Bronica S Series Lenses #3: Komura 45mm f/4.5
One of my favorite lenses for the Bronica system, and its not even a first party lens!
Heavy, flares easily, and an impossible to find lens hood. It really is wonderful I promise you!
In the world of wide angle lenses for 6x6, this lens falls into a very useable walk around focal length. I personally have a difficult time composing with 50mm on 6x6 and this 45mm focal length fits right in between the really wide 40mm and not quite wide enough 50mm.
There are no other lenses besides the Soviet Mir 45mm lens that offer the same focal length for 6x6 that I know of. It may seem a bit slow at f/4.5, but keep in mind the 40mm lenses for the Bronica system are f/4 so its not much slower and has surprisingly good imaging quality wide open. Its large but impressive front element is a magnet for flares, but the flaring can easily be used artistically and is pretty easy to see and work with in the viewfinder. It offers a 6 bladed aperture, and stops in half stop clicks from f/4.5 to f/22.
Luna sitting in the sun, Komura 45mm
This is probably one of my favorite lenses for the system, and shares an equally good reputation online. I spend many hours trying to find the optical layout for this lens, but I was only able to find one piece of a scanned literature online that mentioned its layout here (its accuracy may be in question too as articles like this about future lens releases can have mistakes or be missing future changes):
I love the way this lens renders its out of focus areas, and it is quite sharp. It has a little bit lower contrast than the other Bronica Lenses I have, but I think that lends to its nice rendering.
The lens has pretty low distortion, and can be easily used for landscapes. The “not as wide as a 40mm” look makes the lens have a little less of that “wide angle look” and makes it easier to compose with in my opinion.
My copy has a little schneideritis but the optics are clean otherwise
? elements in ? groups (I think its 7 elements in 7 groups which I found in like 1 random posting not sure of accuracy)
850 grams
82mm filters, may need THIN filters but not tested
6 bladed diaphragm
Single coated
Hood exists but is hard to find
I have yet to shoot this lens with color filters, but it looks like the rear might accepts gels if you cut them to size. If you pinch the metal ring near the rear element, you can remove it and you might be able to fit a gel under it and place it back in. Be careful not to touch the rear element. I have not tested this yet so do this at your own risk.
The lens is a bit heavy, but balances fine on my EC-TL. It was a little harder to focus this lens with the stock screen, but I still was able to do it. It is much easier to focus it with the Rick Olsen screen I recently purchased. All in all, a great lens! They can be found for around 250-500$, harder to find than the Nikkor 40mm, but easier than the 40mm Zenzanon.
