5 Frames with a Bronica ETRS: Small Town Panoramas – By Lee Hiers

My brother-in-law recently gifted me a Bronica ETRS that he had received as a gift from his step-father.  While his step-father had the camera, he had let the grandkids play with it – not like you or I might “play” with a camera, but like kids would play with a ball.  It’s a little rough around the edges!  But the camera is fully functional… a testament to how well these cameras were built.

One of the rough edges was the focusing screen – it was pretty scratched, so once I determined the camera did in fact work, I ordered a new BrightScreen from Rick Oleson.  I also picked up a 40mm lens to go along with the standard 75mm.

Medium format cameras can have a variety of aspect ratios available, and in the case of the ETR series, Bronica offered backs for 645 using 120 or 220 film, standard 24mm x 36mm using 135, and a panoramic back that makes 24mm x 55mm images on 35mm film.

I had never had a lot of interest in 645, but panoramas can be a fun format.  Unfortunately, the Bronica 135-wide backs are quite expensive.  I’ve never had much of a problem with cropping, so I thought “why not shoot on the normal 645 frame, but crop to a panorama for display”?  Yes, I’ll waste some film with the crop, but even at today’s film prices, I would have to shoot a lot of rolls to justify one of the Bronica 135-wide backs.

I’ve always liked a 2:1 panorama – not as wide as an X-Pan, or even as wide as the Bronica pano format.  But still wide enough to be something a little different from normal.  So, when I corresponded with Rick about the new focusing screen, I had him etch a 2:1 grid on the screen to aid in composing.  So now I can easily compose with my panorama in mind, and when scanning the negative, simply crop to 2:1.  I lose about 15mm of film per 645 image.

A side benefit is that I can still compose for 645 if I want to, and now that I have some experience with that format, I’ve discovered that I actually like it as well, contrary to my original thoughts before actually using it.

I live in rural northeast Georgia.  Five days a week I have a commute of about 45 minutes to and from work.  On my commute, I pass through several small towns and these images are from those small towns and the spaces in between.  These photos were made in the past year or so, and already some of the scenes no longer exist, or have changed significantly.  Just a reminder to not wait to photograph something – go ahead and do it.

All images were made with the Bronica ETRS and a 40mm f/4 Zenzanon MC lens on Kodak T-max 100 developed in Rodinal 1+50.  The images containing the sky were shot with a red filter.  This camera/lens/film combo has become one of my favorite ways to make photographs.  Rick Oleson’s custom focusing screens are available at rickoleson-brightscreen.com

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