I first became interested in the Pentax 6×7 system when I saw one in a camera shop window in 1976. I thought that the camera looked like a giant 35mm SLR, and in a sense, that’s what it really is. I thought the design was very clever and intuitive. Other 6x7s that I had seen were box cameras; this one was different. I bought one in 1988, and ended up buying three more over the years. I’ve been using this system professionally since 2000.
I bought a Hasselblad H1 by accident. Like it’s older cousin, the Hasselblad V, the H series is modular. It has options for batteries, viewfinders, and camera backs, in addition to lenses. Sometimes, it turns out, coming into possession of just one camera component can start you on a camera journey.
A while ago I had bought a Phase One P30 back for my Hasselblad V at a price I had thought acceptable. It turns out, of course, it doesn’t fit the V. I had bought a H series back, and there was no mechanism of adapting it to a V camera. The P30 went into a box in a drawer. Play the montage of time passing. Then last year I saw a Hasselblad H1 camera for a reasonable price.
The essence is this: I find myself with two 6×6 SLR systems from the 1970s. One of them was a staple of professional photography for half a century. The other was a rival that eventually faded away. 50 years on, there’s quite a gulf between them in reputation and price and this makes me really …
Hasselblad and the Bronica – Comparing an Icon with a Forgotten Gem – By Dave Palumbo Read More
It was the camera that got me into medium format film photography, and for better or worse, the one that I love, and the one that frustrates me the most. A Soviet tank of a camera – the T-34 if you will – it’s not one that you want to lug up and down mountainsides, for sure.
The Bronica S2A is a hefty 6×6 focal plane medium format SLR that was produced in Tokyo from 1969-1977. It was the last fully mechanical 6×6 SLR among Bronica’s Z/D, C, and S series, and later replaced by the electronic EC model. The S2A is unique in having an ‘instant return automatic mirror’ that swings down instead of up during exposure, which allows space for wide-angle and deep-seated lenses that extend far into the camera body.
