Brand: Bronica (now part of Tamron)

Type: Analog Medium Format SLR

Year of release: 1988

Crop Factor: 0.62x

Aperture: Variable (Depends on the lens)

Weight: 1970g

Condition of my copy: Body with visible marks of use yet fully working, custom added flash hotshoe. The lens has some minor scratches but was lightly infested with funghi. After dissassembling and cleaning the lens the funghi appears to be gone, but it has left its marks on the elements. So far though, those defects haven’t shown on the few pictures I took.

Overview

The Zenza Bronica ETRSi is a Single Lens Reflex Medium Format Film Camera utilizing the 6x4.5 format. It was released in 1988 and stayed in production until 2005. The great thing about this camera (or about all cameras of this type) is its modularity. The camera itself is but a cube with a mirror, a shutter and lots of attachment points for interchangeable parts to go on. Those are usually comprised of a lens, in my case the “standard” 75mm f2.8 Zenzanon, a film back which can be swapped mid shooting, a viewfinder and a grip/winder, if you fancy. There are different versions of those parts to chose from. Having different lenses is nothing special for an SLR, but you can also chose different film backs, for example one for Polaroid or 220 Roll film or 35mm film cartridges or even a (nowadays quite rare and expensive) 35mm panorama back, which exposes frames nearly twice as wide as the usual 3x2 35mm frame. Also, there are different viewfinders and focussing screens. My viewfinder is a simple mirror prism (to which the first owner soldered a custom hotshoe), but there are also variations with an “AE” functionality, which gives you different auto exposure options. Without, you’ll probably need an external lightmeter. As far as grips/winders go, there are basically two versions: a manual one, which mechanically transposes the winding feature from the camera body to a conveniently positioned thumb lever and an electric one, winding automatically and adding quite some bulk to the already rather hefty camera. Both handles massively improve shooting upright though.

To operate the camera, you’ll (obviously) need to load the film first. To do so, the camera back needs to be detached. When loaded and reattached, the blind sheet needs to be pulled out (something I tend to forget everytime), so if your cam doesn’t fire, check this one first. After framing your shot, the shutter button needs to be unlocked. To do so, you have to turn a little dial around the shutter button by 90°. This lock is quite helpful, since the button can be easily pressed by accident when you’re holding the camera without a grip.

After firing off you’ll notice that the viewfinder has gone dark. This is because after each shot, the mirror stays up until the shutter is cocked again. If you’re not using a motorized winder this can be done by either turning the little winder two times or by using the thumblever on a non motorized grip two times.

Build Quality

The overall build quality is good. Sure, it’s not a Hasselblad or a Leica, but the body and the accessories appear quite robust, though plastic is omnipresent (comparable to the Minolta X700). The lens is fully metal and features a clicked aperture, a large focus dial and an aperture preview button. Most of the body is covered with faux leather decals, which surprisingly haven’t started to come off yet. Though the camera body and the film holder look quite battered on my copy, both still work and I haven’t seen any signs of lightleaks so far, which speaks for the longevity of the camera.

The camera was available in different editions, for example a transparent version, which featured a translucent outer shell with no leather coverings as well as some editions in chrome. Apparently, the film back of my camera belonged originally to one of those chrome editions, probably the edition of 1996 since only the frame is chrome while the lid is black.

Features

The camera’s shutterspeeds range from 8 seconds to a 1/500th of a second in 50% steps, plus a bulb mode. The shutter itself is a leaf shutter and therefore located inside the lense rather the body and is controlled electronically, so you’ll need a 6V silver oxide or Alkaline 4LR44 battery. Without, only 1/500 is available. All over the technical gizmos are rather limited since most funky functions can be added with the vast range of accessories. On the body itself, you’ll find three ports: a flash sync socket, a SCA port and a cable release socket. Next to the winder there are two small levers: a mirror lockup lever and a lever for creating multiple exposures. The film back I use is made for common 120 roll film and allows for 15 exposures. Lucky for me the camera came with an attached neckstrap, since it’s not the most lightweight cam to lug around. Both the camera as well as the grip/winder attachments feature a screwmount for a tripod.

Should you get one?

It depends. The ETRSi isn’t cheap, while still significantly cheaper than Rolleis, Mamiyas or Blads. It offers an affordable entry to the world of modular medium format cameras, since it’s widely available on most second hand platforms, sturdy and well built so most of those copys do reliably work and offer a professional quality so they don’t need to be limited to leisure time shooting. The ETRSi definitely is a workhorse, though not a premium one.

You should get one if you plan to be serious about analogue photography and plan to print and / or sell your pictures. If you just want to try medium format shooting I’d recommend to start with a cheaper TLR like the Flexaret.