Faulty Bronica lens?

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SamuelHearn

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I purchased a Bronica ETRS from eBay the other week, got two lenses, a 50mm MC and a 75mm.

Whilst the 75mm seems to work perfectly with the body, firing correctly at all shutter speeds - the 50mm seems to have a problem. The leaf shutter opens and shuts correctly as does the aperture - it's just that I can't change the shutter speed. At a speed of 1/500 it seems to be doing about 1/500 (although I can't time it) and set to a speed of say 2 seconds the leaf shutter will still be going at 1/500ish. Basically I have no control over the shutter speed, I've put this down to a faulty leaf shutter. Does anyone have any idea on whether this might be a faulty contact within the lens that I could fix myself or whether it's terminal? I've already cleaned all the contacts and it hasn't helped. Would love to keep it as it seems like a nice length.

Sam
 
I've just had the shutter assembly completely replaced in a blad lens and it wasn't cbeap!

Your problem could be anything - might even be something as simple as the shutter mainspring needing replacing. Sometimes there's a problem with availability of parts now with some of these older lenses. I'd be inclined to find someone who services Bronnies and give them a ring. At least get some idea of likely cost before you send it in. Depending on what you paid for the lens, it might be better to just replace it or risk having a go yourself. Lens repair isn't my forte - tried it once - never again! :D
 
Could it be that the battery went flat just after using the 75mm lens and is firing at backup speed of 1/500.
 
Couple of things to try

1st get a new battery for the camera, always worth a first try.

2nd get a clean rubber, like the end of a pencil one, and gently rub the contacts on the body and the lens.

If all of the above fails to work then it could be any number of things as CT said.
 
Did you leave feedback? Did you pay via PayPal? Have you told the seller?

Seems to me you should sort this with the seller before parting with your own cash.
 
Well - if one lens is working fine at all speeds and the other isn't then it's highly likely to be hte lens not the body or the battery. I'd definitely give the contacts a bit of a go over with the pencil eraser trick - it's best if it's one of the hard pink jobs - i've actually got an old typist/secretarys eraser I use for the purpose (it's in the form of a pencil, with a hard granular rubber core and a hard brush on the non-sharpened end. It's also a rather fetching pink to match my eyes :lol:). If this doesn't sort it, then i'd be looking at reparations / partial refunds at the very least from your ebay source, as it's not going to be cheap to fix, as it's quite involved, and spares are hard to come by :(
 
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SamuelHearn, I do not know if you have solved your problem with your Bronica lens. However, even if you have, you may be interested in the following : Camera Hobby, by Edwin Leong. The site/link you want is :

http://www.camerahobby.com/Photo-Bronica_Tips.htm

Bronica Tips re Film backs, Lenses, 'The Bronica Lockup' etc., There are five pages to look at in connection with Bronica gear.
 
Cheers all. I'm not going to send it back, seems like a lot of hassle, and it came with a body from a seller who obviously isn't interested in cameras and had no idea that it was faulty.. Still got a good deal on it, I think it'd be a bit mean of me to send it back as she had no idea how it worked.

Definitely not the battery - fresh one in the camera and as said, it works with the other lens. Tried cleaning with a rubber and it still doesn't work :'( Going to do a bit more research, will be easier now that I know it's definitely something inside the lens.

Thanks everyone!
 
Not sure what you paid for the camera etc, but to replace the 50mm it's going to be the wrong side of £50 at a minimum - so unless it was a really good deal on the rest of the kit, I'd certainly mention the duff lens, and maybe try for a few quid refund.
 
TheBigYin said:
Not sure what you paid for the camera etc, but to replace the 50mm it's going to be the wrong side of £50 at a minimum - so unless it was a really good deal on the rest of the kit, I'd certainly mention the duff lens, and maybe try for a few quid refund.
Click to expand...

Depends entirely on the description though - this sounds like it was more of a 'sold as seen, I have no idea, just seems like a big fat camera that I want to get rid of' rather than a 'fully functioning, snappy blades and nicely working shutter mechanism on the Zenza-Bronica lenses' sort of listing.
 
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