes 6x4.5cm negatives, it’s well weighted.

The ETRS is a completely manual system (you can buy auto exposure prism finders, but I’ve heard that they’re dodgy). Not so cool if you’re into the snap-then-run mentality of many photographers today. Plus I’m really enjoying manual focus these days – strange I know but I’ve come to enjoy stranger things before…

So one roll of film down in a day and I would like to think all but two or three will be good shots. Some are going to have bits that I didn’t want in them, but it’s all about learning.

Photos will be put up when the film gets developed!

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