Zenza Bronica EC-TL II

I’ve been having trouble getting my mind around taking film photos lately (when I say lately, I mean the past 2 years or maybe more) but today I decided to get back in the saddle! Maybe you’ve had dry spells too. Maybe I’ve had a lot of other things on my mind lately and it’s been hard to think about photography.

I decided this morning to load up my EC-TL II (and 50mm f/2.8 NIKKOR-O lens) with Ilford Pan F (ISO 50) and just go out back to try a few photos. I took some of wood piles, some trees and an old fire pit next to my shed.

There are a few different things at play here. First, my exposure, composition and actual photographing. This isn’t usually my problem. Next, I had to roll the film and put it into my developing tank. I use steel tanks, and sometimes my rolling can be a problem. Today it seems like everything worked well, no rolling problems, no film touching or in the wrong groove. So far, so good. I haven’t used my developer or fixer for over a year, so I had some questions about how good it would be, or if it was too old. I had 2 sealed containers of developer in my cabinet. One bottle of HC-100 and one bottle of Rodinal. Today I used the HC-110 (Rodinal will be my next test).

I opened my HC-110 and transferred it to 4 smaller, dark, glass bottles with good sealing lids. It should last for several more months in these smaller bottles. There was a bit of crystalized developer in the bottom of the bottle. I tried to dissolve that as much as possible but couldn’t dissolve all of it. I decided to use dilution E (I mix it at 1:47) of HC-110, and per my log I developed at 68 degrees F (20 degrees C) for 5.5 minutes (agitating for the first 30 seconds continuously, and once per minute for 10 seconds after that). Pretty standard stuff so far.

My results were excellent! When I opened my tank and saw something, anything, I was very pleased. After finishing my fixing and adding some rinse agent to help dry without spotting I pulled the negatives off the reel and took a better look. I was bracketing some of my exposures, so there were a few that looked light or dark, but many looked very nice.

The Zenza Bronica EC-TL II is a very nice camera. It requires batteries to work – and as long as the electronics last/work I think the electronic shutter stays a bit more consistent compared to the Bronica S2 that is all mechanical. The focusing screen on this camera is just ground glass with a microprism circle in the center. Focusing is pretty easy. These screens may be replaceable, but I don’t have a problem focusing so I haven’t bothered. I generally prefer a split image like I have for my RB67 and my Hasselblad 500 c/m – those are not the screens that came with those cameras, but I was having trouble focusing sharply so I replaced them.

I like using the EC-TL II. It employs a focal plane shutter – with a unique split mirror. Half of the mirror moves upward, and half moves downward as the photo is taken. I guess they were trying to minimize the vibration caused by the whole mirror moving up and down (like the S2 did). It seems to work well, but I have had issues with this camera and some lenses that protrude too far inside the camera when focusing and can touch the bottom part of the mirror. Mine is cracked from this happening, but it still works ok. I have another body that was damaged and is not usable due to a similar thing happening. I think at some point I was experimenting with an extension tube – and some lenses caused problems. This demonstrates the complexities of building a system camera – one of the reasons the early Nikon and Canon 35mm SLRs worked so well. You rarely had to worry about one of the lenses not working, and even worse, potentially damaging the mechanics within one of the bodies. Designing lenses and bodies so this didn’t happen, even as bodies and lenses were redesigned and updated is no easy task.

So, one of the weaknesses of this camera is exposed. I suppose if you know your camera this would rarely be a problem.

I don’t use auto exposure much, but I’ve read that this camera (EC-TL and EC-TL II) was the first 6×6 to offer aperture priority auto exposure and TTL metering. Nice for some – and I think the auto exposure features on these early cameras (from the 1970’s) were mainly added to attract non-professional photographers. Professionals did things manually, and likely were ok without auto modes, at least initially. Today, I’m exposing manually using my Sekonic Studio Deluxe meter.

Now, to see the results. here’s a few of my final scans.

I think I’m quite happy with these results. The EC-TL II is a good camera, I’ve had mine for several years and, although I haven’t used it a lot, it works the same today as it did when I got it, and (I think) the day it was made. My best guess is that mine is from around 1975 or 1976, but that’s just a guess. They were manufactured for a few years after that, so it could have been purchased later.

If you find one of these cameras, I think it’s worth your time to try it. The lenses on these Bronicas are interesting too. Most made by Nikon and a few later Zenzanon lenses, some that were actually made by Zeiss. Interesting because the lenses are one of the things that make photos with these cameras special. I really like the Nikons. I have a couple Nikons and a couple Zenzanons – at least one of which is made by Zeiss. I haven’t done any exhaustive side-by-side comparisons of these lenses, but they are all unique and I just enjoy the vintage look they provide. Colors look different and bokeh is unique. They’re fun to experiment with.