a rolleiflex too

[Annibale G.]

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Already with a couple of M7 and a R6.2 I will do also some picture in medium format.

I was looking for a Rolleiflex TLR, not so big, one lenses, great quality. Mainly I was looking for a Rolleiflex 3,5 f Planar. I've seen there are some with 5 groups of lenses whereas others with 6.

I will shoot only black and white; now I think the one with 6 lenses is better than the one with 5 but I'd like to know also your opinion. Second question: where the light meter point?

I'm in Rome. Do you know as well some shop I can look and maybe buying online?

Thanks really a lot.

[holmes]

Maybe I can help a little. I have a Rollei f 3.5 Zenotar (circa 1960) as opposed to the f 2.8 Plannar. The lenses are made by Schneider of Germany. I have found with my Rollei that for the most accurate readings are with the camera pointed slightly down from your subject. You have to try direct or down. I don't know the age of your Rollei but the slow shutter speeds tend to by a slow. Correct me if I wrong, but didn't I see a newspaper report that Rollei finally threw in the towel? It is a fun camera to shoot with and you will receive lots of stares.

[lars_bergquist]

The light meter is a selenium meter. These old meters tend to either stop functioning (due to oxidation of the leads that conduct current across the front of the selenium surface) or they give way too low readings. When shooting ISO 200 film in my 1950's Retina IIIC, I have to set the meter to ASA 400. Calibrate your meter against a reliable modern meter -- and an evenly lit surface!

 

The field of the meter is likely something like 30° vertical. This means that it will take in a lot of bright sky if the camera is held horizontally. With these old wide field meters, we always had to tilt the meter/camera a bit down to take in less sky.

 

Photographing Rome with a Rollei TLR will be fun; I did it with a Rollei 35! Rome of course is "a nice place to wait for the Last Judgment", according to Fellini.

 

The old man from the Selenium Age

[lars_bergquist]

Oh well, lenses. Zeiss Tessar lenses are five element lenses. They are good when stopped down a bit. Zeiss Planar and Schneider Xenotar lenses are six-element double-Gauss lenses, and equal in quality, meaning excellent -- on that big negative.

 

The old man from the Selenium Age

[earleygallery]

Also consider a Rolliecord VA or VB and a hand held meter (I'd use the hand held meter anyway in preference). The VB has a removable hood so you can fit a prism finder if you wish, and also consider fitting a brightscreen.

[andym911]

Also consider a Rolliecord VA or VB and a hand held meter (I'd use the hand held meter anyway in preference). The VB has a removable hood so you can fit a prism finder if you wish, and also consider fitting a brightscreen.

 

agree on the Rolleicord.....much lighter and easy to handle IMO, together with a lighweight meter is a real fun combination.

Think I paid about Euro 200,00 for mine in superb condition (the rolleicord that is) and the image quality is just tremendouns.

 

Enjoy whatever you choose

Andy

[giordano]

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Oh well, lenses. Zeiss Tessar lenses are five element lenses. They are good when stopped down a bit. Zeiss Planar and Schneider Xenotar lenses are six-element double-Gauss lenses, and equal in quality, meaning excellent -- on that big negative.

 

The old man from the Selenium Age

 

Slip of the pen there, Lars. All Tessars have four elements. When Planars and Xenotars were first fitted to Rolleiflexes (whether f/3.5 or f/2.8) in the 1950s they had five elements, but later they (or maybe just the Planars) seem to have been recomputed with a sixth element to give better performance wide open.

 

There was a general feeling that the f/3.5 Planars and Xenotars had the best optical performance, followed by the f/2.8 ones, then the f/3.5 Tessars and Xenars, followed up by the (rare) f/2.8 Tessar and of course the 3-element Triotar on the early Rolleicords.

[Xmas]

Slip of the pen there, Lars. All Tessars have four elements. When Planars and Xenotars were first fitted to Rolleiflexes (whether f/3.5 or f/2.8) in the 1950s they had five elements, but later they (or maybe just the Planars) seem to have been recomputed with a sixth element to give better performance wide open.

 

There was a general feeling that the f/3.5 Planars and Xenotars had the best optical performance, followed by the f/2.8 ones, then the f/3.5 Tessars and Xenars, followed up by the (rare) f/2.8 Tessar and of course the 3-element Triotar on the early Rolleicords.

 

The later lenses use higher refractive index glass and better hard coating, but wide aperature performance is limited by film flatness, some of the rollis have glass plates to address this, but it is simpler to shoot a sequence to avoid the set the film may have from the feed roller, & use f/8....

 

Noel

[Rolo]

Been using mine this weekend past. Lovely screen to compose with and outstanding image quality compare to 35mm because of the larger film size and field of view.

