Zenza Bronica EC-TL

It's a good way to start with, to look at its parts: film back, body with WLF, focusing helicoid and lens.

All together now:

This camera was the result of a dream of Mr. Zenzaburo Yoshino.
Among other businesses, he had a camera shop because he was a photography aficionado.
None of the cameras of the time, around 1950, satisfied him, so he decided to build the perfect camera.

He spent over eight years and more than one hundred thousand yens to build his dream camera.

In 1959 he presented the Zenza Bronica D, a very similar camera to the Hasselblad of the era, the 1000 and 1600 F.

It was a 6x6, SLR, focal-plane shutter system camera.

The advantages over Hasselblad were many, for instance:

• After taking the picture, the mirror and aperture returned automatically to the original position. 
• To allow a greater intrusion of the back of the lens, the mirror was not flipped up but slided down giving the camera a much compacter look.
• Allowed long exposures, up to 10sec, using self-timer.
• The film back could be attached without regarding body/back synchronism.
• The film was fully automatically loaded without adjusting the start mark.

As he wasn't able to produce lenses, he went to Nikon, that he considered the best manufacturer.
Latter they made their own lenses.

The legend tells that the name Bronica is a blend of Brownie and camera.

In the sequence of this camera others came until the one that particularly interests me the EC-TL.

It was presented in 1975. This is a bigger girl than her ancestor but still a great camera crammed with amazing features.

Features:

• Shutter: vertical travelling, cloth focal-plane shutter, electronically controlled 4sec - 1/1000sec, mechanically Bulb, 1/40sec, X sync 1/60sec 
• Film winding / shutter cocking: crank / knob, 2 rotations
• Exposure: instant stop-down metering, aperture-priority AE, manual exposure
• Metering: TTL metering by mirror sensor
• Display: LED, 4sec - 1/1000sec, over, under exposure, lights continuously in AE mode, blinks when in manual mode.
• Finder: Interchangeable, waist-level, focusing screen also interchangeable
• Film back: Interchangeable 120 / 220 film, 12 / 24 exposure, selectable.
• Lenses: Nikkor, Zenzanon also Carl Zeiss Jena, Topcon, etc.
• Other features: Intermediate shutter speeds, mirror lock-up, time exposure, multi-exposure control, mirror lock up, locking PC terminal, dark slide storage pocket, split mirror...
• Battery: 4SR44 type 6V
• Weight: Film back and body 1800g, with standard lens 2010g

My Kit:

 






The camera 

2 film backs

Waist-level finder

Nikkor-H   50mm 1:3.5

Nikkor-PC 75mm 1:2.8

Nikkor-Q 135mm 1:3.5

Metal hood

2 helicoid mounts

The lenses:

                   

 
The Kikkor-H 50/3.5 with the amazing original metal hood



The all day carry around, that makes the camera look "compact":
The Nikkor-PC 75/2.8

 

Great for looks and for portrait work: the Nikkor-Q 135/3.5

The interchangeable focusing glasses are extremely simple to change

  

Just remove the WLF and release the focusing glass frame, it hinges and opens with a spring action, then, without any kind of tool, just remove and replace the focusing glass.

To release the back all you have to do is remove the dark slide from its pocket

and insert it on the slot, when it is fully inserted the back is automatically released.

You don't have to worry about the state of the shutter or film back when changing backs. After replacing the back just wind the film advance and it synchronizes by itself.

This is the famous splitted mirror, the big one on the top and bellow the small one

The big main mirror above swings back and then flips up, the small sub mirror below rotates to the bottom of the camera body. This allows the design of more intrusive lenses, allegedly, 'such design maintains the inertial balance stable, and mirror-shock is minimized'. 
If this is true I can't imagine it without such design, the noise is so loud, when the shutter is released, that I never use this camera on my cemetery shots. I'm afraid of wakening the dead.

Through the viewfinder view of the 50 and 135mm lenses, using the 50mm

You can see on the top right of the image a faint 4, that's the shutter speed recommended for the actual light conditions. You see it faint because it was set to manual, and in such mode the info blinks, in AE (aperture priority) the info lights continuously. 

This camera doesn't need any special finder to meter the light, it has a light sensor in the main mirror and another one to compensate from the light coming from the finder. It uses the stop down method, as many SLR cameras of the same era. You can make a reading and check the DOF, pressing the button opposite from the shutter release. In AE mode the reading is taken when you press the shutter release.

I think that's enough about the features but, not exhaustive, I could be writing about it for much longer.
Maybe that it's not a good idea, this is big enough trial to your patience.

Let's just look of what I managed to do with it:

Me and Bronica EC-TL

Pouca-terra, pouca-terra...

Refuge

If you are interested I have some more shots taken with it on my Flickr photostream.

Stay Tuned (o;