Bronica walks

Feb 16

Between Christmas and New Year I acquired a Bronica SQ-A camera together with an 8omm f2.8 lens. The person of whom I bought this setup, told me he had not used the camera for over 20 years. After some testing at his home I decided the buy the set.

I wanted a medium format film camera for a long time, specially a camera that can only take square (6×6) images. The cost for obtaining a medium format camera setup can be expensive. Certainly when you want to have a Hasselblad film camera. The Bronica is not so expensive and until now I am really happy to own and use this system.

The positive aspect of this camera can also be a negative one. With one 120mm film roll you can shoot 12 images, no more. It forces me to really be selective in what I want to photograph. On my phone I have an app called Viewfinder. With this app I preview all my compositions before I take out the Bronica off my camera-bag. With my 4x5 Intrepid I too have the same approach.

The camera is really simple in its setup. The only part that needs a battery is the shutter, the shutter is electronically controlled. The rest of this camera is pure mechanical. So the shutter-speed, F-stop and focusing is set by hand. This kind of camera and the small amount of shots per roll does slow me down and somehow makes my experience of taking images more tactile, focused and satisfying. On a photo-walk I usual use 1 roll of 120mm film on a rare occasion 2 rolls.

The last few weekends I have been out several times with the Bronica. The images in this post are shot on Ilford FP4plus and Ilford HP5plus film. I have developed all the films at home. I have scanned the “negatives” with my Fujifilm XT3 camera in combination with a Loawa macro lens. I have converted the “negatives” with Affinity Photo and finally edited with Capture One.

These Ilford films are super to use. But I also really like to use Fomapan films. Fomapan film is more cost friendly and has a nice tonal appearance. I use Fomapan sheet film without any problems with my 4×5 large format setup and I do like the results. But until now I had some bad luck with Fomapan 120mm film.

In this post I have enclosed some of my favourite images made with the Bronica SQ-A.