 

My first Rollei TLR was in 1972, a Rolleicord V, followed by a Va, then 3 grey Rolleiflex T's and now only a Planar 2.8f, since 1980. If I could keep just one camera and a single lens (+ VF), this would be it.

[luigi bertolotti]

Rolleiflex 3,5 f is a superb camera in any sense, and, important thing, it can still be maintained by many labs. Btw, the change from 5 to 6 elements for the lens started from 2.753.002 (Planar) and 2.299.547 (Xenotar - these are LENS numbers, not body numbers). Don't know about Rome... but if you whish to make a trip, Foto Prisma in Bologna and New Old Camera in Milano often have Rolleiflexes for sale : my one comes from Milano... I don't sell it ... but I have also a 3,5 T (Tessar) very used, no meter, bag, fine working, which I'd give away for few if happens you make a trip here...

[lars_bergquist]

Slip of the pen there, Lars. All Tessars have four elements.

 

Indeed, slip of the pen, and I stand corrected.

 

I am not one hundred ten percent sure about the Xenotar. But though I have checked many old and newer sources, I have not come across one five element Planar. They are all true double Gauss lenses of six elements in four groups, or to use a less ambiguous notation, adapted from steam locomotive nomenclature,

1 - 2 / 2 - 1

where 1 is a single element, 2 a cemented group of two, and the slash marks the position of the diaphragm. In that notation, a Tessar is

1 - 1 / 2

while a 5cm Elmar is

1 / 1 - 2

 

Schneider Xenar, Voigtländer Skopar and some others, including the 13.5 cm, 10.5cm, 9cm and 3.5cm Elmar follow the Tessar pattern.

 

If anybody can document a five element Planar, I would be happy to know.

 

The old man from the Elmar Age

[bocaburger]

From my own experience (currently own 2 Rolleiflexes, have owned others in the past) and conversations with 2 of the US best Rollei repair guys (Maralian and Fleenor), the following are good to know if contemplating a purchase:

 

1. Early (pre-1960's) models had some significant sample variations between lenses of like construction, so it isn't always possible to rely on generalized opinions regarding which style of lens is sharper.

 

2. Regardless of the lens type, the front standard calibration can make or break image quality. If it is even a little out, or worse, non-parallel (perhaps due to an impact), IQ will suffer.

 

3. Unlike the FP shutters in Leicas, if the slow speeds in Rollei shutters are sticky, they can often be coaxed back into reasonable order by working them repeatedly. (However a service/lube is still the best).

 

4. Older models need to have the shutter cocked to move the speed setting to the highest speed and back. So if you can't move the wheel, try winding the crank ahead till you feel the resistance overcome, then return it to the folded recess. Newer models it doesn't matter.

 

If I can offer any advice it would be to buy with a solid return option, and then check the camera out thoroughly. Unless the seller can provide you with an invoice attesting to the camera having been serviced in the last 10 years I would also factor in a service, and those can be quite costly especially if it needs all three shutter+lens+transport.

[luigi bertolotti]

Indeed, slip of the pen, and I stand corrected.

 

I am not one hundred ten percent sure about the Xenotar. But though I have checked many old and newer sources, I have not come across one five element Planar.

 

....

 

 

If anybody can document a five element Planar, I would be happy to know.

 

The old man from the Elmar Age

 

Here is it : indeed, there seem to exist more 3,5f with 6 element Planar than with 5, but the existence of the 5 elements is well documented (Prochnow - Derqui... here's a casual page: http://www.stutterheim.org/rolleigraphy/rolleiflex_compare.html) ; there have been discussions about the s/n of changover 5 to 6, but the lens number I quoted (2.735.002) is from Prochnow - probably the best source.

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[lars_bergquist]

Luigi -- well, I say! These five element Planar lenses are of course from a period when the Rollei TLR cameras were under some sharp market pressure from manufacturers like Minolta and Yashica, so it is

perhaps understandable. The three-element 90mm Elmar does also come to mind. The Rolleiflex T line was certainly a reaction to that market pressure.

 

I do understand however why this simplified design was not very widely touted. This was an age when lenses and cameras were sold mainly by the nameplate, not by any actual measure of performance, so nobody did probably ask about the mysterious inner life of this 'Planar'. But as they say, you learn as long as you live. At least, you have the chance ...

 

By the way, I do not want to imply that the five-element lenses were necessarily inferior to their six-element predecessors. Better glass was being made available, and the 3-element Elmar was actually an improvement. But the design was a lesser one, with less development potential. The Planar lenses that Zeiss make today are classical six-element designs.

 

The old man from the Age of Crown and Flint Glass