Zenza Bronica (Z / Deluxe / D)

Zenza Bronica · Bronica S mount · 1959

Also known as: Zenza Bronica D · Bronica D · Bronica Deluxe · Zenza Bronica Deluxe · Bronica DX · Zenza Bronica DX · Bronica Z · Zenza Bronica Z · Bronica D 6x6 · ゼンザブロニカ D · ゼンザブロニカD · ゼンザブロニカデラックス · ゼンザブロニカ初代 · ブロニカ D

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Zenza Bronica (the first model, 1959)	Bronica S	1959–1959	—	—
Zenza Bronica D (Deluxe / DX)	Bronica S	1959–1961	—	—

Dimensions and both weights are Tamron's archive sheet; English Wikipedia repeats the 1,165 g body weight. No source gives the frame count on the sheet, though 120 film at 6×6 gives twelve.
The ¥128,000 is printed on Tamron's sheet as a standard-set price with the tax caveat quoted above; the sheet carries no release month of its own, which comes from Tamron's model list. Eckman's $489.50 is the only dollar figure found.
Tamron's sheet lists a feet scale of 20–30 and infinity beside a metre scale of 0.5–10 and infinity for the standard lens; the feet figures are reproduced as printed.
The development cost of ¥200 million is Japanese Wikipedia's figure; shiura.com has 'over 100,000 yen' and more than eight years, which reads as a slip or a different reckoning. Nikon's own chronicle records only that Nippon Kogaku sold Nikkor lenses to Shinkodo in 1959.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Polished 18-8 stainless-steel shell with a pressed body and die-cast back (Tamron); the shape that drew the Hasselblad complaint (Japanese Wikipedia)
Shutter dial runs to 1/1250 with X at 1/50, and a self-timer is built in; the S of 1961 stops at 1/1000 and has no timer (Tamron sheets)
One large knob on the side both focuses and winds, the two functions coaxial; focusing moves a rack-and-pinion tube inside the body and the tube cannot be removed, so no lens can go on the large bayonet directly (Japanese Wikipedia)
No mirror pre-release button; the mirror slides down and back into the body on a curved track rather than hinging up (Japanese Wikipedia; shiura.com)
Three attachment standards on one body: the small Bronica bayonet at the front of the focusing tube, a 57 mm × 1 mm thread inside it, and the old large bayonet on the body, which does not take lenses made for the C and later bodies (Tamron; Japanese Wikipedia)
Listing trap: sellers write D, DX and Deluxe for the same camera, and some write Z; the nameplate reads ZENZA BRONICA on all of them

Zenza Bronica (the first model, 1959):

Nameplate reads only ZENZA BRONICA; the Z is a collectors' label applied after the fact, not an engraving (Japanese Wikipedia, which never uses the letter; camera-wiki lists the model as Bronica Z / D)

Zenza Bronica D (Deluxe / DX):

Same body and shutter as the first model; the D and DX names are what collectors and Tamron's archive call the camera, and sources disagree on when the name came into use (see disputed)

Zenza Bronica (the first model, 1959): The camera as shown in Philadelphia in March 1959 and sold in Japan from December 1959. Japanese Wikipedia says the company completed it in October 1958 after prototypes from June 1956; Mike Eckman counts eight revisions of the hand-built prototype. Nippon Kogaku supplied the Nikkor lenses, and shiura.com lists the launch set as the 5cm f/3.5, 7.5cm f/2.8 and 13.5cm f/3.5.
Zenza Bronica D (Deluxe / DX): Japanese Wikipedia describes the D as the same camera with slight modifications, renamed D (also called DX) when the S arrived in 1961; English Wikipedia has the rename in December 1959; Mike Eckman describes a Deluxe of 1960 with improved focusing, double exposure and a self-timer. Tamron's D specification sheet, the only maker document found, already carries the self-timer, the 1–10 s long exposures and the double-exposure dial.

