Bronica AE II prism not working?

FishyFish

FishyFish

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Nige
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I've not used the AE II prism on my ETRSi for ages as I prefer the WLF, but it definately makes it easier to shoot in portrait orientation! :)

Anyway, I decided I might use it today so fitted it to the camera to remind myself how it works. However I can't see anything in the display other than the image through the lens. No warning lights or indicators of any kind. Any ideas?

I tried putting the camera in multi-exposure mose and removing the dark slide to test fire it, but the display does nothing. I haven't tried it with a film loaded, but don't recall it requiring that to show a display before? The battery in the camera seems fine.

Any ideas, or has my AE II quietly expired while I wasn't showing it attention?
 
Are the contacts clean?
 
StephenM said:
:p Are the contacts clean?
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My first thoughts.

The slightest bit of grime, dust or moisture used to send mine ( or as it now, someone else’s ) prism haywire by either refusing to function or more often having the metering leds flickering randomly like a scene from close encounters of the third kind.
I did occasionally wonder if an alien community was trying to make contact , then realised they already had ……….


… through TP:exit::ROFLMAO:
 
FishyFish said:
The contacts look pristine, but I did try giving them a clean with some IPA earlier. Sadly to no avail.
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I cannot recall exactly how the prism functions.
I seem to remember there was a battery check button somewhere on ( the side?) of it though afaik it powers up from the the power supp’y in the main body of the camera.

Is there a certain setting on the body that has to be set for the prism to work.?

I’m clutching at straws here but sometimes the obvious simply isn’t obvious!
 
The manual probably doesn't add anything to what you've done. The battery check on the camera body causes "red flashes in the lower right hand corner when battery power is sufficient for operations", and the contacts on both prism and body should be clean.
 
FishyFish said:
Yeah, there’s a button on the front that tests the prism. Does nothing unfortunately.

I think my next course of action is to try it again with some film loaded in case that somehow makes a difference.
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Anything at this point is worth a try though I doubt loading film in the bronny is necessary for the prism to work.
I’ve only ever possessed one camera whose metering functioned off the film in some way ( reflection of the image?)
That , iirc, was an Olympus camera of some sort.
 
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Scraping the barrel:- move lens f no settings back and forth e,g, from f3.5 to f22........also have a 35mm camera that the exposure meter doesn't work BUT camera works on auto setting for correct exposure. So worth taken a shot on auto to see if same.
 
I'm not sure this adds anything to the advice above, but here's the relevant page from the Bronica Manual.

20230205_182547-tp.jpg
 
Thanks folks. Still no luck, sadly.

I think it's dead :(

I can still use it as a prism finder but I'll just have to meter manually.

An extra bonus question... I always use the magnifier when using the WLF. Is there something that can be used to magnify the view in a prism finder? I know you can get dioptres at differing strengths, but assume those are to correct eyesight when reading the display, not to magnify the image?
 
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On magnifying the image - not that I know of. I assume that some sort of eyepiece could be built and attached to achieve this, but it would be an additional optical component rather than a single lens. Off the top of my head, you'd be looking at adding an afocal component - think of it as another viewfinder tacked on the back.
 
StephenM said:
On magnifying the image - not that I know of. I assume that some sort of eyepiece could be built and attached to achieve this, but it would be an additional optical component rather than a single lens. Off the top of my head, you'd be looking at adding an afocal component - think of it as another viewfinder tacked on the back.
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That's what I want. If it can be shaped like a moon on a stick, then it would be perfect. :D
 
FishyFish said:
Thanks folks. Still no luck, sadly.

I think it's dead :(

I can still use it as a prism finder but I'll just have to meter manually.

An extra bonus question... I always use the magnifyer when using the WLF. Is there something that can be used to magnify the view in a prism finder? I know you can get dioptres at differing strengths, but assume those are to correct eyesight when reading the display, not to magnify the image?
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H'mm can't think of a reason why one would want one instead of waist level use as the prism is really used to turn the etrs into a large 35mm camera....same for my prism on my RB67
 
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excalibur2 said:
H'mm can't think of a reason why one would want one instead of waist level use as the prism is really used to turn the etrs into a large 35mm camera.
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First paragraph of the opening post from Nige:

‘I’ve not used the AE II prism on my ETRSi for ages as I prefer the WLF, but it definately makes it easier to shoot in portrait orientation! :)’

;)
 
FishyFish said:
Mainly because shooting in portrait orientation with a WLF is a thing of evil. :) I really wish the ETR range had rotating backs.
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The reason I got the SQ over the ETR was getting frustrated previously when using a Mamiya 645 vertically, ok you loose three frames per roll of 120 but at the time I thought it was a worthwhile trade off.
 
FishyFish said:
Mainly because shooting in portrait orientation with a WLF is a thing of evil. :) I really wish the ETR range had rotating backs.
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Well Bronica made a prism viewfinder E with eye cup vertical (looking down)..dunno much about it.
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FishyFish said:
Mainly because shooting in portrait orientation with a WLF is a thing of evil. :) I really wish the ETR range had rotating backs.
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Well agreed but was thinking of higher magnification with prism (that you want) similar to waist level use.
 
I've just been playing with the AE Prism finder S which wasn't working but checking the book highlighted that it needs a film back with an iso dial in order to work. Fitted my only back with an iso dial and prism finder suddenly works! Don't know if the Etrs is the same?
 
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Peter B said:
I've just been playing with the AE Prism finder S which wasn't working but checking the book highlighted that it needs a film back with an iso dial in 0order to work. Fitted my only back with an iso dial and prism finder suddenly works! Don't know if the Etrs is the same?
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Neither of my film backs has an ISO dial, but the prism meter worked ok with them previously. With the AE II finder, the ISO dial is on the side of the finder itself. Thanks for the suggestion though Peter. (y)
 
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