Prism finders for Bronica SQA

Hi all, my.son just got a Bronica SQA which came with the ME S prism finders. It doesn't seem to be working. Does it in fact work with the SQA since it has the 6 pins? Does an AE finder work better? Thanks!

The ME finder is one of the compatible models for the SQ-A. You have to push in the chrome button on the left to get the display to come up. The SQ-A manual shows the pin configuration. I used the ME finder for a while, but found a great deal on an AE Finder S, so I switched them out and sold the ME.

When the prism is attached to the body, the shutter speed dial on the prism overides the dial on the body.
As stated above, the central chrome button must be pressed to get a meter reading.
You only have several seconds before that button has to be pressed again to continue using the meter.

I figured it out, the terminals and battery compartment terminals needed cleaning. Works now, just need to see how accurate it is! Thanks

The AE finder is more automatic right?

Meow7 said:

The AE finder is more automatic right?

Click to expand...

Yeah, the AE has two modes, Manual and Auto, Auto mode is aperture priority -- the shutter speed that will be selected by the prism will be displayed when you half press the shutter release.

In manual mode it's pretty much the same procedure only you then have to manually transfer the shutter speed to the dial on the SQ-A body.

I don't really like using either prism for metering. If I ever use the prism, I use the AE switched off in dumb mode and use an external meter instead. I find it quite hard to see the meter readings clearly and it seems to be more of a faff than just using an external meter.

Thinking about it, I use the WLF 99% of the time anyway as the prisms add so much extra bulk and weight.

I have two metered prisms and one metered chimney finder.
The readings are off a couple stops on all of them.
Perhaps someone knows if there are pots under the leatherette which are adjustable to calibrate the readings?
I prefer the chimney finder since its much lighter, has an adjustable diopter and gives better magnification for my old eyes.
Enjoy your camera!

Thanks for the heads up about the metering, I did see many folks complain about it being off, but he has a VC meter and a phone app. It would be nice if a 6x6 MF camera had a good internal meter.

Well the metering is pretty wonky. Using the prism finder the settings are off by about 2-3 stops from the VC meter... HOWEVER, oddly enough they seem to be exposed correctly. A bit flummoxed by this. The VC meter "should" be fairly accurate. Also thinking the ME finder was more manual than it actually is, I didn't realize that the shutter speed dial did actually override the one on the camera. Also the exposure lock could have ben pushed in in the images that came out over exposed. 6 were fine 6 were not.