Engineering of a Rolleiflex 3.5F/2.8F Digital Back System

<p>Hello --<br>

<br /> I am new to the Photo.net forums, but I have been collecting Medium-Format (I have two Rolleiflex's and a Rolleicord), Large-Format (Speed Graphic), and 35mm SLR's for quite some time and am an amateur photographer (well, at the very least a hobbyist). I am an Engineer (CS/EE), and had an interesting proposition for the community (I know it's been discussed before, but I figured I'd resurrect the topic).</p>

<p>The reason I'm posting is because I had the crazy idea of gaining support from the Rolleiflex-using community for the engineering of a digital back system for the 2.8F/3.8F series of the Rolleiflex.</p>

<p>I have access to basic production equipment (well, the mechanical side -- I am a CS/EE for a DBS hardware manufacturing company, so I don't have the means of doing anything on the electronics side) and am trying to gauge interest in such a feat in order to possibly present a design to a company such as <em>Leaf</em> or <em>Phase One</em>.</p>

<p>Again, I know it's been proposed before, but I figured I's bring it up again and maybe gain the support from Rolleiflex owners as well as other engineers that could possibly assist (I know photography is very popular amongst the engineering community).</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

 

<p>Like this?</p>

<p>http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/Greg_E/drollei3.jpg</p>

<p>IMOPO, the advantages of a TLR (high-quality potential in a relatively light-weight, low-cost, and simple camera) get blown away when you talk about tacking on a bulky and expensive digital back.</p>

<p>Also, all current medium format digital back sensors are substantially smaller than a 6x6 frame, so you'd be imposing a crop factor without any ability to change to wider lenses to compensate. And all current medium format digital back sensors are rectangular, so you'd be imposing a requirement to rotate the camera to get the other orientation versus whichever one is native to the back (landscape or portrait--take your pick), which is not too convenient, especially with the nearly-universal waist-level finders.</p>

<p>I see this as a variation of the digital film concept: might sound good at first blush, but the market for such a device at a price that would sustain it is minuscule. Which of course is not to say you shouldn't build a prototype if doing so would amuse you.</p>

<p>Lee just saw your post. Very much supportive of the idea. I also posted a day ago in regards to open source hardware designs for Photo adapters/etc.<br>

I think yours fits there very well. I do not own Rolleiflex (but do have Bronicas , all the mamiyas including C330 and except the rangefinders).<br>

I think bringing their optics and shutters to complement digital back is of huge interest and benefit. <br>

Besides advantages to us (the gear collectors) -- it can enable generations of new photographers with low cost/exceptional capture capabilities using these. And perhaps new interesting devices that we are not thinking of today</p>

<p>Its a great idea, and one of interest, but probably not feasible. The mech'l focus control over the lenses is probably not precise enough for the digital back, assuming the later lenses are. <br>

If the imagination runs free, then consider the electronics of the back placed above the sensor (why not?) so that the overall rear projection is much less (say 3/4"?) and the whole thing becomes much more usable. There are great advantages in being able to see the composition and then shoot, assuming the focus through the taking lens and the sensor are in the same exact plane, not so easy to achieve. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>assuming the focus through the taking lens and the sensor are in the same exact plane, not so easy to achieve.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br /><br />We manage it with film. It would be just as easy with a sensor.</p>

<p>Hi, I just joined this forum after searching for possibilities for mounting a digital back onto my Rolleiflex f/2.8 TLR and finding this post. I am getting back into portrait photography, and there's nothing like the lens on this camera for portraits in my opinion. I love to shoot with it and I would love to be able to use it with a digital back. <br>

Lee, if you are still interested in fabricating the mount to adapt the Rolleiflex for a Mamiya Leaf Aptus or Credo for example, please let me know. From my albeit rather limited understanding of the medium format digital sensors, if you were to use a lower megapixel digital back, say the Leaf Aptus 22MP, inaccuracies in the precision of the focal plane will be minimized.</p>

Hi,

 

I have been searching the net for a while looking for exactly this.

I would love to have a digital Rollei, i had toyed with the idea of butchering a cheap digital camera and attempting it.

But thinking about it I think the problems are going to be the controls. It's not as simple as putting a sensor and a shoot button and away

you go. What about ISO etc?

Obviously aperture and focus would be manual, but to make a functioning camera we need everything else too.

Probably the way to do it would be a small version of a digital back used on Hasselblad, Phase one etc.

Count me in for interest and any support I can give. Even if it's only moral. I would dearly love a digital Rollei TLR.

 

G

<p>Old thread, but solution in search of a problem. If you want digital on a Rolleiflex, shoot film and scan.</p>

<p>Just for the eternal web record, I actually spoke about —or, more like, <em>pushed—</em> this idea with Rollei around ten years ago at Photokina while speaking with their marketing manager at the time, a Mr. Dieter Kanzer (if memory serves right for his name). He intimated to me that Rollei had already considered this —and I suspect I wasn't the first to think of it, even way back then!<br>

I don't exactly remember what the reason was, as to why they didn't actually pursue the idea (probably the same ol' reason of believing that there wasn't a big enough market for the product), but I do remember him saying that they'd already invested too much, at that point, in the Sinar-Rollei Hy6 project, to justify changing horses in mid stream.<br>

With all the zillions of sturdy and sharp second-hand Rolleiflex's still out there, it would've seemed logical to have tried to create a secondary —or, <em>"second life"</em>— market based upon the well built cameras they'd already sold. After all, one of Rollei/F&H's major "problems" was that their product was practically indestructible and —unlike an Apple iThing, where "next generation" could simply involve just a software change— a Rolleiflex product evolution was —or, to the customer, could seem to be— a relative minor thing (except for differences in lenses). Customers rarely needed to replace them. <br>

I'm still convinced that if Rollei or DHW had decided to pursue and develop the idea of a digital back for their TLRs, they might've been able to add some appreciable years to their existence, or at least been able to transform and evolve toward a slightly different core business and remain alive. It's really sad.</p>

 

"I don't exactly remember what the reason was, as to why they didn't actually pursue the idea..."

 

Christopher, I dealt with feasibility evaluations of something similar before the DSLRs became "cheap," meaning less than $10,000 or so.

The main hurdle in adapting to an existing camera body was the issue of getting the sensor into the image plane, and I imagine that was

Rollei's deal-breaker too. If your camera were to have interchangeable film backs, then this problem wouldn't exist.

 

We looked at just about every feasible option, including an optical relay system (we had the space, our system being a stand-mounted

studio camera), possible relocation of the lens mount, and even a custom fiber optic faceplate to shift the image outward a quarter inch or

so. If one is willing to give up imaging area then it's possible to find a sensor package that can be inserted slightly forward to reach the

image plane. (We weren't willing to do that, so ended up dropping the idea of fitting it to our existing film camera.)

 

Anyway, my guess is that this is the single issue that stopped Rollei, and still keeps digital-back makers from going there.