Bronica SQ-A Long Exposure

With the Bronica SQ-A I'm curious about the rather fiddly long exposure option. By this, I mean is it possible in a practical way?

Seems like you have to manage like a one-armed paperhanger. If I get it right, you have to find a way to release the unthreaded set screw on the lens so you can move the slide on the "A" ring, press the shutter button, count down the exposure, use a sheet of cardboard or something similar to cover the lens, and then re-shift the slide to close the lens again. I may not have the details completely right... 'cause I haven't figured out how to move these slides for the life of me.... 'cause I can't figure out what I'm really trying to do to/with the set screw thing. All the while of course you need the camera on a tripod and the mirror locked up.

If you have experience with this operation, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Yes, I did post it in the Bronica sub-group, but then I discovered the group was actually and specifically excluding the SQ-A... so I've apologized there (and repeat that I apologize for not noticing the exclusion before clogging their bandwidth).
If this is just NOT the right camera to try this... say so. I'd like to do it now and then.... not as a regular thing... so it's not like it's going to be my main technique or anything... but if it can work for once in a blue moon, I'll work it out.

Thanks in advance!

Remove the roll film back and test the function, This is the best method to learn the sequence and make it automatic

Sorry, Google translate !

You turn the set screw on the lens all the way out beforehand, which allows you to slide the T switch without any fiddling. The set screw just serves to lock the switch on "A" when you are not doing time exposures longer than 8 sec. Once you've done it a few times in practice, it's very quick. Here's my routine:
1. Camera on tripod, focused, composed, aperture set. Don't forget the dark slide.
2. Lock up the mirror.
3. Slide the switch to "T".
4. Using cable release, trip the shutter (it's very quiet without the mirror flapping up). The shutter stays open until you slide the switch back.
5. When time is up, I hold a ball cap or something similar in front of the lens as I slide the switch back to "A". For exposures of 8 sec or longer, this has no visible impact on the image.
6. Advancing to the next frame drops the mirror back down.

I have a small digital stopwatch with an LED display to countdown my exposures. One benefit of the "T" switch is that there is no battery drain on the camera during the exposure.

The SQ-AI will do time exposures up to 16 sec, but I prefer the SQ-A. It seems to be more robust and less electronic-dependent than the SQ-AI.

It's a bit fiddly with the T switch under the lens, but that's the way it works. Once you've released the lock you just leave it unlocked until you've finished with Timed exposures.

The SQ-Ai has a Bulb mode, but it requires the battery to keep the shutter open unlike T mode on the lenses.

A mechanical B mode would be nice but we have to make do with what we have.

I don't know if a modification to the Sq-A is possible, but I'd love it if you could keep tripping the shutter in ME mode without having to wind on. I'd use multiple 8 second slices for long exposures over T mode if it worked that way. But winding on defeats the object as there's no way of avoiding camera shake.

The outline is very helpful. Seems like the key here is that a film back has to be on the camera, and it needs a moment, but then the little silver set screw pulls out. Got it. Thanks! This is sooooooooooooooooo good. Can't thank you folks enough!

Guess the next question is whether or not you are using one of the iphone apps for reciprocity failure adjustments? and if so which one? or are you referencing something completely different for calculating exposure?

With my SQ-A I haven't used the T function enough to claim "experience" but it should be mentioned the lock is a screw on the 'S' model (earlier) lenses, but it is a plunger you lift on the 'PS' lenses. I can lift the plunger on a PS lens with just the lens in my hand -- not that that accomplishes anything. (I don't own any 'S' lenses to play with.)

Most of my long exposure work is with pinhole which is a whole other kettle o' fish. I do have Reciprocity+ on my iPhone, but I usually work from a spreadsheet generated table when pinholing. One of my preferred 120 films is Fuji Acros which goes quite a ways out before reciprocity rears its head enough to matter.

A sub-second jiggle at the end of a 30 second exposure is unlikely to record much unless there is a source of bright light in the scene (streetlight, star, neon sign, etc.) That is where the hat is useful and necessary (and probably wise as a standard practice).

I use a Bronica SQ-A almost exclusively and have very regularly got my 10 stop filter on there which means i am doing exposures in the minutes. The S lenses have a screw under the lens, but the newer PS lenses have alittle pull-out thing that is much easier to use.

