Before owning a focal plane shuttered Bronica S2a, I never thought about adapting lenses for uses other than they were intended. Prior to my first Bronica I had already owned various 35MM and 2 1/4 SLR cameras, with a few accessory lenses meant for the particular cameras I used them on.

If one has limitless money or a budget for commercial work - the answer is simple, buy the manufacturer's accessory lenses, in most cases they will be the best for your purpose. In the 1970's when I checked the prices of the Nikkor teles and wideangle lenses, I was stunned ... they were not cheap then. As I bought the S2a at a closeout, I hadn't realized that the Nikkor lenses were still being sold for the new EC models, and their prices never came down, especially for long tele lenses.

However, I already owned 150MM and 300MM Tele Kilar lenses, which were short mount lenses that ended in 39MM Leica screw mounts and which took a variety of adapters for many cameras. I could already use these on Primarflex and various 35MM cameras I owned, why not on the Bronica? They would cover 6x6 format. But I could not find a mention of any Bronica adapters having been made, although they did have various other 6x6cm camera adapters in their catalogue.

This inspired me to make my first lens adapter. I contacted the Bronica US distributor, EPOI, and reached a sympathetic gentleman in the PR department. He sent me an important gift - gratis. The male camera mount from the back of a Bronica Bellows #2.

Once I removed some extra parts on it I found an enlarger mount which fit exactly in its center and epoxied it in place. In the center of this mount was a 39MM Leica thread mount for an enlarger lens into which I mounted a short extension tube. This gave me a Bronica/Kilar adapter which allowed infinity focus with the 150MM and 300MM lenses and could be used for closeup work with the Macro Kilar 90MM f2.8 lens.

Based on this success I decided to expand into the Kilar system by making similar adapter mounts for my other 6x6 cameras - REFLEX KORELLE, AGIFLEX III, EXAKTA 66 ('54 model), NORITA/WARNER and PENTACON 6TL & PRAKTISIX.

Expanding into this Kilar system, I obtained other original Kilar mounts for both 35MM and 6x6 cameras. I also adapted several bellows to Leica screw which would allow me to put odd lenses on bellows and mount them on a variety of these cameras.

Most of what I was doing was in the Tele Lens world. Needing a wideangle lens for my Bronica, I considered adapting one for that use. Some years back the famous Burke and James, long the home of unusual precision lenses, was going out of business and closing out quality lenses cheaply through large ads in SHUTTERBUG magazine - the "golden age" of lens bargains. I bought heavily into this ongoing sale and still have many of the lenses I obtained at that time.

One such bargain for about $6.00 (US) was the uncoated Lens head from a Zeiss Tele-Tessar 180MM f6.3 rare collectible lens for Contax rangefinder cameras. A complete lens like this in focusing mount today could sell for $500 to $800. However, I epoxied this lens head into a short Leica extension tube which would be used with an important Bronica accessory - the Novoflex Bronica/Leica screw adapter.

This is a ring which screws into the 57MM thread of the Bronica focusing mount and had a Leica 39MM screw mount in its center. I mount the 180MM Tele-Tessar into this and I have a sharp and tiny telephoto which focuses to infinity and takes great photos even today.

Another Burke and James bargain was the 52MM f3.5 Carl Meyer wideangle for 6x6 format. In reality a Fujita/Kaligar lens for the Fujita 66 / Kalimar 660 camera, somehow house branded by B&J. They created their own house brand of Carl Meyer, which I used to claim was the illegitimate son of Carl Zeiss and Hugo Meyer!

I took this lens head out of its focusing mount and widened the 39MM opening of another Novoflex adapter into which I mounted the 52MM lens. This focused to infinity in the Bronica focus mount and delivered good results at f8 and smaller settings.

Having several Kodak Aero Ektar 178MM f2.5 surplus WWII aerial lenses I decided to mount one for Bronica. These were used on larger aerial cameras for mapping purposes during the war. The wide opening was good for night photography with flares and otherwise and the lens covered 5" x 5" format. After the war this lens, which cost the US government $450, was closed out at $50 each and could be purchased with adapters and focusing mounts at extra cost for everything from Speed Graphics to Leicas with reflex housings.

To mount the Aero Ektar, I epoxied this into a spare Zeiss tripod/camera mount I had from a 180MM preset Sonnar and added a 57MM Bronica screw mount at the end of this combination. While this can work well on any Bronica S2a style focusing mount- it really works best on the Bronica Deluxe with the wind knob in focusing position.

For the record, the Aero Ektar was an early lens made with rare earth glass and is radioactive. I checked it with a geiger counter and the thing just clicked and clicked away. Make your own guess on this!

Some 15 years before Cambridge Camera unscrewed the rear tube on a Japanese 500MM f8 lens to mount it for 6x6 photography and charge $300 plus for it, I had already pioneered this design. I bought a junker lens of this type for $10, which was missing part of the mount, so I took the rest off. I then mounted a Leica Screw mount which was left over from an old Tele-Votar (Pieskar) German lens. Since this lens has its own focusing mount, I had just converted it to an unoffical member of the Kilar group and it works well with all of my Kilar adapters, including Bronica.

There are many other strange and professional adaptations I have made, but I will now conclude this story with the tale of the Komura pre-set lenses.

Komura studied the Kilar lenses and created an imitation Kilar lineup of short mount lenses which also ended in 39MM Leica screw thread mounts. These lenses could take adapters for various 35MM SLRs, including NIKON, MINOLTA, EXAKTA, PENTAX SCREW and others. However their back focus was longer than the Kilar lenses and thye could not focus to infinity with the Kilar adapters on 6x6 cameras.

However, the lens heads unscrew from the focusing mount and end in an approximate Pentax Screw thread. These can be threaded into a Pentax Screw to Leica screw adapter, mounted into the Novoflex adapter - onto the Bronica focusing mount with full 6x6 format coverage and great results. I have both the 300MM f5 and the 200MM f3.5 lenses. These seem to be smaller than the various Komura lenses made for Bronica, but do the job just as well. They are also called Asanuma King.

There is also a world of copier machine lenses, process lenses, old uncoated view camera lenses and anything else of glass which will cast an image, that with the help of a bellows unit can do great work on a Bronica focal plane camera. All it takes is imagination and patience. Good luck!