A Boy and his Rollei 35

<p><strong> </strong><br>

<strong>The Rollei 35 and me - a personal history of a boy and his camera</strong><br>

<br /><em>with digressions on Maya ruins and caves, and the ineffable joys of portability and fast film.</em></p>

<p><strong>Introduction</strong><br />A post by me on a personal level about my early adventures with a Pentax H2 camera ( <a href="../classic-cameras-forum/00Y3Rk">H2 Post</a> ) seemed to be tolerated, and others have also fallen victim to the wiles of nostalgia. So if you only want hard-core equipment p o r n, this may not be your cup of tea.<br /><br />There was a movie, A Boy and his Dog (1975) ( <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072730/">link</a> ) based on a Harlan Ellison story of the same name, about those protagonists in a post-nuclear war world. My story with my Rollei is not quite so rough or dramatic, but there were two times when my major 35mm gear (Nikon-made) packed up and left me stranded in places where repairs were not feasible. In those situations, I fortunately had thrown in my little Rollei 35 (Singapore with Tessar 40mm f/3.5). The first time it happened, it was right in the middle of a trip to the Maya Ruins in Yucatan. The second time on a trip to South America, it was not quite so crucial since the trip I was on was nearly over (now that I think on it, perhaps that day of shooting in the rain at Machu Picchu did more than I had thought, hmm). <br /><br />Anyhow, what led me to this point ['at last, a point!' they say] and this post was a recent spate of Rolleis on this forum. Like one of those flashbacks on the late night TV talk shows, my mind wandered back to days of yore.... [cries of 'ferchrissakes, GTTFP!"]<br /><br />OK, OK. <br /><br />Anyhow, I thought I would share a few pictures and some discussion about this camera when it really pulled my chestnuts out of the fire. I will not here try to present any more technical details on this little sweetie.</p><div></div>

<p><strong>In the jungles of Mesoamerica</strong><br>

<br />It was a dark and stormy day in January back home, and I was having a Christmas break, first in Mexico City, and then in Yucatan. I had just been to Chich'en Itza (Chi'ch'èen Ìitsha' - older orthography Chichén Itzá) and arrived for a nice overnight at Hacienda Uxmal (Óoxmáal). Out early the next day to take pictures: Nikkormat FTn just quit. Shutter was inoperable. So very disappointed, but out I went into the early dawn light, armed with my Rollei 35 and rolls of film, including "the worst slide film ever" (Popular Photography said this after it was no longer made or sold). GAF 500. It had brownish and magenta colors Ansco/GAF were pleased to advertise as "natural" and grain that would create pointillist impressionist slides, BUT nothing else would let you take pictures so nearly everywhere at any time. If you knew what was good for you, you'd shoot 20-exposure rolls of GAF 500 (did they make any longer?) and get Kodachrome II or 25 in after the sun was up all the way. In a real pinch, GAF 500 could be shot at ASA 1000 without being much worse than it was at 500.<br /><br />So here I was, at Uxmal, a major Maya site in Yucatan. Only a 40mm f/3.5 lens on a tiny pocket camera. My Nikkormat was back at the hacienda, barfing into the throne or something. Could I take useful pictures with this small camera and only one lens?<br /><br />I first tackled one of the largest pyramids, the Pyramid of the Magician (needless to say, none of these names are the original Maya names for these things). Here is a very early dawn shot with the magenta as lagniappe.</p><div></div>

<p>Well at least the camera was working, although I didn't know for sure until I got home how useful the slides would be. I actually taught classes on this stuff, so it was not just an abstract question. Then I climbed the adjacent Palace of the Governors and I got this shot. It has the telltale GAF 500 color (at its best here), but I personally like it as it is, although I have played with Photoshop to make variants of it.<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>Anyhow, by now I had K25 in the Rollei (and none too thrilled about the recent change from Kodachrome II, but that's another story) and wandered about the park using sneaker zoom to get close ups and wider angles.<br /><br />Here's a shot of the Palace of the Governors from the so-called "Nunnery".</p><div></div>

<p>Then some details of the Nunnery facade, showing a mosaic depiction of a traditional Maya house like those still built today.</p><div></div>

<p>Then after much more shooting, it was off to visit other sites nearby in the jungle.</p><div></div>

<p>Remember, all these are taken with the Rollei 35.</p>

<p>The little Rollei did OK, even on a visit to a cave shrine site now called Balankanche - the following shot is taken with that little portable Rollei flash, made to match the Rollei camera. This picture underground with little light is also on GAF 500, by the way.</p><div></div>

