Frozen Extension Tube: Bronica SQ-A and S-36 / S18

[JWMster]

So I just got these things from Japan. Mounted my 80mm on it and I'm stuck. Not attaching a picture, but is there anything funky about these babies? Some secret release? The button/slide sort of slides a little, but not enough. THoughts? Help MUCHO appreciated.

FWIW? I suspect something of the problem must relate to the lenses wanting to get in synch with the camera? Therefore, I need to remount them to the camera, put the double exposure switch on, burn a wind, and see what happens? Does this sound close?

 

[wiltw]

When you use an extension tube on your Bronica,

• the lever on the lens must be near the green dot (like it would be to mount on the body), to mount the lens to the extension tube
• the lever on the extension tube must be near the green dot, before mounting the lens to the extension tube
• the combination must have the lever near the green dot, to mount it on the body (just the same as mounting the lens alone onto the body)

It is possible to first mount an extension tube alone onto the body, and then mount a lens onto the tube.
Or you can pre-assemble the combination of tube+body and then mount that combo on the body.

And wind everything before dismounting the [extension+lens] from the body, just like you do for a lens alone.

 

[GRHazelton]

Good luck! I had bought a tube for my ETRSi. Couldn't mount it. I returned it to the seller, here in the USA, postiting that the tube was slightly bent or distorted. They seemed to agree, refunding my purchase price without comment.

 

[mshchem]

I have same tubes. They are weird. When I first got them the 36 was mounted on top of the 18. For some reason I couldn't get the 18 release lever to let go of the 36. I mounted the whole stack onto a SQ-Ai body, the 18 lever was freed up and I could separate the two tubes....???
Now the two tubes are normal, as long as they are cocked (pin at the green dot) they act normal. There's something with the sequence that I don't understand. I'm sure there's a Bronica expert here somewhere that know's the exact reason.
I briefly had the 500mm Flourite lens, minimum focus was 27 feet, I bought the tubes to get the focus down to about 15 feet. It was a fun experiment.

 

[mshchem]

So I just got these things from Japan. Mounted my 80mm on it and I'm stuck. Not attaching a picture, but is there anything funky about these babies? Some secret release? The button/slide sort of slides a little, but not enough. THoughts? Help MUCHO appreciated.

FWIW? I suspect something of the problem must relate to the lenses wanting to get in synch with the camera? Therefore, I need to remount them to the camera, put the double exposure switch on, burn a wind, and see what happens? Does this sound close?

I didn't even need to wind the shutter just mounting the tubes on the camera was all it took to get the tubes apart. I think that should release the lens too.

 

[voceumana]

You have to slide that button one way or the other (don't remember which), and it only moves a hair, but it pulls back a pin that prevents rotation. Play with the button on the lens mount side of the tube that's visible, and you'll see that it can retract that pin. Then do it on the tube that's on the camera side.

 

[JWMster]

Well... thanks folks! THat worked. Remounted the lens to the camera with the two extension tubes (the way they came) and they all separated. Who'd have thunk it? Magic. Goofy magic, but magic all the same. Go figure. And now I am an extremely relieved kind of a dude.

 

[GRHazelton]

500mm Flourite lens! Sounds like a killer!