What I do is compose and get everything setup, then unscrew/pop-out the pin and slide the lens catch over to timed exposure. Then I lock up my mirror and use a cable release to fire off the shutter whilst simultaneously starting a timer. As I near the end of the exposure I stick a hat over the end of the lens to block the light, release the cable release, slide back the time exposure slider and put in the darkslide. Then I wind on and setup for another shot ro apck everything away.

Wilfbiffherb: Thanks! I have one of Lee's BigStopper ND's and will have to see if I can fit it on these PS lenses. I should already have the adapters. Had an S lens but am trading it back out as those don't have even 1/2 stops... and truth be told, I prefer Zeiss's 1/3 stops (ZM's on an M). I am trying to rationalize my gear but am looking forward to using the Bronica for those more serious efforts where I want the best I can get... and the bulk isn't going to be a problem. Not yet ready to make the SQ-A my main squeeze since I've just stepped up to it and MF/120 6X6 for the first time, but looking to include it as often as possible, and reading Barry Thornton's "Edge of Darkness" certainly makes a compelling case for MF as the main item.
Thanks especially for the practical recount.

DWThomas: Thanks!

If you get the newer lenses the time exposure lock just pulls out, you don't have to unscrew it. It's not really a problem to plop on the lens cap when the exposure is done (which really isn't even essential)--remember, you're doing a time exposure, and a second or two out of 30 or more isn't going to matter. You'll have more inaccuracy in your exposure because of reciprocity failure than with the time it takes to slide the time exposure piece back in place to close the lens.

You can also use the dark slide to block the light to the film.

"You can also use the dark slide to block the light to the film."

Ah........... VERY GOOD idea! Thanks!

Read the instruction manual, it is a no brainer. I've exposed marine scenes to 15 minutes with several ND filters. Granted, many cameras are easier, but if your a competent photographer it should be no problem.

JWMster said:

Yes, I did post it in the Bronica sub-group, but then I discovered the group was actually and specifically excluding the SQ-A... so I've apologized there (and repeat that I apologize for not noticing the exclusion before clogging their bandwidth).

Click to expand...

1) There's a Bronica sub-group? I don't see it anywhere... probably I'm blind

2) WHY would they exclude SQ-A.... bizarre. Perhaps if I find the sub-group I will find my answer...

Filmamigo: Here's a link: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

filmamigo said:

2) WHY would they exclude SQ-A.... bizarre. Perhaps if I find the sub-group I will find my answer...

Click to expand...

It's because that group is for "classic" Bronicas, which were the focal plane shutter models which came before the leaf-shuttered ETR, SQ and GS SLRs (and the Bronica rangefinder).

Tend agree it's odd to leave out the other Bronica cameras and narrow it to the focal plane shutter models... but then again, there are specific issues they've got. In any case, it's not like I'm missing much anyway. Web traffic for Bronica seems heavier on ebay (sigh!) than on that group. Where to go? I'm content to check things here, but also on the flckr group: https://www.flickr.com/groups/bronicasqa/

Alas, methinks the Interwebz are becoming too much of A Good Thing(tm)! These various groups proliferate -- sometimes maybe because it's hard to tell what's already there, and there become multiple groups overlapping each other and diluting traffic that is pretty small to begin with. On Flickr, there is also a discussion group for Bronica. I look at that from time to time and it claims to have over 4000 members, but traffic is near non-existent. (And thanks, I didn't know about the group you posted above!)

When I first cobbled together my SQ-A kit circa 2006, I had a problem and put Google to work. That's when I discovered APUG, as well as Photo.net. In general I got the most useful info here (and a number of people are seen on both). ((Especially at the time, the navigation of the other site was way more tedious, among other turn-offs.)) I think posting on the Medium Format forum here, and including some key like "Bronica SQ" in the title (as you have wisely done) is about the best you/we can do. It has always seemed a little mysterious to me as to what the "Groups" here are supposed to be. They are almost like leftovers of a previous site merged into this one. Granted, they allow an individual to start up a separate sub-forum and exert some control over it -- so you could even start a Bronica SQ-x group , but I find traffic on most of those groups, at least the handful I've joined, is really minimal. I suspect their largest utility would be to create and coordinate activities for geographic regions, and some of that is indeed done. (Pennsy Photo Pholks anyone? ... )

I think those older Bronicas, besides having focal plane shutters, represent a sort of classic, collector target; a more "artistic" styling that the newer more industrial business-like SQ, ETR and GS didn't have when the groups were being created -- the latter were almost still in production!

Thanks all for indulging my off-topic question. I've been around APUG for years and never noticed that Groups tab... where the content looks a lot like the regular forums... Cheers