Well, I have had an interesting couple of weeks, so the next few posts will be about my adventures.

The first adventure started online and then via mail. A lovely gentleman made a comment about a camera I posted so I offered to send it to him. If I get things for free or very cheap, I tend to move them on to other film photographers, keeping film alive. In return he sent me a few cameras to try. This continued until he asked if he could borrow a lens for the Pentax 110, he had a body but no lens. That meant he could not see if it worked. Sure, says I, but why don’t I deliver it in person and we can go for a photo walk. Sure, says he, and why not use my Bronica S2a which I just got from West Yorkshire Cameras.

Brilliant. So here we are, a post about a Bronica S2a that I literally tried one film in then handed it back.

These photos were taken in Starbucks while we got to know each other. You wouldn’t believe it, but we had a lot in common 😉

Sam helped me load the camera with 120 Phoenix, it would be my first experience of using it. I was a little worried as the 35mm version was very much an experimental film and this would be my only film in this camera. However, I had seen some great results from the 120 version. He warned me that the shutter and wind on motion had a kind of kick. I might think that it was broken, but it was normal. He was right, without the warning I would have been a little worried. It reminded me of the Kiev 88, which also had a massive slap on release and wind.

Our location was Coventry Cathedral and center. We wandered around various areas, I tried this camera and another that I will write about soon. I loved using this Bronica. The viewfinder was bright enough for me and I found it easy to focus. The thunk let you know everything worked as it should.

Here are the results from the one roll I tried.

I like the results, the film shows a lot less halation than on the 35mm phoenix I have tried.

Now a little about the camera. As I mentioned this is the S2a, the successor to the S2. There isn’t a lot of difference between the two. The S2a has an improved film advance mechanism, which is interesting given the loud, heavy thunk of this camera. What on earth does an S2 minus the A sound like? This interesting post also talks about the noise. It was produced at the very end of the 1960 and into the 1970s and was the last mechanical Bronica.

This post has some great information if you are interested in buying an S2a for yourself. Plus, it also has some shots from Chiang Mai, where I lived for 3 years…before my film life. This post has all the technical information you might require.

And there you have it, that’s all she wrote. I can’t really write more as I no longer have the camera to touch and fiddle with. Would I buy one? Maybe, if I had disposable income. But for now I will stick with my noisy Kiev.

Oh, and now I can make a Bronica section in my camera post list. I love it when that happens 🙂