Last Sunday I purchased a Bronica kit over the phone. Might not be an ideal way to buy but it saved me a 12 hour round trip. It is COD and the gentleman that sold it to me was extremely nice and offered a full refund in case I'm not 100% happy. He described it thoroughly and I was happy to proceed.

The kit should arrive at the end of this week. Without listing everything included, it contains SQ-Ai, 50, 80, 110, 200, 2x tele, polaroid, 2x 645, 120, 220 and a bunch of other little odds and ends. It has everything I need and then some. I spent a little over my budget but not by much and now I don't have to shop for individual parts as I need them.

My question, as someone who has never used this type of a system, is what should I look out for? What should I check when it arrives? What are the common things that can go wrong and someone like me won't be able to tell until it's too late. How would you test it?

Appreciate all the help I can get.

Last Sunday I purchased a Bronica kit over the phone. Might not be an ideal way to buy but it saved me a 12 hour round trip. It is COD and the gentleman that sold it to me was extremely nice and offered a full refund in case I'm not 100% happy. He described it thoroughly and I was happy to proceed.

The kit should arrive at the end of this week. Without listing everything included, it contains SQ-Ai, 50, 80, 110, 200, 2x tele, polaroid, 2x 645, 120, 220 and a bunch of other little odds and ends. It has everything I need and then some. I spent a little over my budget but not by much and now I don't have to shop for individual parts as I need them.

My question, as someone who has never used this type of a system, is what should I look out for? What should I check when it arrives? What are the common things that can go wrong and someone like me won't be able to tell until it's too late. How would you test it?

Appreciate all the help I can get.

Start with the manual, you can probably download it from the Tamron web site, there are a variety of interlocks to prevent film fogging etc., you need to know what they all are and be aware so you don't mistake one of them for a fault. It isn't easy (possible?) to operate the shutter without film so plan on shooting film with each back and lens to really verify all is good.

Inspect all the seals on the film backs, it's easy for them to go bad and the seller not be aware of it. They aren't hard to replace either.

Thanks to the both of you. :)

With the seals, are they foam type ones like old SLR or RF cameras?

Mostly foam, although there is one cloth piece near the hinge.

I have some back info toward the bottom of this page (http://www.pbase.com/dw_thomas/sqgear).

DaveT

It's possible to check the shutter without film in the camera, you just have to flip the multiple exposure lever, but you're also going to want to check your advancement in the back, make sure you're not getting frame overlap or anything like that.

Mostly foam, although there is one cloth piece near the hinge.

I have some back info toward the bottom of this page (http://www.pbase.com/dw_thomas/sqgear).

DaveT

Very nice reading all of that. Thanks. Just had a quick look over my Bronica gear to make sure everything is fine :)

The 80mm PS looks soo much better than the S with that little orange band going around it haha