Bronica MC 75mm F2.8 vs EII vs PE

Radost · Apr 7, 2024

I have an ETRS with a 75mm F2.8 MC.
Like the camera for close up shots and small size. But the quality of the lens wide open does not compare to my other medium format 645 cameras.
Thinking about upgrading but the PE lenses have shot up in price.
I got a deal on 75mm F2.8 EII. I read other places that the EII is a lot better than the E MC and the same design coating as the PE.
Any truth to that?
Should I get the EII? Is this a good enough upgrade or should I get the PE?

Radost · Apr 7, 2024

no bro i a ETRs people here?

VoodooXT · Apr 9, 2024

Not a Bronica ETR user (GS-1 and S2A user myself) but I hear the original 75mm MC lens has pretty bad performance so the EII or PE would be a significant step up.

neilt3 · Apr 9, 2024

I've got the EII and PE .
Sharpness wise they seem the same .
Slight improvement on lens coatings on the PE, not sure it's made much difference to me .
Aperture ring has half stop indents . Handy for slide film in manual exposure .
But it's possible to set the aperture half way between indents anyway, roughly.

Agree the MC is a poor lens .
Had one that came with a body , it was inferior sharpness and flair wise .

Radost · Apr 10, 2024

neilt3 said:
I've got the EII and PE .
Sharpness wise they seem the same .
Slight improvement on lens coatings on the PE, not sure it's made much difference to me .
Aperture ring has half stop indents . Handy for slide film in manual exposure .
But it's possible to set the aperture half way between indents anyway, roughly.

Agree the MC is a poor lens .
Had one that came with a body , it was inferior sharpness and flair wise .

Thank You.
I did read the 150mm MC is very good. Shot a bunch of triX with it and will find out by myself .

wiltw · Apr 10, 2024

The coatings of the PE lenses have been said to improve lens contrast when shot wide open. Otherwise, the PE lenses have a better mechanism for T setting. The EII is an improvement over the orignal MC.

MarkS · Apr 12, 2024

I thought this an odd question- but then from 1979-81 I used a Bronica ETR on the job as a high school yearbook photographer. I made who knows, thousands of group portraits and "candids" for many, many yearbooks. I had one lens, a 75mm, and everything was lit by two big Metz 45 'hammerhead' strobes. So most exposures were around f/8 (?) and the 8x10 prints looked fine. A very good camera (supplied by the studio I worked for) and no one ever saw, or said, anything bad about the lenses.
However, at this late date I have no idea which iteration of the lens was the one I used, so this comment is likely to be useless.

Radost · Apr 12, 2024

MarkS said:
I thought this an odd question- but then from 1979-81 I used a Bronica ETR on the job as a high school yearbook photographer. I made who knows, thousands of group portraits and "candids" for many, many yearbooks. I had one lens, a 75mm, and everything was lit by two big Metz 45 'hammerhead' strobes. So most exposures were around f/8 (?) and the 8x10 prints looked fine. A very good camera (supplied by the studio I worked for) and no one ever saw, or said, anything bad about the lenses.
However, at this late date I have no idea which iteration of the lens was the one I used, so this comment is likely to be useless.

Not useless at all. I taught only the Japanese did medium format school portraits!

reddesert · Apr 12, 2024

School portraits in the US were typically done on medium format, often with a special 70mm long roll camera (one manufacturer was "Camerz").

Mark, if you were taking photos in 1979-81 your lens was probably an original E (MC) or maybe an E II. I'm not sure when the E II came out, but I'm sure the PE versions date to well after 1981. The ETR came out in 1976, ETRS in 1978, ETRSi in 1988 (per wikipedia). The manual for the ETRS still shows the original 75mm version with 58mm filter size, while the manual for the ETRSi shows the E II version. Someone might be able to figure out the lens introduction dates by digging through more Bronica literature.

It's worth keeping in mind that these lenses are mostly 30-40 years old and there could be sample variance depending on whether any individual lens has been dropped, has thin haze, etc.

MarkS · Apr 12, 2024

The studio chain that I worked for used 70mm studio cameras for the actual senior portraits. The one I used was a Camerz Classic twin-lens model; we shot Kodak Vericolor II type S film in 100' rolls. Miles of it, probably.
Part of the studio's contract with the schools said that they would supply group portraits of the school's teams, organization, faculty, etc. along with "candids" for the yearbook (we would also instruct the students in the basics of photography). That was where the Bronicas came in... we used lots of Tri-X Pan. The ETR was a rugged camera, well-suited to the tasks we had. The only trouble was that the studio didn't pay me enough to afford one of my own!

Bronica MC 75mm F2.8 vs EII vs PE

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