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First roll through a Bronica S I picked up. What went wrong here?

surprisinggoose

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2026
Messages
3
Location
New York
Format
Analog
I picked up a Bronica S as a Christmas present for myself and just scanned the first roll I put through it. The negatives weren't encouraging, but much to my surprise I got an effect I have never seen before. A couple of images came out relatively ok, but as you can see others have the effect I'm referring to. (http://imgur.com/a/VURV9AM)
 
hard to say exactly, but the straight lines and soft edges make it look like a light leak on the film back door, either at the hinge or where it clips closed.
 
welcome to photrio.

there is an effect with b&w film where gross overexposure can lead to a reversal effect. If the large gray area is what has you confused, it could be from a severe sustained light leak going into reversal. Hence the normally exposed sky looking white and the central blob being darker.

A good way to find a leak is to put the film in the camera as shot and see where the leak area is. And be aware that often the actual leak is before or after the exposure opening, when the film is coming off of or going onto a spool. So look at. frames before and after the film gate, also.

Light leaks, decayed foam and such, are common on older cameras. Hopefully this will be resolved quickly and you can enjoy your present.
 
If it is a light leak, it isn't in the film transport area, because the rebate areas and space between frames seem unaffected.
I would suspect the mirror may not be travelling in the way and at the times it is supposed to.
 
So I found out through some other communities that there are light seals in the film back itself where the dark slide is held. I opened up the dark slide holding area and sure enough there was some degraded light seals in there suspiciously shaped like the leaks I was having. I haven't had a chance to shoot a roll yet, but hopefully this solves the issue!
 
@surprisinggoose the leak doesn't go into the rebate area, so it occurs in front of the film back.

The bottom "inverted U" part is caused by the mirror baffle not lowering. This is supposed to fall over the mirror but it is staying and masking the film.

I think the curtains are moving correctly at the beginning, exposing the film behind the bad baffle. Then the curtains slow down and poorly expose the top part of the image after the baffle finally (partially?) dropped. During that, the curtain under the focusing screen sticks open, causing the wide horizontal leak. I don't know what causes the vertical over exposure on the left.

Check this slow motion video of the Bronica, it might help understand what I *think* is happening.


Needless to say, the camera is in bad shape! They are not easy to fix so I would return it if possible.
 
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Interestingly, I cannot see the images on my Linux box, but they show up on my iPhone browser.

I see 2 different issues. The over exposure across the frame looks like a shutter curtain issue. You should be able to ascertain that by directly looking at the shutter at those shutter speed, backlighting it with a white monitor screen (preferably at a low refresh rate). You should see a uniform brightness, but if you see this pattern, the shutter curtain travel is not uniform.

The strip on the left edge (right side of the camera) is all withing the rebate, so it's coming from in front of the film plane. Could be something with the dark slide (did you remove the back or insert the dark slide between images). It's quite narrow and sharp, so the source cannot be that far from the film plane.
 
itsdoable said:
.... The over exposure across the frame looks like a shutter curtain issue....
Click to expand...
In retrospect, I don't think it's a shutter issue, the fogged area does not have any detail, so it's a diffused exposure.



The image is formed up-side-down in the camera, so the fog is at the top of the chamber - maybe check the viewing screen curtain (baffle) to see if it's closing properly, or has some lag.
 
Now seeing the negative, yes, it has to originate in front of the film path because the parts outside the image area have no exposure. I suppose it could be the dark slide hole, but given that the fogging is pretty even left to right makes it unlikely (dark slide channel leaks will show much more exposure in the side with the slide opening.)

The early Bronicas were a bit different than other SLRs. Most SLRs have the mirror flip and also block light getting in from the viewfinder/ground glass. The Bronicas from this era the mirror flips down and a second shutter closes to block light (this is why Bronca lenses jut out of the camera significantly less--they don't need to make space for the mirror to flip up.) If that upper shutter doesn't close all the way, or moves too slow so its still closing when the main shutter opens, then I'd imagine you'd see something likke that.

Question: Was this a straight up photo of some trees, or was there an out of focus object much closerthat would cause the unexposed "arch"?

If it was just trees than I don't know what would create that arch like area with no exposure (except the light leak.)

EDIT: I just saw the short video that @OAPOli posted and I think he may be right that the unexposed arch is part of the mirror mechanism.
 
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