Bronica S2 Back Removal Without Darkslide

Hello All,

I recently purchased an additional back for my Bronica S2 and quickly ran into trouble. It didn't come with its own darkslide (first mistake on my part) and I obtained a replacement darkslide then attached the back to the body. It seemed reluctant to attach at first, but I was able to get it to snap into place (second mistake).

Now the body is stuck on; I try pushing in the darkslide in as far as it will go (it appears to be all the way in) and the back won't budge. Is there some secret technique to enable the back to release from the body without the dark slide inserted, possibly by first removing the film insert?

Thanks in advance! Allan

I’ve really got to push mine in hard to get the back to disengage. Sometimes I’ll pull it a ways out and then ram it all the way with some momentum whined it... that seems to work.

Also, check out this thread... https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/dark-slide-will-not-remove-bronica-s2-back.513467/

Thorpelyon, thanks for your reply. Well, I tried several times pushing it in hard, but no dice. Also, thanks for the link. I read through it and tried as suggested to simultaneously push in the slide while pulling the back and still to no avail. I couldn’t find a recessed button on the back of the back that RickJack was referring to but I’ll look again, maybe I’m looking in the wrong place.

I didn’t realize there were two types of slides for the S2 backs; perhaps I obtained the wrong one? I have the type with the curved opposite edge, maybe the back I have needs the other type...?

Thanks again!

Push the slide in with the insert out, so you can see it cross the film gate. The S2 backs should have a cloth shutter curtain that gets pushed across by the slide. The slide catches a slot on the leading aluminium edge of the rubberized curtain, and this aluminium edge press a latch on the opposite side to release the back. Sometime the dark slide will not engage the slot properly , and the slide may slip off (sometimes damaging the curtain). I think you can also carefully push the curtian's leading edge across to release the latch.

There could be a problem with the latch itself. As a last resort, you can always open the top of the back to access the release mechanism directly

cobbu2 said:

I couldn’t find a recessed button on the back of the back that RickJack was referring to but I’ll look again, maybe I’m looking in the wrong place.

Click to expand...

I don't think there is such a button.

If you look at your "good" back, the one not on the camera, you can see what motion is required to release. Looking at the part of the back that will face the camera you should see two small slots (about a quarter of an inch wide) near the top. Just inside each slot, on one side, you can see the little piece of metal that will engagement hooks on the rear of the camera body; they only extend in a short distance - looks like a bit less than 1/16", about the thickness of a us dime.

If you press in on the top of the dark slide, you can see exactly how hard and how far you need to press to move the little metal parts to the edge of the slots. Now, if you go back to the camera, you can see if you're getting that much "throw" on the dark slide. If not, or it's not moving, the comments by itsdoable sound sensible to me (but I have no idea how to open up that part of the back).

If you have a different kind of darkslide in your other magazine, you COULD try swapping. This is a pretty fair pain to do. With the mag off camera, there is a short pin in the mag, upper right as you face the dark slide. The pin is slightly below the mag surface, but if you press it down a bit further, the dark slide will be released. But... don't do it unless you are willing to have a hassle getter it back in. As I recall, trying to get it back won't engage the curtain that itsdoable referred to, thus you can't get it back on the camera, etc. I THINK, from fuzzy memory, that if you press against one of the metal pieces in the slot - the ones that lock the back in place, then the curtain will engage the dark slide which will then work normally again. It takes quite a lot of sideways pressure, same amount as releasing the mag, with the tip of a small screwdriver; you'll wish you had 3 or 4 hands.

Ps, to clarify what itsdoable suggests, looking inside the on-camera mag, with film insert removed, as you push the dark side in or out you should see ONLY a piece of black fabric moving across - your should NOT be able to see the shiny metal of the dark slide.

Best ofluck.

An Update:

First I want to thank all of you with your very helpful responses! Bottom line, I was able to remove the back without damaging the camera.

Basically, the interior mechanism inside the back that, when the darkslide is pushed all the way in, would move the latches to release the top of the back from the body "hooks" was stuck due to some interior (but not visible) corrosion. But being unaware of the corrosion, any amount of force applied to the darkslide was ineffective. Suspecting some kind of interior failure, I decided the back was lost and pried off the top of the back to reveal the latch release mechanism. Inside was much whitish corrosion (similar to what you'd find on a car battery) as if the back was submerged and sat for some time (years?). With a little effort I was able to slide the catches that engage the camera body hooks and remove the back. The back was destroyed in the process, but the film insert and darkslide are savable.

One question remains however, I was never able to see any cloth "curtain" that was referred to that the darkslide would push. On my other S2 backs, the steel darkslide is plainly visible when the film insert is removed. Are there different varieties of S2 backs that have or don't have this feature?

In any case, thanks again!

Tony Hilton's Bronica Early History and Collectors Guide states that S and early S2 backs with serial numbers below CM 81,500 have the internal cloth "safety curtain" in addition to the slide which is pulled. These early backs are for 120 film only.

choiliefan said:

Tony Hilton's Bronica Early History and Collectors Guide states that S and early S2 backs with serial numbers below CM 81,500 have the internal cloth "safety curtain" in addition to the slide which is pulled. These early backs are for 120 film only.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, that's interesting. A little deviation from Tony's info, though: I have a pair of backs prior to that serial #, CM 80xxx and earlier; both have 120/220 film selector. (And they DO have the internal.curtain.)

The plot thickens...

I have 3 backs, 2x S2 backs (53,59) that are 120 only, and an S2a back (120xxx) that has the 220/120 switch. The S2a back does not have the cloth curtain. 3 different dark slides(!)

There definitely seems to be a lot of variation here. Both my current (and working) backs are 80XXX and 28XXX respectively, are both 120/220 capable and have no internal curtain. I'd love to get a copy of that book, but it seems pretty scarce!

There was probably a factory upgrade available for old (curtained) backs to convert them to 220/120. They did things like that back then.

A somewhat pricy book:

https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?...ry%20and%20definitive%20collector%27s%20guide

^^ That's a great site.
I was fortunate to snag a clean copy last year on the bay for much less.
The book also shows four different dark slide profiles for the early Bronicas including the EC.

Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for it.