sllɐqǝʎǝʎzznɟ

The Bronica ETRsi was one of the camera I bought just to ‘have a feel’ of how such camera works. Little did I know that I’ll end up loving that boxy heavy camera so much that I decided to not only keep it … but also get an extra lens and a couple of accessories for it. The last time I bought such a heavy beast … was the Kiev60 … the ‘bumble bee’ cam that I’ve used once and has been sitting heavy in my cabinet since.

The first thing I searched for was a speed grip for the camera as I find carrying it without a strap is rather difficult. I had to ‘hug’ it real tight when I’m out shooting as taking it in & out from the bag is rather troublesome. eBay was my best friend (but not my wallet’s) and soon came a speed grip that makes carrying the camera easier. Oh … and the shutter release button on the grip is an added bonus but I sure miss the winding film advance crank.

I thought that’s about all I wanted but I found out about this very rare 35mm back that takes long pano photos on 35mm film! There are two variations … the 135N and 135W. The 135W is the one I wanted but being super rare … it took me some time to finally grab one for sale. It ain’t cheap but at least the entire setup is less than half the price of an Xpan. 😀 Ok … I better not try compare this with an Xpan. The last time I made a remark about something like that in Lomography’s website … I got some clown screaming his head off telling me that I don’t know nuts about an Xpan. Hehehe. I can’t afford one, so I’ll just shut up.

So what is a cool pano back without a wide lens? Luckily lenses are rather cheap and I found an used 40mm lens at a very good price locally. Together with the 75mm f2.8 lens … that’s all I will ever spend on this setup. Oh … one last investment *grin* … a split screen focusing screen with gridlines for the 35mm back. Without the gridlines … it will be hard to try compose using the 645 one and I managed to contact a guy who had one for sale back in 2009 (!!!) in the local forums. Luckily he still had it for sale and I’m gonna go collect it tomorrow.

Now for some test shots this weekend! Oh … I’ll probably have to get the lab to scan my roll of I were to shoot any this weekend. My darn Silverfast is not working on OSX Lion! According to their website … I’ll have to wait til end of this month for the version 8 of Silverfast! Grrrr! Lion at my Silverfast!