Bronica etrs

Hello, I am new to these forums and this is my first post. I have recently aquired a Bronica etrs 6x4.5 camera. The camera has silver trim but does not appear to be the anniversary model. Does this mean the camera was made before 1981? I beleive it is a metal body. I have just received my first contact sheet from it and am overjoyed with the quality and clarity of the images produced by the 75mmEII lens. I was about to buy a digital slr and yet something made me buy the Bronica instead. Its a funny old business photography!

The tamron website still has the time lines on it.

http://www.tamron.com/bronica/etr_guide.asp

Looks like the lens release can help date the model.

Hi timeslicer,

Welcome to APUG.

Can't help you directly, I have a ETRSi but it's 2000+ miles away from me right now.

BTW, you might want to make a formal introduction to the site. Check the forum listing for the "Introduce Yourself...." thread.

timeslicer said:

I have recently acquired a Bronica ETRS 6x4.5 camera. The camera has silver trim but does not appear to be the anniversary model. Does this mean the camera was made before 1981?

Click to expand...

The best source for info on chrome ETR models and components is the camerapedia article that I helped write:

http://camerapedia.org/wiki/Bronica_ETR

To answer your question, yes all silver chrome ETRS models were built before 1981 when Bronica switched to polycarbonate. In fact from the introduction of the ETR series in 1976 until the switch in 1981, Bronica always offered a metal chrome bodies and backs. Since "pros always prefer black" they didn't sell very many, and they are now rather rare. Despite this rarity, these pre-1981 chrome models were not special editions in any way.

Thanks for the reply, my Bronica is exactly like the one shown at the head of your excellent article. I have to say I prefer metal bodies on cameras even if it makes them heavier, and I particularly like the look of the silver and black model that I have. So far I have been using the camera with just the standard EII lens and waist level finder. The contact sheets have surprised me with the quality possible and I am now searching for the ever elusive magic image to have enlarged.