Depends what type of photography you are doing and what you are after. Overall, it is not a very sharp lens. Slow grained slide film/drum scanning/large landscape prints ?? forget it. Definitely does not compare to later generation Bronica "P" glass (PE,PS,PG) prime lenses which are all quite good in my opinion. Distortion was readily apparent at all focal lengths with the 45-90mm PE Zoom. Heavy, unwieldy, difficult to focus and a very slow variable aperture are other downsides. I returned mine after testing a copy many many years ago.
The 45-90mm Zoom was definitely aimed at Wedding Pro's who needed the convenience of a Zoom lens. Most of those photographers dumped their medium format film gear quickly once 6mp digital SLR's hit the market (and you know what happened to Medium Format Film photography as a viable niche industry shortly thereafter). For critical applications these early generation 6mp digital SLR's were not sufficient for all BUT wedding pro's in my opinion. They often had shot Bronica or Hasselblad for characteristics like flash sync speed, tonality and control of grain in Optical Enlargements using high grain high DR C-41 print films. Absolute sharpness was never the ONLY parameter for this crowd. A very different class of photographer than hyper critical Industrial guys like myself who took great pains to insure sharpness, drum scanned their best work and only used slow film. Not a dig on wedding guys. Just a different aesthetic so no flames please.
Bronica made some great later generation glass from the late 80's onward but this Heavy Zoom lens was a disappointment.
Use sharp PE primes, mirror lockup, cable release, slow film and drum scans if you want the best out of your ETR's (i)
Hope this helps.
