Bronica 645

The Bronica RF645 Rangefinder Revisited

Last Spring, Bronica sent me a big Pelican case containing an entire Bronica RF645 kit. At the time, I promised a follow-up to my "first impression" that was then circulating on the internet.
Right now, until March, Bronica is offering a whopping $450 rebate on this already pretty inexpensive camera, so now seems as good a time as any to revisit the unique, unusual RF645.
(Word to the wise: don't stop reading too soon.)
First Things First
There's no getting around this. The RF645, the first all-new Bronica since the medium-format manufacturer's acquisition by the independent lensmaking giant Tamron, has been something very close to a fiasco.
There are three basic problems. Namely, the lenses, the lenses, and the lenses. This is probably a bit embarrassing to Tamron, since lensmaking is the company's forté. Not that Bronica is any slouch in the optics department, either.
The three problems with the lenses, listed from leastest t...