Leica users also using Rollei

[bobewest]

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I have a Rolleicord VA which I recently changed the screen.

Its a joy to use.

 

Bob

[thebarnman]

When I saw this thread, I thought you were talking about the Rollei retro 80s film.

 

I recently used the Rollei film on my road trip of 10 drive-ins in 10 days. Stunning is all I can say!

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[peter_n]

I bought a Rolleiflex Automat MX a couple weeks ago to try medium format. After two rolls I'm hooked! Lovely little camera and I'm really liking the square format.

[thomasw_]

I own a TLR f2,8 rolleiflex and a Rollei SL66 with its standard 80/2,8 lens...beautiful photo making tools.

[john_s]

SL66 is a beautiful camera to use. The shutter is a bit noisy, unlike my M6, but it has a similar mechanical softness about it. No battery, no electronics, superbly built. I actually have three of them because where I live it's difficult to get cameras repaired, but they are all going strong. I had to do a small adjustment to a magazine film loading sensor. I have run hundreds of rolls through them. I love the huge square viewfinder (but i seem to usually crop my images to slightly rectangular). I have tried a Rolleiflex TLR but I find it hard to get used to it. The quietness is a delight though.

[philcycles]

I'm in the middle of a trip through the American Southwest with my Rs and Ms and my Rollei 3.5 Tessar, or was until I dropped it in a snowstorm at Bryce Canyon. No more film counter.

But it's going into my camera repairman when I get back and will, I'm sure, provide many more years of shooting.

I really like it and I got no attention with it because my partner is shooting 4x5 as well as Leica R. He deflects the gawkers.

Phil Brown

[peter_n]

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Well a couple months of ownership of the MX Tessar and I've bought another Rolleiflex, this one a 3.5 E3 Xenotar. What a beautiful camera!

[Keith (M)]

Back in my original film days, at various times I owned a Yashica 124G, Pentacon 6 and Mamiya C3. Always loved the 6x6cm negative!

 

After six or so years of being exclusively digital, I was tempted back to film at the beginning of this year with the purchase of a new M7. Having resurrected my development skills (after unearthing all of my film clobber from the loft!), a hankering after 6x6cm surfaced, resulting in the purchase of a Rolleicord Vb (Xenar f3.5). Quirky control layout to be sure, but the results were very pleasing. A few examples...

 

I find that using the Rollei requires me to rethink my modus-operendi, which is no bad thing and of course, just twelve to a roll means that the film does not spend much time sitting in the camera. Of course, it will never usurp my M9 and M7...

[Stealth3kpl]

I've got a Rollei 35s

Infact, I've got a Rollei 35 AFM up for sale on an auction site.uk at the moment (shameless plug).

Pete

 

[mono]

Leica R´s and SL 66 and Hassis and Nikons

[chioque]

I have both the Rollei 2.8f Planar and the Rollei SL66. In fact, I own both the Rolleis earlier than I do my Leica.

Edited October 30, 2011 by chioque

[JHAG]

Rollei 6000 Integral 2 with an 80.

So much better than the Hassy 503 I've got too.

I consider completing it with one or two other glasses.

I also use and love a Plaubel with a 80 mm Nikon. A pocketable 6x7.

[topoxforddoc]

I've had a trusty 35s for 20 years and recently bought a Rolleflex 3.5 E3. Wonderful machines.

[Nick De Marco]

I have a Rollei 3.5T which I never really use any more and a Rollei 2.8F which I do (was using it yesterday with my M9)

 

I had the Rollei 6000 series slr some years ago, and never liked it. Both TLRs are great though, wonderful lenses and no mirror slap. Can shoot at 1/15th, so great for street stuff. Took it and an M6 around Napoli last year and got some great black and white on both.

 

I also have the Hasselblad 500 series and some lenses, and prefer this fr architecture when on a tripod.

 

Plus a Mamiya 6 which is the best of both worlds (light, no mirror slap but range of lenses), good for a MF travel kit but not half as pleasurable to use as either the Rollei or the Blad - plus I feel the parralax error you can get with a MF rangefinder is more critical on larger negative (I don't like cropping square negs) than on 35mm - so I can get more 'perfect' composition on the Rollei or Blad.

 

I have the Mamiya 7 and some lenses too.A great system but never my favourite. I don't really like 6x7 and find the camera a bit too big. So I'm selling it to buy a Leica MP.

 

Finally on medium format, the camera I most use now, even more than the Rollei, is the Hasselblad XPan, which I just love for street shooting and is a medium format camera,producing large negatives, but using 35mm film so giving me 20-21 frames a roll.

[cidereye]

Just sold my Rolleicord Va as I simply did not use it often enough, looking to the con the wife I now need a Mayima 6!

[Simon Baker]

Six months ago I bought a beautiful example of a Rolleiflex 2.8GX '94 Edition, simply the finest piece of photographic engineering I have ever come across, it will not replace my M7 but I do often use them side by side.

 

Bitingly sharp lens / refreshingly light and compact ( yet very robust ) / wonderfully quiet shutter just like my M7 / superb built-in meter / and those 6x6 slides .... Ohhhh

 

As it happens I took a stroll along Penarth pier this afternoon with it, a tripod and a roll of Velvia 50 . Never fails to turn heads either ( not that that is of concern to me, it's a tool not some piece of bling ) many with a look of curiosity, the odd few glances of admiration, but many more with an expression of "what's that mate .... looks like it's from the Ark, poor chap, can't afford a modern digital can you, what you need is my 16MP dslr"

 

Yep ... Rolleiflex and Leica M, IMO as bloody close to perfect as it can get.

 

Simon

[peter_n]

Yep ... Rolleiflex and Leica M, IMO as bloody close to perfect as it can get.

Yes indeed, Simon.

[chrism]

I never owned a Rollei TLR, but I did buy a Rollei 35 when I lived in Crouch End in 1978-1979. I remember using it in the woods between Crouch End and Muswell Hill and making some solarised prints of the trees. Sadly, those prints and negs are long gone. The Rollei 35 went in a part exchange for a Pentax ME Super a few years later (student economics mean you have to sacrifice one camera for the next, especially when you are not, ostensibly, a student of photography!) Collapsible Leica lenses remind me very much of the pull-out lens of the 35.

 

Chris

[iphoenix]

I did buy a Rollei 35 when I lived in Crouch End in 1978-1979.

In the mid 1980's I bought a 35SE when I was in Munich on business. Second hand it was around DM 70. It was a superb camera, but I think I only bought it because of the collapsible lens. (I already knew about Leicas, but couldn't afford them). Later, my girlfriend's daughter dropped it. :mad:

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[luigi bertolotti]

Ok... if we can go beyond the MF Rolleis... , me too have a 35 (S - Germany - Tessar 3,5) : used for years and years as my "carry-always-when-skiing" camera and also as "camera for climbing" : unbeatable when compactness is top priority, and a excellent quality camera : of course, I still have it...