The odd Bronica ETRS

The Bronica ETRS is a wildly misunderstood camera. It gives the impression that it's broken. I ordered one broken body from eBay and two more from National Camera Exchange with the goal of repairing and restoring them. To my surprise, none were broken. When they arrived, all were in perfectly working condition.

Not that I don't enjoy getting perfectly functioning cameras at amazing discounts. For those of you who wants to try out an ETRS, here are some information that will hopefully help you understand the camera better.

• Today, people think that all SLR camera bodies should automatically return the mirror back down for the next shot. The Bronica ETRS doesn't do that. It returns the mirror while you advance to the next shot. What is the point of having the mirror down when the next frame isn't ready yet?
• People think that the camera body is where you'll find the shutter. The ETRS body does not contain a shutter. People mistook the dark door/mirror air damper thing (not sure what you call it) for the shutter on the ETRS body. The air damper only moves at one speed so people thinking that the shutter speeds are wrong. Don't worry, the stuff in the body moves out of the way before the shutter actually fires. The shutter on the ETRS is in the lens, not the body. Why an in lens leaf shutter? It syncs to all shutter speeds. The Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III will only sync up to 1/250 sec. The ETRS can do 1/500 sec, pretty cool huh?
• You mounted the lens, film back and prism on the body, shot a whole roll of film and nothing came out. This hasn't happened to me, but it could happen to you. The mirror and air damper in the body will flip up and down as you fire away and the film will advance. Without a battery, the shutter in the lens will not fire. Yup! the leaf shutter in the lens is actually electronically timed by Seiko. Without a battery, you took a picture of nothing.
• Camera will not fire if the dark slide is in the film back. Bronica did make a lot of safety precautions to make the camera dummy proof. They didn't do one for the battery. 

To check the ETRS, you need a functioning lens, film back, and a working battery. Put the shutter speed on something slow, say, 2 sec. Put the multi-exposure lever down. It won't advance any film and no film is needed when doing this test. Advance the "film". Look at the lens when you hit the shutter release. If you see the shutter open and close. The body works fine. By the way, the shutter is in front of the aperture blades, not behind. You should be able to see it work clearly.

Hope this helps.

Shot on Lomo 100. I think this is as close to sports photography as I'd want to get.