BRONICA SQ 105MM LENS PRO

BRONICA SQ 105MM LENS PRO

Meanwhile, they had the gall to shaft Bronica with a hastily thrown together 13.5cm tele lens made out of a recycled Nikon 35mm-format rangefinder lens! Given 135mm to 150mm was the de facto 6圆 portrait lens, nearly every Bronica S pro bought one and experienced its (ahem) 'dreamy' quality.

I've always found it kind of amusing and 'pot-meet-kettle' that Nikon was freaking out during their entire Bronica partnership (afraid the baffling, badly-engineered S-S2-S2A focus screen assembly would taint the reputation of Nikkor lenses). Most Bronica users do seem to agree the 13.5cm or 135mm Nikkor was a bit of a dog in an otherwise nice lineup of lenses. Before spending any serious money to replace your (really very nice) Nikkor-PC, consider buying an additional wide-angle or tele lens instead: they would offer more immediate, more obvious benefits. The experience of different lens designs having different imaging characteristics is legit, but not every photographer or every subject can reveal those differences to any significant degree.

Worth seeking out if you think you would exploit the f/2.4 advantages.Īll that said, bear in mind that 9 out of 10 photographers probably could not identify photos made by any of these alternatives vs the far more common 75mm Nikkor-P. Once very common, availability seems to have dried up and one rarely sees them for sale anymore. This is a lovely piece of glass, prized for its speed and bokeh performance at f/2.4. The final standard lens Bronica offered for the S2/EC before switching to the leaf-shutter ETR and SQ system was their own 80mm f/2.4 Zenzanon. If given the choice, I would probably opt for the Nikkor HC over the Zeiss Zenzanon, but either would be superb. Given the fetish many photographers have for all things Zeiss, this lens is in high demand by S2/EC enthusiasts and usually commands a premium price. In a surprise move, they sourced the 80mm f/2.8 Zenzanon from Carl Zeiss Jena. This put Bronica in a bind, and they quickly turned to other brands to supply stopgap lenses while they prepared their own. Nikon eventually became disenchanted by its partnership with Bronica and ceased supplying lenses for the system.

The HC is not very common outside Japan: if you do find it, expect it to be either very inexpensive from a clueless seller or (more likely) very expensive from a seller who knows what it is. It is highly coveted in Japan for its unique Zeiss-like rendering (that elusive '3D-pop' some photographers pursue). The 75mm Nikkor-HC was more interesting: allegedly, this is the same lens formula Nikon supplied for the legendary Plaubel Makina 6x7 folding camera. Perfectly good and perfectly boring: nothing particularly distinguishes them. The 75mm Nikkor-P and -PC are standard issue Nikkor lenses of the period. All the 75mm and 80mm standard lenses for the S2/EC Bronicas were very good, but if you're the type of photographer who notices fine distinctions there are some differences in how they perform.

Bronica sq 105mm lens