Zenza Bronica S
Zenza Bronica · Bronica S mount · 1961
Also known as: Zenza Bronica S · Bronica S · Zenzabronica S · Bronica S 6x6 · Bronica S 1961 · Zenza Bronica S Nikkor-P 75mm · Bronica Model S · ゼンザブロニカ S · ゼンザブロニカS · ブロニカ S · ゼンザブロニカ S型
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zenza Bronica S (1961–1965) | Bronica S | 1961–1965 | — | Not published in any source found. |
- Tamron's S sheet prints no weight, so none is given; the C and C2 sheets give 1,780 g for the later bodies of the same outer dimensions.
- Tamron's sheet lists automatic-diaphragm lenses of 50, 75, 85 and 135 mm and preset lenses of 180, 250, 350 and 500 mm. The 85 mm is a Nikkor that no other source found lists as sold; the preset lenses are the long Nikkors used with a focusing mount, which the sheet does not name individually.
- The mirror button is described three ways: Tamron's sheet as a button that drops the mirror alone ahead of the exposure, Japanese Wikipedia as mirror-up, camera-wiki as a mirror lock-down button. All describe the same control, which the Bronica mirror's downward travel explains.
How to tell them apart
- Shutter dial ends at 1/1000 with X at 1/50 and no self-timer on the body (Tamron sheet); a D reads 1/1250 and carries a timer
- Focusing by the large knob driving a tube inside the body, with distance scales for 75, 50 and 135 mm; the tube cannot be removed, which is the first thing to check against an S2 (Tamron; camera-wiki)
- Mirror pre-release button on the base near the shutter release, a control the S2 does not have (camera-wiki)
- Silver crank on the advance knob; no PC socket on the shutter-dial side, where the S2 has one (camera-wiki)
- Old large bayonet on the body, the standard of the D, not the one introduced with the C in December 1964; lenses made for the later large bayonet do not fit (Japanese Wikipedia)
- Polished 18-8 stainless-steel shell, restyled from the D after the Hasselblad complaint (Tamron; Japanese Wikipedia)
Zenza Bronica S (1961–1965):
- Silver crank on the advance knob, a fixed focusing mount and a mirror button on the base near the release; no PC socket on the shutter-dial side of the body (camera-wiki, which uses these to separate the S from the S2)
- Zenza Bronica S (1961–1965): The only version. shiura.com calls it the 'type S (standard)' and says it was slightly larger than the D; Tamron's sheet gives 100 × 100 × 140 mm against the D's 89 × 86 × 136.
Specifications
- Finder
- folding hood with magnifier over a Fresnel screen; removable and interchangeable with a pentaprism or a sports finder (Tamron S sheet)
- Shutter
- vertical-travel focal-plane shutter with a single-axis, non-rotating dial; intermediate speeds usable (Tamron S sheet) · B, 1–1/1000 s, X (1/50), and T by locking the release (Tamron). The D's 1/1250 and its 1–10 s long exposures were dropped (Japanese Wikipedia) · flash sync automatic switching; X (1/50) and 1–1/15 for electronic flash, FP bulbs at every speed except X, M bulbs B and 1–1/250, F bulbs B and 1–1/15 (Tamron) · no self-timer
- Film advance
- crank, self-cocking (Tamron); the crank is silver on the S (camera-wiki); automatic frame counter
- Back
- interchangeable film back fully coupled to the body, with a dark-slide safety interlock and a built-in light-shield curtain; loading by start mark with a hinged door and a special inner frame (Tamron). Mike Eckman says the S dropped the D's double-exposure facility
- Meter
- none (no meter appears on the Tamron specification sheet)
- Dimensions
- 100 × 100 × 140 (Tamron S sheet) mm
- Country
- Japan
- Original price
- ¥88,000 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); $419.50 in the United States, later reduced to $399.50 (Mike Eckman) (today $4,400)
Where sources disagree
- Speeds (why the top speed fell)
- Dropped with the self-timer and slow speeds to concentrate on practical features — Japanese Wikipedia
- Shutter reliability improved because of the slower top speed — Mike Eckman
Not contradictory; Eckman's reading explains the change Japanese Wikipedia records.
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 S of April 1961 is the first Bronica that most people could buy for long. Japanese Wikipedia says the styling was changed substantially after Hasselblad’s complaint about the first camera, and the specification was pared back at the same time: the top speed fell from 1/1250 to 1/1000, the self-timer went, and with it the 1–10 s long exposures its governor had timed. Mike Eckman reads the slower shutter as the reason the S was more reliable than the Deluxe, and gives its American price as $419.50, later $399.50; Tamron’s archive restates the Japanese standard set of body, back, 75 mm Nikkor and waist-level hood at ¥88,000.
What stayed was the architecture of the D. The mirror still drops into the body rather than flipping, now with a button to drop it ahead of the exposure, the one feature the S added and the S2 of 1965 took away again. Focusing is still a tube inside the body driven by a large knob, with distance scales for the 75, 50 and 135 mm Nikkors engraved on it; the tube cannot be removed, so the camera-wiki test for an S against an S2 is a fixed focusing mount, a silver crank and that mirror button, and no PC socket on the shutter-dial side. The body is the same 100 × 100 × 140 mm as the C and S2 that followed, in polished stainless steel. Tamron’s sheet lists automatic-diaphragm lenses of 50, 75, 85 and 135 mm, though the 85 is not known from any other source, and preset lenses of 180 to 500 mm.
Film goes in an interchangeable back with a dark-slide interlock and a built-in light-shield curtain, loaded by start mark, which shiura.com notes was a step back from the first camera’s automatic loading. The S ran until April 1965 by English Wikipedia’s dates, overlapping the budget C from December 1964 and giving way to the S2 in July 1965; the S2 kept the S’s shell and shutter and added the C’s removable helicoid, which is why S lenses and S bodies are the ones a buyer has to think about, since the large bayonet changed at the C and the two standards do not interchange.
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.
Live listings
- Bronica S Mount 7.5cm f/2.8 Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-P Lens
- ゼンザブロニカ Zenza Bronica S Body#9863 .Aug.0826
- ★ゼンザブロニカ ZENZA BRONICA S + ニッコール NIKKOR-P 75mm F2.8 中判★ Y1916＃25
- 【全額返金保証】良品｜ゼンザブロニカ Zenza Bronica S+75mm F2.8 CA01-R7514-3U4A
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