Bronica

Bronica or Zenza Bronica (ゼンザブロニカ) was a Japanese brand of professional medium-format roll-film cameras. Over a period of 47 years, the company produced a variety of SLR and rangefinder designs that proved popular with both amateur and professional photographers.

Bronica cameras first appeared in 1958, when its founder, Zenzaburo Yoshino, introduced a camera of his own design, the Bronica Z, at the Philadelphia Camera Show. Because Zenzaburo had invested nearly all company resources into production of the camera body, he sourced the Bronica's lenses from an established Japanese optics and camera manufacturer - none other than Nikon (Nikon Kogaku Kikai). With its superb, precision-ground Nikkor lenses, the first Bronica became an instant success.

Bronica SLR cameras employ a modular design: the major components of the camera — lens, body, film back, and viewfinder — are separate and interchangeable. Bronica cameras were mainstays of wedding and portrait photographers for many years, and their relative affordability made them popular with amateur photographers as well.

As the company expanded, Bronica would later introduce lenses of its own design, along with continued refinements and new models of the Bronica SLR, in different rollfilm formats. A rangefinder model, the RF645 in 6×4.5 cm format, was also introduced in 2000. Tamron, a large Japanese lens manufacturer and a supplier of lens elements, eventually acquired Zenza Bronica Ltd. Zenzaburo Yoshino died in 1988.

The Bronica GS-1 was discontinued in 2002, and the last Bronica SLR cameras (SQ, ETR) were discontinued in October 2004. The last Bronica camera, the RF645, was dropped in October 2005. Secondhand Bronica cameras are still widely used by professional and serious amateur photographers, in no small part due to the superior image quality of medium format film over smaller film and digital sensor formats.

Focal plane shutter SLR (6×6)

• Bronica Z
• Bronica D
• Bronica C
• Bronica S
• Bronica S2
• Bronica S2A
• Bronica EC
• Bronica EC-TL

Leaf shutter SLR

4.5×6

• Bronica ETR
• Bronica ETR-C
• Bronica ETR-S
• Bronica ETR-Si

6×6

• Bronica SQ
• Bronica SQ-A
• Bronica SQ-Am
• Bronica SQ-Ai
• Bronica SQ-B

6×7

• Bronica GS-1

Rangefinder (4.5×6)

• Bronica RF645

Links

• Bronica Users Group (BUG) at the Yahoo Groups site
• Summary of Bronica Models
• Tamron statement of termination of Bronica camera business and seven years of support (October 2005).
• http://www.butkus.org/chinon/ PDF instruction manuals (at bottom of page, under Professional) of many Bronica cameras and some system booklets showing available lenses and viewfinders available.
• George Masters' review of the Bronica RF645 and 100mm lens