So I have learned a thing or two.
The first thing was, to always get the high-res scan from the Darkroom. As always, click to embiggenate.
Tri-X 120, Bronica ETRS 75mm
The lens on the Bronica can only really be appreciated at high res. The original image of this barn can, I kid you not, be best appreciated through a microscope.
The second thing, was that the Bronica has a razor sharp depth of field, unless you stop it down to kingdom come. Look at this picture of the old busted concrete that came out of my garage, for instance. 
Tri-X 120, Bronica ETRS 75mm
Also, Bronica lenses are cheap and I should buy them all.
Ektachrome 100, Bronica ETRS 75mm lens
Same shot, Ektachrome 100, Bronica ETRS 150mm lens
The 150 mm lens came up on Ebay for $49 buy it now with free shipping the week before vacation, and I could not say no to it. And I am most pleased to have it.
The black and white is what I really like, though, and this is the sort of thing that would make me put together a darkroom, again.
Tri-X, Bronica ETRS with 150mm lens
At first I was upset that the Bronica’s razor thin depth of field hadn’t landed anywhere on the critter, but now I sort of like the lomoesque nature of it. For sharpness, I got this.
Tri X, Bronica ETRS with 75mm lens
Anyway, this is the first roll of “Vacation” film, and I really have loved using the camera. The odd saturation of the Ektachrome is something I will have to play with, get some filters, something. I have a couple rolls of Ilford in the mix and now it’s getting cooler I won’t be afraid to keep the camera in the car with me.
11 comments Og | Uncategorized
Some good shots there. It is amazing the details you can get with film.
Really cool pictures. You have good composition skills, which is not something shared by all who own cameras.
Very nicely done and all the more so because you have gear you enjoy using.
Thank you for sharing.
Jenny
The only thing I can think of to say here is to make a play on “Bronica” and say something about never realizing you were a brony.
That’s because I’m a philistine.
Actually Bronica is a portmanteau of “brownie” and “Camera” coined by Mr Zenza.
Love the donkey.
In that first picture, I can’t quite make out what’s showing on the t.v. in the kitchen.
Nice shootin’!
Sigh. I miss film.
The second thing, was that the Bronica has a razor sharp depth of field, unless you stop it down to kingdom come
Well, yeah, that’s f2.8 for you.
The only problem with MF cameras is money – if film and developing were free I’d be out with my Moskva II or Mini Speed Graphic or Mamiya every weekend.
(The Speed Graphic is probably my favorite, because of the gloriousness of the glass back for composing.)
Bronica was a very under-rated medium format back when film was king. All the cool kids wanted Hassleblads, of course.
Myself, I was torn between lusting after the Mamiya RB-67’s awesome, near view-camera capabilities, and the Mamiya 645’s incredible, 35mm-like nimbleness and versatility.
Sadly, the RB was always a bridge too far, to large, too heavy and too expensive. And the 645 was always “on hold” while I paid off another lens for the Nikon F2-A Mega System had been assembling.
Oh, and if you can find some old Fujichrome film, try that vs. the Ektachrome. I became very adept at using Kodachrome, but never mastered the Ektachrome, for exactly the reasons you’ve touched on here.
The Fujichrome however, responded much more intuitively to changes, filters and other adjustments.
Is it just me, or there at the end did it seem that Kodak had got just a bit more than complacent about advancing their emulsion technologies?
I mean, aside from the T-Max B&W films in the later days, we’d not seen a true advance from Kodak for decades, not just “years”.
All while Fuji, Ilford and Agfa were just eating their lunch in many ways.
Finally, a word about magic. No matter how good the final product of digital, and yes, it has now exceeded film in most every regard…..
It will never give the same rush of amazement, as standing over a tray in the darkroom, watching that image materialize from nothing on white paper, into the merest ghost of an image as it slowly manifests itself into that which you had envisioned and engineered when at the enlarger, nay, even back to the snap of the shutter itself.
I think there lies the spirit of photography itself, and no matter how good the digital process or product, it’ll never have quite that same magic.
Nor the whiff of Dektol, stop bath or fixer in the trays.
Ahhh, the days of alchemy lost.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
The really nice thing about 120 format is the size of the neg. Much finer grain on it so much better detail(with a sharp lens.)
Back in my service days(the mid-60’s) I was in Key West and got to use a Mamiya TLR that I was allowed to “borrow” from a shop. I also got free film and processing from them because my wife ran their processing lab. Good days those were. Running 5-10 rolls of 35mm Tri-X per week; did a lot of Agfa and Ektachrome/ color also. Mostly with a Ricoh SLR.