Rolleiflex Medium Format: A Companion for Many Years
14 29 Share TweetCompact, easy to use, of high aesthetic value — this is the Rolleiflex medium format camera. This camera has accompanied me for many years, and I was never ever disappointed!
First, the facts: as with many TLRs, it fits nicely in your hands. It’s equipped with a brilliant lens (2.8 – 80mm) and the length of exposure reaches from B to 1/500. This sounds good, but it gets even better: a great advantage is the winding crank you know (e.g. from Hasselblad). It spans the shutter and film transport in only one move. Really speedy like a boost engine, it never ever failed all the years! Changing film rolls is fast and easy: just thread in the loop and you’re finished! Turn the winding crank until it stops and you’re ready for the first shot. Wouldn’t miss this benefit anymore!
One more sensation: this winding crank is equipped with a special double exposure appliance, which is very comfortable to handle! So it’s easy to make as much exposures as you want. This feature is a little hidden, so I discovered it only recently.
For every day use, I must admit it’s not a lightweight camera. After some time you definately notice that it has a certain load on your shoulder, but in practice it makes itself useful by native image stabilization (about 1.4 kg with leather case, ~ 3.0 lbs). With the leather case, its nicely constructed, and opens and closes quickly. It looks a little bit antique, like a historic architectural relic.
After all the years (this one is the 2.8D from about 1955–1956) it initially did not work correctly. I really would strongly recommend a repair to everybody! Certainly, it costs some money, but I bet you will agree that a car needs a little service every now and again.
Now, everything is working fine as on the first day!
written by mapix on 2012-05-08 #gear #rollei #review #rolleiflex #6x6 #camera-review #lomography #medium-format-camera #tlr #carl-zeiss #braunschweig #mittelformat #user-review #planar-2-8 #franke-und-heidecke
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