Zenza Bronica C2

Zenza Bronica · Bronica S mount · 1965

Also known as: Zenza Bronica C2 · Bronica C2 · Bronica C-2 · Zenzabronica C2 · Bronica C2 6x6 · Zenza Bronica C2 Nikkor-P 75mm · ゼンザブロニカ C2 · ゼンザブロニカC2 · ブロニカ C2 · ゼンザブロニカ C2型

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Zenza Bronica C2 (1965–1972)	Bronica S	1965–1972	—	Not published in any source found.

Tamron's sheet is the source for the shutter, sync, focusing, weight and price; it prints the same 1,780 g as for the C without saying whether a lens is included. No dollar price was found.
The sync table differs from the C's only in adding B to the FP and electronic-flash lines; the speeds are the same.
Tamron's standard-set wording names a 'film back' for this fixed-chamber body as it does for every model in the archive.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Film chamber built into the body with no removable magazine; a lever on the body selects 120 or 220 (Tamron; collection-appareils)
Shutter dial ends at 1/500 with X at 1/40, where an S2 reads 1/1000 with X at 1/50 (Tamron sheets)
Removable helicoid focusing block, 14 mm stroke and 250° throw, with 50/75/135/200 mm scales and a depth-of-field scale (Tamron)
New large bayonet, shared with the C, S2 and later bodies; the old-standard lenses of the D and S do not fit (Japanese Wikipedia)
No self-timer and no mirror pre-release (Japanese Wikipedia on the C, unchanged here)
Polished 18-8 stainless-steel shell, 100 × 100 × 140 mm (Tamron)

Zenza Bronica C2 (1965–1972):

120/220 selector lever on the body, the one external change from the C (Tamron C2 sheet; collection-appareils)

Zenza Bronica C2 (1965–1972): The only version. camera-wiki describes it as an S2 with a non-removable, integrated back; Tamron's sheet is otherwise the C's with the 120/220 lever and a C2-type inner frame added.

Specifications

Finder: removable folding hood with magnifier over a Fresnel-equipped ground glass; interchangeable with a prism finder or an outdoor magnifier (Tamron C2 sheet)
Shutter: vertical-travel focal-plane shutter with a single-axis, non-rotating dial (Tamron C2 sheet) · B, 1–1/500 s, X (1/40), and T by locking the release (Tamron) · flash sync automatic switching; X (1/40), 1–1/15 and B for electronic flash, FP bulbs at B and every speed except X, M bulbs B and 1–1/125, F bulbs B and 1–1/15 (Tamron) · no self-timer
Film advance: crank or knob, about three turns per frame, self-cocking; multiple-exposure dial; automatic frame counter (Tamron)
Back: fixed: the film chamber is part of the body (camera-wiki; Tamron); 120 or 220 selected by a lever; loading by start mark with a C2-type inner frame (Tamron)
Meter: none (no meter appears on the Tamron specification sheet)
Weight: 1780 g
Dimensions: 100 × 100 × 140 (Tamron C2 sheet) mm
Country: Japan
Original price: ¥80,500 for the standard set of body, film back, standard lens and waist-level finder (Tamron's archive, a figure converted to a standard set because of period tax rules) (today ¥360,000)

Where sources disagree

First

May 1965 — Tamron model list; English Wikipedia; Japanese Wikipedia
1965, with the C run on to 1971 because catalogues do not separate the two — collection-appareils

Better supported: May 1965

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History

The C2 of May 1965 is the C with a lever to switch the transport between 120 and 220 film, and nothing else that Tamron’s sheet records: the same fixed film chamber, the same 1/500 shutter with flash at 1/40, the same removable 14 mm helicoid block with its 50, 75, 135 and 200 mm scales, the same 1,780 g and the same stainless shell. The standard set with the 75 mm Nikkor and a waist-level hood was listed at ¥80,500, a little under the C’s ¥82,000. Japanese Wikipedia notes the 220 support and little more, and camera-wiki sums it up as an S2 with a non-removable, integrated back, which is accurate since the S2 of two months later shared the front end and the shell.

It outlived the C by a wide margin, running by English Wikipedia’s dates to September 1972, through the S2A’s arrival in 1969 and until the electronic EC took over in April 1972. That makes it the common form of the fixed-back Bronica, and the reason collection-appareils warns that catalogues of the time did not distinguish C from C2: a body sold as either should be checked for the 120/220 lever, which only the C2 has.

In use the C2 gives up the thing the Bronica system was built around, the interchangeable back, and keeps everything else that made the S2 a long seller, including the new large bayonet onto which the larger lenses mount directly once the helicoid block is off (Tamron). Tamron’s sheet lists no dark-slide interlock or light-shield curtain for it, the two magazine features its S sheet does name.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

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