Bronica Learning Center :: Professional Lens Shade

Do it in the shade! By that, I mean...control your contrast, filter for special effects, and accommodate
virtually all of your focal lengths with one accessory. That is the Bronica Professional Shade. There's one available for each of the Bronica camera systems.

Light emanating from sources or objects outside the camera lens' angle of view can indescriminately enter a camera lens and play havoc with the image, especially in shadow areas where the
illumination is subdued. This unwanted light can reduce the image's contrast and in some cases imprint strange flare patterns, which results from stray light reflecting back and forth within the optical elements of the lens. While great care is taken to design and engineer lenses to reduce flare, flare is virtually impossible to eliminate under all circumstances.

Photographers can reduce stray light and flare by using a lens shade to physically block any light
coming from objects and sources outside the imaging angle of view of the lens.

When using a lens shade, it is important to have as close a match as possible between the angle of view of the shade and that of the lens. If the shade's angle is greater than that of the lens, stray light will be able to enter; if it is less than the lens, the shade may block image area creating a vignetting effect. Sometimes, that is a desired effect; otherwise it could produce disappointment.

The simplest type of lens shade consists of a plastic or rubber hood that surrounds and extends beyond the front of the lens. Because of the need to match the angle of view of the shade and the lens, a different shade is usually required for each size of lens. Zooms would be extremely difficult to accommodate.

Fortunately, there is another kind of shade - an adjustable one (known as a pro shade, a bellows
shade, or a compendium shade). The pro shade is constructed like a bellows, so that its angle of view can be adjusted to match that of a lens by simply extending or retracting the bellows. In this way, a single pro shade can be used with a variety of lenses, from very wide to fairly telephoto.

While this feature alone makes a pro shade valuable for anyone owning more than one lens, most pro shades also have slots at the front and/or the back of the unit to hold drop in filters. These drop in slots permit the use of a wide variety of color correction filters, special effects filters, and vignetters. The selection is almost endless, including: center sharp/edge soft; center soft/edge sharp; diffuse effects; pastel effects; star burst; multi image; and more. Almost any special effect medium can be cut to fit the drop in slots, for example; colored gel, gauze, fabric, glass, plastic, paper, etc. All of Bronica's pro shades have both front and back slots; their dimensions are shown below:

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