So the first roll of 120 is nearly finished in my newly acquired Bronica ETR-Si.
What a learning curve though - some of yesterday evenings events are laughable, i'm so used to automatic everything and the wastefulness that is digital (ie shoot, look, delete, try again !!).
The plus points...
+ very enjoyable experience using something so different to a conventional shaped SLR
+ film loading is very easy - one look at the instruction diagram and i was away. A real bonus as i did wonder whether loading film out in the field would be a pain in the ass.
+ viewfinder; its like watching HD TV !
The mistakes !!
- first shot i couldn't get the shutter to fire, dark slide still in !
- removed dark slide still, no response, film advance handle needed another 2 clicks, presumably to cock the shutter
- first pic taken then realised i'd forgotten to focus but fortunately was set to infinity so correct for the shot
Went to several local locations as the light of the late evening was fading, mainly to test out the Weston Master V lightmeter readings (ebay £5.50 )
The frustrations..
one thing i did find frustrating was that using 125ISO Ilford FP4+ film i was always struggling to find a combination shutter speed and aperture value. This is no doubt partly due to the limited range of shutter speeds on the Bronica but i do find it a bit disconcerting, especially when you can't check the results immediately! Maybe a different iso film would have given me somethign more aligned to shutter and apertures on the camera ?
I did take some shots using aperture settings between the click stops of the lens - it was a bit of a gamble at the time as i didn't know for sure what setting i would get . The manual suggests there are intermediate settings (provided no metered prism in use), so i think i'm OK.
Could someone confirm this ?
What a learning curve though - some of yesterday evenings events are laughable, i'm so used to automatic everything and the wastefulness that is digital (ie shoot, look, delete, try again !!).
The plus points...
+ very enjoyable experience using something so different to a conventional shaped SLR
+ film loading is very easy - one look at the instruction diagram and i was away. A real bonus as i did wonder whether loading film out in the field would be a pain in the ass.
+ viewfinder; its like watching HD TV !
The mistakes !!
- first shot i couldn't get the shutter to fire, dark slide still in !
- removed dark slide still, no response, film advance handle needed another 2 clicks, presumably to cock the shutter
- first pic taken then realised i'd forgotten to focus but fortunately was set to infinity so correct for the shot
Went to several local locations as the light of the late evening was fading, mainly to test out the Weston Master V lightmeter readings (ebay £5.50 )
The frustrations..
one thing i did find frustrating was that using 125ISO Ilford FP4+ film i was always struggling to find a combination shutter speed and aperture value. This is no doubt partly due to the limited range of shutter speeds on the Bronica but i do find it a bit disconcerting, especially when you can't check the results immediately! Maybe a different iso film would have given me somethign more aligned to shutter and apertures on the camera ?
I did take some shots using aperture settings between the click stops of the lens - it was a bit of a gamble at the time as i didn't know for sure what setting i would get . The manual suggests there are intermediate settings (provided no metered prism in use), so i think i'm OK.
Could someone confirm this ?