Help! Bronica AE-II Prism Finder

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MoJo101

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Hi

Was hoping to get some info regarding the Bronica AE-II Prism finder. I recently purchased it as part of a camera kit and have experienced a problem.

When it is switched on and you look through it, according to the manual as well as every review i have read about it, it is suppoosed to display a shutter reading. But this one only has a strip of different lights ranging from red, yellow to green but no shutter speed as it should be displaying.

I've scoured the net looking for answers with no luck. My only conclusion is that it is damaged in some way as it is over 20 years old and has s bit of wear and tear on it. I am currently using it with a Bronica ETRSi and a Speed Grip E

Any advice on this would be very appreciated
 
If they are Orange Red and Green.

Orange indicates a non hand holdable speed of below 1/30th
Green indicates a hand holdable speed of between 1/60th & 1/500th
Red indicates under or over exposure.

This may come as a shock if you were expecting a 4 inch digital lcd display with sky, digital radio and a teasmaid.....:D


and welcome to the forum btw...
 
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Lol, thanks for that

But like i said, isn't it supposed to display the shutter speed for the selected aperture as well? I'm confused cause this is what i;ve seen on my mates one as well as in the manual. Were there different types of AE-II finders or just the one?
 
erm have you wound on i.e. set the shutter and the mirror is down?...the shutter speed is then shown.

Btw On mine if I leave it switched on at the "A" position it flattens the battery when not used.
 
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[QUOTE erm have you wound on i.e. set the shutter and the mirror is down?...the shutter speed is then shown.QUOTE]

Didn't quite get this bit sorry

It shows the coloured light indication but not the shutter speeds to set it to like it shoulfd be doing. Any ideas?
 
MoJo101 said:
[QUOTE erm have you wound on i.e. set the shutter and the mirror is down?...the shutter speed is then shown.QUOTE]

Didn't quite get this bit sorry

It shows the coloured light indication but not the shutter speeds to set it to like it shoulfd be doing. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

On mine the AE II doesn't work until I wind on...i.e. I have the speed grip and quick strokes of the lever:-cocks the shutter, brings the mirror down, and winds the film. If not wound on, and I use the exposure button in front, all I see from the AE II is one quick flash of the shutter speeds descending or ascending and then only a red triangle in the left hand bottom corner.

If above doesn't work, the only thing I can think of is:- to clean the contacts.
 
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Thats the thing, i've done all of that and if i slightly depress the button on the speedgrip or press the button on the front of the prism all it does is flash a colour indicator (Red, orange or green which changes according to adjustments) but no shutter speed indicators appear. Proper confused :-(
 
MoJo101 said:
Thats the thing, i've done all of that and if i slightly depress the button on the speedgrip or press the button on the front of the prism all it does is flash a colour indicator (Red, orange or green which changes according to adjustments) but no shutter speed indicators appear. Proper confused :-(
Click to expand...

erm added in my post "you could clean the contacts" :shrug:
 
MoJo101 said:
Tried that. Still no luck! Starting to **** me off now!
Click to expand...

Damn annoying but all is not lost....just take your digital camera or a light meter with you, and transfer the exposure readings to the ETRS ;)
 
I have a Broinca SQ-Ai with a prism and like you when I got it, it did not appear to work.

HOWEVER when I stuck some film in and wound on to the first frame it all burst into life.
 
I've put film in when i first got it and fired a few off, still no change. Just lights and no shutter reading
 
Are there numbers to actually read if they were illuminated ?
Shutter speed numbers on my Bronica EC are actually on the focussing screen, I can read them even when they aren't illuminated
 
Not that i can see. i'm going by what the manual says and what i've read about the AE-II, sorry for the whinging i'm new to these
 
Page 12 of the manual shows a picture of a focussing screen with shutter speed digits across the bottom.
I dunno how the ETR and its finders fit together, its much more modern than my EC, can you see these numbers either in/on the finder or in/on the focussing screen in the camera with the finder not mounted.
 
Page 20 shows a picture of the focussing screen as fitted on the camera with no finder mounted.
Maybe you have the wrong focussing screen, or at least a screen that does not have shutter speed digits to illuminate...:shrug:
 
Thanks for your responses joxby

Can't see any numbers anywhere, either on the prism or the screen and the focusing screen in the manual is the one on my Etrsi

Instead of the numbers i've got coloured lights, unless there was a numbers strip over them that have fallen off i can't think of what could be wrong, i;ve tried everything else
 
Just thinking:- Is the AE II just not working OR just not showing the shutter readout.....as maybe you could still use it for semi auto on the "A" setting.
 
The shutter speed indicators are inside the finder, neither at the focus screen end nor the diopter end, they're inside, so if it ain't showing, something is knacked.
Go see your mate with his etrs and finder and do some comparing, it sounds like something is a miss.
 
Oh right don't sound good. I know i havent diagnosed a problem yet but are they generally reparable?
 
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