Test Roll From my Rollei 35 Part One.
I blame my brother Alex Smith for all this, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. He is a big fan of the Rollei 35 and owns a few of them. He travels a lot for work so one along with maybe two rolls of film goes into his briefcase and it is the perfect travel rig.
The Rollei 35 when it was introduced back in 1966 was the smallest 35mm camer in production at the time. It came with a 40mm F3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens and it garnered a lot of love from photographers around the world including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Production moved to Singapore in the early 1970s and the 35S with a 40 f2.8 Sonnar lens was also introduced. I traded in my Olympus OM-4 two weeks ago for a Rollei 35S, you read more about that another time.
This camera is small as in it fits into your jacket pocket small and you forget about it. Small enough it fits into one hand only. My brother swears by this camera when skiing and I plan to take mine up this winter too.
There are some quirks, the film advance is on the left side of the camera, by logic the film goes in on the right cannister loaded the other way. Getting the back on after loading you have to be patient. For the camera to work you have to pull the lens out and twist slightly. To collapse the lens you have advance the film and then press a button by the shutter release to retract it.
Viewfinder has framelines and that's it. You have a scale in both meters and feet on the lens and you have guess the distance between you and your subject and figure out if you are in the zone. The aperture and shutter controls are on the front of the camera and the shutter is every bit as quiet as a Leica. The meter technology was supplied by Gossen for the made in Germany Rollei 35's and needed a 1.35v 625 battery. I used the light meter app on my iPhone to get the exposure readings, if it's a sunny day, you can Sunny 16 to your hearts content.
What I love about this camera is it's built to last and the Zeiss glass is tack sharp. There is a learning curve on getting the zone focusing down but not impossible, just be ready for some misfires.
So you want one? Rollei 35's are cute aren't they. On Ebay they are somewhere between $300-500 depending on condition and the seller. If you are buying local, it will be closer to $200. Now, there exists a 40 f3.5 Schneider Xenar verision, be prepared to spend some big money as not many were made because, most people wanted the Zeiss glass. When you are buying a Rollei 35 you are also buying the seller too. This is a really small camera with small bits, and things can go wrong, so budget a CLA just in case.
Camera: Rollei 35 (Made in Germany), 40 f3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens.
Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B.
The Rollei 35 when it was introduced back in 1966 was the smallest 35mm camer in production at the time. It came with a 40mm F3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens and it garnered a lot of love from photographers around the world including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Production moved to Singapore in the early 1970s and the 35S with a 40 f2.8 Sonnar lens was also introduced. I traded in my Olympus OM-4 two weeks ago for a Rollei 35S, you read more about that another time.
This camera is small as in it fits into your jacket pocket small and you forget about it. Small enough it fits into one hand only. My brother swears by this camera when skiing and I plan to take mine up this winter too.
There are some quirks, the film advance is on the left side of the camera, by logic the film goes in on the right cannister loaded the other way. Getting the back on after loading you have to be patient. For the camera to work you have to pull the lens out and twist slightly. To collapse the lens you have advance the film and then press a button by the shutter release to retract it.
Viewfinder has framelines and that's it. You have a scale in both meters and feet on the lens and you have guess the distance between you and your subject and figure out if you are in the zone. The aperture and shutter controls are on the front of the camera and the shutter is every bit as quiet as a Leica. The meter technology was supplied by Gossen for the made in Germany Rollei 35's and needed a 1.35v 625 battery. I used the light meter app on my iPhone to get the exposure readings, if it's a sunny day, you can Sunny 16 to your hearts content.
What I love about this camera is it's built to last and the Zeiss glass is tack sharp. There is a learning curve on getting the zone focusing down but not impossible, just be ready for some misfires.
So you want one? Rollei 35's are cute aren't they. On Ebay they are somewhere between $300-500 depending on condition and the seller. If you are buying local, it will be closer to $200. Now, there exists a 40 f3.5 Schneider Xenar verision, be prepared to spend some big money as not many were made because, most people wanted the Zeiss glass. When you are buying a Rollei 35 you are also buying the seller too. This is a really small camera with small bits, and things can go wrong, so budget a CLA just in case.
Camera: Rollei 35 (Made in Germany), 40 f3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens.
Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400, HC110 B.
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