Bronica > 52mm Reversing Ring Prototype

[shanterg]

Hey all!

My name is Shant, just want to introduce myself and what I've been working on the past few weeks.

Long story short, i bought my first 35mm camera a month or so ago. I mainly shoot medium format - a Bronica ETRSi - but next semester I'm taking a BnW 35mm class so I figured I should grab one and start shooting.

Only problem is that I've been having the hardest time finding a lens that i like. With all the lens reviews online and all the opinions floating around its pretty confusing. I bought an F100 and so far I've tested 5-6 Nikon lenses and was pretty disappointed at most of them.

Anyways a few weeks ago i sat down with a friend of mine and came up with a design for an adapter so i could slap on a Bronica lens onto my nikon. I found 2 different places online that had some sort of setup but i wanted to make sure the lens was (as close to) 100% functional. So we came up with this:






my beater $9 bronica lens!

Its a pretty simple design, its hard to tell from the pictures, but the adapter is adjustable so i can change the register distance to match that of the Bronica. I probably cant get it perfect but i plan on using it for more closeup and portraiture stuff. Its a 5 part design. The lens attaches to a bronica mount taken off of an old bronica body. That piece is attached to 'step down' adapter made of two threaded tubes. Then that attaches to a nikon 52mm reverse mounting ring (BR2A). The whole thing is then held together by a locking nut with a rubber O-ring. So the design can probably be 'adapted' to most cameras. All you need is a 52mm reversing ring and some patience.


The examples i have are too large to post. And i dont have photoshop at the moment. so...MY BLOG FOR PICS!!! >>



So what im trying to find out now is if anyone has any suggestions for making the design better. Is there anything that would be beneficial to add?

I would also like to find out the register distance of the Bronica ETRSi but i haven't been able to find it. Someone else on here asked the question before but was only able to find the SQ register distance. If i can find the actual register distance i can just machine one to be the exact length...

Also is there any way that could possibly feed the aperture data from the bronica to the nikon? Anyone have any experience with bronica electronics?

*edit* Pictures dont seem to be working. and links are outa wack. help? oh all pics can be seen here > tnahs.blogspot.com (copy/paste)

[F16SUNSHINE]

Welcome Shant. Attila will fix your post so we may all view your fotos. The forum has an anti-spam feature that blocks first time posts. I must say that you will find some Nikkors that you will be happy with. Continue your search there are many gems from nikon.

Andy

[patrickh]

What nikkors have you tried? and what are you looking for? There are a few on this forum with a lot of experience with nikon lenses who may be able to help.

And welcome to the forum


patrickh

[hacksawbob]

http://tnahs.blogspot.com
heres an EOS/Bronica mount I did some time ago, but no focus closer than about 2 metres
http://forum.mflenses.com/diy-bronica-etr-to-eos-mount-t4943,highlight,bronica.html

I copied over the images to my post to see them for now.






my beater $9 bronica lens!

[hacksawbob]

just an update on the lens register distance my mount is 18.48mm it is too short. the distance that is listed in the post I linked to is clearly wrong (101.7mm) but that is all I could find on the internet maybe it is the SQ distance. your adjustable version is clearly a better solution. interested to know where the "two threaded tubes" were sourced from.

[shanterg]

Thanks hacksawbob.

About the threaded tubes. My dad works in a machine shop so we pretty much machined the whole thing from some billet aluminum. I went during his lunch hour and machined it out over a week or so.

@patrickh - I've tried the 50mm 1.4 AF-D, 28 2.8 AF-D, 28 2.8 AI-s, 20 2.8 AF-D, 85 1.8 AFD, 50 1.8 AI(S?) SER E.

I'm sure they are all good lenses but if I'm going to drop over 300 on any lens its really got to be great. I paid 150 for a normal Bronica lens and it feels amazing and it shoots wonderful photographs. It's the same old complaint, I just cant give $500 for an AF lens that feels like plastic.

What im looking for right now is a wide and normal. I think 20mm might be a bit too wide for me right now. Id probably want to cover that range with a wide zoom. 24mm seems a bit more my cup of tea, but im not sure which one. And as for a 50mm, almost all the Nikkors that i've seen reviews of were very sharp but also had horrible rear bokeh. Especially the 1.4 AF-D.

It's just hard to test out a bunch of lenses. The one used equipment store thats close to me wont allow returns on used lenses unless the lens is defective. And there no way I'm buying a lens without shooting some pictures on it beforehand.

I know this is a loaded question but any suggestions? Just so i know what to look for at flea markets and used camera stores.

[Attila]

Nice to see you here!

[patrickh]

The nikkor 35/1.4 AI/AIS is a great lens - solid, sharp, nice OOF, good colours etc. The 24/2 AIS is another good one. I agree about the boke of the 50's - for truly great boke try the 85/1.4 AIS, but it is expensive. I suspect the laws of supply and demand will push the relative cost of the nikkors over the Bronica equivalents.


patrickh


Interesting work BTW

[poilu]

welcome Shant!
have a nice time with us