Rollie SL 35 M

<p>Just got this one and believe me It does not look like it was ever used , But ran into a problem have not forced the film advance to return left it the way it is now , It did advance a few times but the it just hung up like you<br>

see it in the photo<br>

I also just put in a new battery Alkaline one , I guess the meter is not working because the film advance is not returning to where it belongs , any thought or help thanks :</p><div></div>

<p>photo two</p><div></div>

<p>last photo</p><div></div>

<p>Great lenses, flakey bodies, as you have discovered.</p>

<p>Try putting in mercury batteries for which the camera was designed.</p>

<p>It looks like your advance lever has not been advanced fully. It should have a few more degrees of swing before it reaches the end of a complete wind. I think winding it forward fully would unjam it. The meter turns on/off by that little silver pin near where the advance lever comes to rest after winding. When you pull out the advance lever the pin slides back thus turning on the meter. If that little pin isn't moving or cannot be moved back and forth that explains the metering problem. If it is moving smoothly on its own then the switch may need cleaning or the meter may be kaput or the wiring may be faulty. Your model is the manual one so it operates independently of the meter regardless if the meter works or not. It is not the reason of the advance jamming. The meter is kaput on my SL35E and, supposedly, parts are unavailable generally. Somebody may have parts but, you know, go fish.</p>

<p>Errrr...never used a Rollie SL35, but on several of my other 35mm's when the advance lever stops in mid-wind, it means you've reached the end of the roll; on these, when you push the rewind button you can then finish the stroke before you rewind the film. Just a thought.</p>

<p>This is a very pretty camera but it has a poor reputation for reliability.</p>

<p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=4871212">Tom Cheshire</a> Thank you, Thank you very much I was Afraid to push that lever any further I did not want to break it completely , But I push it slowly and it advance and the meter is working : Thank you thank you all of you folks here Now will go out and shot some film with it , Been wanting to play with a Rollie for a long time : we shall see what develops LOL if this camera fails I still have my 1937 rollieflex 6x6 camera Tessar lens</p>

<p>The covering is pretty distinctive, matches the grips on the lens.</p>

<p>Fred - I am sure if you loan him your time machine he'll happily stock up on 'em mercury batteries... a pointless post of no help with the issue at hand or otherwise.</p>

<p>Apparently the final little bit of the stroke on these cameras is quite firm, to the point where it takes some getting used to compared to other slr's. Take that for what it is, just info I cam across in my travels.</p>

<p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=1762819">Peter Galuszewski</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"><img title="Frequent poster" src="../v3graphics/member-status-icons/3rolls.gif" alt="" /></a>, Jun 14, 2011; 02:39 a.m.<br /> Fred - I am sure if you loan him your time machine he'll happily stock up on 'em mercury batteries... a pointless post of no help with the issue at hand or otherwise.<br /> I would use the time machine for other things and for Mercury battery's LOL<br>

You are right it will take some time to get use to advancing the film that way :</p>

<p>Peter, I bow to your infinite wisdom. How silly of me to have thought that:<br /><br />1. The USA (or even North America) was not the only country in the world, yet.<br /><br />2. There was such a thing called "global economy."<br /><br />3. Alkaline batteries were no replacements for mercuries.<br /><br />Obviously I should have<em> lent </em>Lauren my time machine to negate all of the above.</p>

<p>OK Fred. How narrow minded of me, in my North American fortress of ignorance and solitude... Where exactly are mercury batteries still manufactured or for that matter available? Europe? Australia? Santa's Village? And how, pray tell, would they help the film advance lever move or the shutter cock on a purely mechanical camera? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt (because in Canada we are ALL really, really nice, and we all say "eh") and assume you don't, in fact, have a time machine - if you did, we wouldn't be having this stimulating exchange, because you would have realized how silly that post was...</p>

<p>Just because something isn't readily available, doesn't mean it doesn't exist:<br /> http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89756<br /> http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/mercurybattery.html<br /><br />And Peter, let me remind you that barging in on page 2 trying to start a flame war with me, after others have already provided information that is actually useful, isn't being a tiny bit "helpful" or "really, really nice" by any standard. I'm sure you can find messages everywhere that aren't "helpful" to you. So you're going to flame each and every one of those people as well?</p>

<p>And Canadians saying "pray tell"? No wonder you're so obsessed with the time machine. <br /><br />Go take a chill pill or you're gonna burst a vessel at this rate. I'm not gonna bite again either.</p>

<p>Lets put the brakes on here now each of you have stated some good facts and much of it was in humor rather than in pain :</p>

<p>Wow Freddy, you must be the world's funnest smartest person ever, don't stop biting on my account. Bottom line is, you posted a pointless little know-it-all post and then got your panties in a bunch when someone pointed it out to you. Thanks for the equally useless links to a) a discussion that basically says what I just posted and b) to a web page that vaguely states (and I quote): "<em>These are actually still available in some countries like Europe and Asia</em>." </p>

<p>This of course will be the case until the king of Europe and the president of Asia get together and ban the damn things too in their "countries"...</p>

<p>Basically a thread that offer alternatives that have been discussed in this forum ad infinitum and a web site that does the same except in a much more geographically creative, yet equally vague, fashion.</p>

<p>Neither actually states where mercury cells are still manufactured and readily available new. Thanks for making my initial point for me - although I liked it better when I made it a couple days ago... But I guess you also made another point all together which I was trying hard not make - this time about you...</p>

<p>Don't worry Freddy, I am sure you're very smart for your height and your mom thinks you're handsome. </p>

<p>Ouch, those Rollei's really stir folks up! As others have stated, those model Rollei's and their Voigtlander cousins were never renown for their reliability, although the lenses were excellent, even the re-badged Mamiya ones.<br>

Yours should be OK as it looks new, so I hope you can get some excellent shots with it. PS, no mercury batteries in Australia either....</p>

<p>I agree with the statements about the built quality of the Rollei and Voigtlaender 35mm SLRs. I once owned a VSL3 and had to do some work on it. It was designed rather with reducing costs in mind. Under the bottom cover, you will find the adjustments for curtain tension: simple "cog wheels" stamped from brass sheet metal (without any chrome or nickel plating), and the stops are provided by a simple leaf spring.<br>

No wonder that many people preferred the Spotmatic and other cameras. On the Spotmatic, you will find the same adjustment, done by real cog wheels driven by a self-latching miniature helicoid. This allows for much more precise adjustment and is much more neatly made.<br>

The VSL3, btw, had a small window on the front of the prism for displayiing aperture values inside the viewfinder. This window was on a vertical part of the prism. Shooting against the light, a significant portion of light enters this window and disturbs metering completely. Later they made several attemps to add an additional cover to prevent this. Some of the Minolta SRT models had a similar window - but on a rather horizontal surface of a "bulge" in the prism housing, and they did not have problems with metering against the light. No, german engineers were NOT ALWAYS the best camera designers.</p>

 

<p>This is another (and the only one I don't actually have) camera that is one of my personal "most beautiful" list.<br>

Someday, perhaps after I finish my current fling with early, odd-shaped "bridge" cameras. ;)</p>