Specifications

Finder: folding waist-level hood with a large ×4 magnifier over a Fresnel-equipped ground glass; removable and interchangeable with other finders (Tamron D sheet)
Shutter: vertical-travel focal-plane shutter with a single-axis, non-rotating, evenly spaced dial; intermediate speeds usable (Tamron D sheet) · B, 1–1/1250 s and X (1/50); stepless long exposures of 1–10 s timed by the self-timer governor, cancellable (Tamron). Japanese Wikipedia gives the slow range as 2–10 s · flash sync FP and X contacts switched automatically; X (1/50) for electronic flash, FP bulbs at every speed except X, M bulbs B and 1–1/250, F bulbs B and 1–1/15; German-pattern (JIS B) terminal with a bayonet adapter for cordless flash guns (Tamron) · self-timer
Film advance: large knob that winds the film and cocks the shutter together, coaxial with the focusing knob (Japanese Wikipedia); blank advance and automatic frame counter; double-exposure dial with automatic cancellation (Tamron)
Back: interchangeable film back fully coupled to the body; removable rear door with a special inner frame; film-speed reminder ASA 12–800 (Tamron). shiura.com adds that the first model loaded film automatically without setting a start mark, a feature the S dropped
Meter: none (no meter appears on the Tamron specification sheet)
Designed by: Yoshino Zenzaburo (吉野善三郎) — founder of Shinkodo Seisakusho; began the camera in January 1952 and carried it through to the 1958 design (Japanese Wikipedia, shiura.com, Mike Eckman)
Weight: 1165 g
Dimensions: 89 × 86 × 136 (Tamron D sheet); 1,400 g with the standard lens mm
Country: Japan
Original price: ¥128,000 for the standard set of body, film back, standard lens and waist-level finder, as Tamron's archive restates it (the sheet notes that commodity-tax rules of the period limited how prices could be printed, so it is a converted figure); $489.50 at the 1959 launch (Mike Eckman) (today $5,280)

The hood is the only finder the specification sheet names; the S sheet of 1961 lists a pentaprism and a sports finder as alternatives, and the mount is the same.

Where sources disagree

First (when the D name came into use)

December 1959 — English Wikipedia
1961, when the S was released and the first camera became the D or DX — Japanese Wikipedia; shiura.com

Tamron's model list dates the D to December 1959, which is the Japanese release of the camera itself rather than evidence for the name.

Speeds (slow range)

1–10 s, stepless — Tamron D sheet
2–10 s — Japanese Wikipedia

Better supported: 1–10 s

Self timer (on the first model)

Built in from the start, its governor also timing the long exposures — Japanese Wikipedia; Tamron D sheet
Added, with double exposure and improved focusing, on a Deluxe of 1960 — Mike Eckman

Better supported: Built in from the start

Eckman's account is uncited, and Tamron's sheet for the D, the only maker document found, lists the timer, the long exposures and the double-exposure dial together.

Last

March 1961 — English Wikipedia
Replaced by the S in April 1961 — Tamron model list; Japanese Wikipedia

The two agree in substance.

Development cost

¥200 million — Japanese Wikipedia ('reportedly'), repeated by Mike Eckman as 'over 200 million yen'
Over 100,000 yen and more than eight years — shiura.com

What reviewers say

No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.

History

The first Zenza Bronica is the camera that Yoshino Zenzaburo, a Tokyo maker of gas lighters and cigarette cases, spent most of the 1950s building because no existing camera did everything he wanted. Japanese Wikipedia dates the research from January 1952, the first prototype to June 1956 and the finished design to October 1958, at a reported cost of ¥200 million; Nippon Kogaku agreed to supply the lenses, and Nikon’s own chronicle records the sale of Nikkors to Shinkodo in 1959. The camera was shown and sold at the Philadelphia Camera Show on 22 March 1959, months before it reached Japanese shops on 8 December. Mike Eckman gives the launch price as $489.50, against $549.50 for a Hasselblad 500C.

What it offered was a 6×6 focal-plane SLR with an interchangeable back, a fully automatic diaphragm, an instant-return mirror and a top speed of 1/1250, with a self-timer whose governor also timed stepless long exposures of 1–10 s. Two details set it apart mechanically. The mirror does not hinge up: it slides down and back into the body on a curved track, which clears the rear of the lens and allowed Nikon to compute short back-focus designs for it. And focusing is by a rack-and-pinion tube built into the body, driven by a large knob coaxial with the wind, so the lens itself has no helicoid. Tamron’s sheet gives 1,165 g for the body and 89 × 86 × 136 mm, the smallest of the focal-plane Bronicas by shiura.com’s account, with a polished 18-8 stainless-steel shell.

That shell, and the general shape, looked enough like a Hasselblad that a complaint followed, and Japanese Wikipedia says production was stopped early as a result; the restyled S replaced it in April 1961. The names are a tangle. The nameplate reads only ZENZA BRONICA; once the S existed the first camera became the D or Deluxe, also written DX, and the Z is a label collectors later attached to the earliest bodies. English Wikipedia puts the rename in December 1959, Japanese Wikipedia and shiura.com in 1961, and Eckman describes a 1960 Deluxe that gained the self-timer, though Tamron’s sheet for the D already lists it. Because it was withdrawn early, the D is now the collectors’ Bronica and, per Japanese Wikipedia, sells accordingly.

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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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