I made an offer on a Bronica ETRS-SI with 75mm 2.8 2 back and some other accessories....total $130 OTD. I wasn't really expecting the seller to accept my offer but WTH, lets do this.

So tell me what I need to know. If anyone has any experience with this particular camera please share.

AWESOME!  You'll love it.

If you don't already have a tripod, get one.  Are you planning on developing your own film?  B&W is extremely easy and fun to develop.  Also look on the local Craigslists for "Darkroom" and you'll find tons of people practically giving away full darkroom setups.  I bought two enlargers (an Omega D XL enlarger with Chromega Dicotic color head and a Focomat 1 enlarger) as well as safe lights, easels and paper safes for less than $200.00.

Film is somewhat expensive, especially for the more modern emulsions.  At first, I'd stick with Arista EDU Ultra films from Freestylephoto.biz.  It is repackaged Fomapan film for much cheaper price, about $3.00 per roll.  I really like the 200 speed, the 400 speed can get pretty grainy.  The 100 speed is ok as well.  I like using Rodinal at 50:1 or even better, HC110 at 63:1 (the h formula).  Rate the ISO 200 film at ISO 120-160 and the ISO 100 film at ISO 64.

A very good app for developing times is the Massive Dev Chart.  It works for apple and android products.

A light tight daylight tank for developing is a must.  I really recommend the patterson tank, or if you can find one on Ebay, a Nikkor stainless steel tank and reel.  I sometimes get bubbles with the patterson (shows up on the edges of the film as light spots) but the stainless reel does not trap bubbles the same way.

Invest in some filters.  I use the orange and red (25A) filters a lot, although when shooting people, filters really aren't needed.

If you are anything like me, this will be your first of many medium format cameras.  Soon you might start looking at the larger formats with lust .

An example of Arista EDU Ultra 100 (Fomapan 100) with no filtering. Shot on a Rolleichord Vb TLR camera.

Freya---Rolleichord-Vb by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

100 again, but with a red (25a) filter

Fall-in-the-Park by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Horseshoe-Park----RMNP----RB67 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

And some Arista EDU Ultra 200 (Fomapan 200)

wickenburg-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

See this is all your fault

The last time I developed my own film was 12yrs ago in high school so I'm more than a little rusty. I'm trying to get back into photography, my NEX3 is fun, but I'd like to get back to film.

Pretty soon no one in the house will be able to use the bathroom because all your darkroom stuff will be all over the counter.  Or they'll be yelling at you through the door wondering why your in there standing in the dark all the time.

I forgot to add, for developing the Arista (Fomapan) films, I really recommend a water stop bath and TF-4 fixer.  The emulsion on these films are a little delicate when wet and both the water and fixer work to keep pinholes from happening.  Use a little wetting agent in your final rinse and hang to dry.  Don't use your fingers or a negative squeege of any type to remove the water as this film scratches pretty easily when it is wet.  

I love to tonal qualities and the especially the low price of it though, that's the main reasons I shoot it.

Bronica had some nice cameras. Its a shame Tamron saw fit to discontinue them.
I'm not a fan of the 6.45 format as I prefer the larger formats 6x6, 6x7, 6x9 . I have an RB-67 set up as well as a Kowa Super 66,
Yashica 124G, Kodak Medalist and a varying array of 120 roll film folding cameras. Just wish I had more time to play with them

 






















 

Have you had a chance to take it out and take some photos?

I am considering buying a Hasselblad 500c with an 80mm 2.8. I would like to use Fuji pro 400H and Velvia film. Not sure what for black and white.

Those Hassels were the "cat's meow" of cameras, of course the top of the line of 6x6 SLRs was the Rollie SL66