<p><strong>The Second Rescue</strong> -<br /> Puerto Rican beaches<br />The second time that the little gem came into rescue use was after I had been to Peru. The Nikkormat camera went on the sick roll on a Sunday in Caracas, as it happened. I think Caracas is a wonderful city and I am sure that there must be competent camera service people there, but not on a Sunday). <br /><br />Here is a shot of the beach in Puerto Rico where I was recuperating from my vacation. I often found that if you had the time, it was a good idea to have a vacation from your "working" vacation. :)</p><div></div>

<p>After all this, I shortly bought the then new Nikkormat EL and it became my main shooter for a long time.</p>

<p>Later I always carried both the Nikkormats, and so of course, never again had any failures on either. I still always took that little Rollei along, and many an evening after dinner I took it with hi-speed film on city walks where I didn't want to mess with the huge and heavy Nikkormats.The Nikkormat FTn's meter has recently quit (the resistor?) but otherwise both it and the EL work perfectly to this day. My daughter learned to shoot with the EL in her high school film class, as well, and someday, here or in Modern Film forum I'll be posting on the Nikons, but not today.<br /><br />However, ever after that Maya trip, and the images I got with just one simple, pocketable camera, it was really hard sometimes to convince myself to pack up the roughly 15+ lbs (~7 kg) FB-8 Nikon case, two Nikkormats, and 4 lenses. I often wished I'd had the courage just to go with the little Rollei and be happy and unbowed.<br /><br />That's my personal Rollei 35 story.<br /><br />What's yours?</p>

<p>Interesting story and lovely pictures. I like the small cameras in my little collection, the Exa, the Zorki 1, c and 2c. They seem to have a character of the period of production, as well. The GAF film was my favourite for its warmer tones in the era of slides. Thanks for the post. sp.</p>

<p>Amazing pictures, especially Pyramid of the Magician from Palace of the Governors. Fantastic! And a nice story to boot.</p>

<p>"What's yours"</p>

<p>I just like them. Never knew them then. Only now.</p>

<p>Very nice Photos, JDM. I didn't know they made a black version. I have a chrome Singapore and a chrome German is on the way to me. I also have the flash, but could never figure out how to open it to replace the batteries. That makes me sound like a moron, but I didn't want to risk breaking it by forcing it open. What's the secret? The one that is coming to me has the hand strap which seems to be more rare than the camera.</p>

<p>On the top (?, the side away from the camera when mounted) of the flash, there is a ridged area. Put your thumb on that and pull to the back. The cover slides on and off.<br>

It's not at all obvious until <em>after</em> you figure it out. ;)</p>

<p>Great shot of the Temple of the Magician from the Palace one.<br>

Never fondled a Rollei 35 myself to be honest.</p>

<p>A great potpourri, <strong>JDM</strong>. I really like the image of the Resort Beach; it has a painterly style to it, a sort of Gauguin-ish intensity. I really must look around for a Rollei 35; everyone seems to like them <em>so</em> much.</p>

<p>I still have a Rollei (with the German(?) lens) with the flash. It is silver. It was a great little camera. I sent it to a guy in California for an estimate to bring it back to life. If I remember correctly, it was about $300. Too much to spend on it in today's economy.</p>

<p>What's the deal with the GAF? I have some from the late 70s: how old was yours.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3054/2582383574_f7739b3988.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>My GAF film was fresh off the shelf at the time I shot it. The only GAF film I used regularly was the 500 film, otherwise, all Kodachrome with the occasional bit of faster Ektachrome.</p>

<p>BTW I have found that all the film I had processed by the manufacturer (whatever make, except for Perutz), has stood the test of time well. 3rd party processors, not so good. That's where the film shifts to magenta or green....</p><div></div>

<p>The colours are simply outstanding.</p>

<p> Von nice shots W/the Rollei have two of them myself.</p>

<p>Great series. You have effectively made the most of the sharpness Kodachrome offers and also produced some "gentler" color with the GAF 500. The 500 was a grainy film but your skill in exposing it seems to have minimized the grain quite effectively. Thanks for posting.</p>

<p>Well, it doesn't hurt to be able (?) to display them at 700 pixels max either. The images full size show the "pointillism" I referred to a little more. :)</p>

Great Story and very nice Kodachrome shots.. you can't beat the combination a great lens with great film! !

<p>I have kept the slides in group slide boxes, in household conditions, with good circulation around them.</p>

<p>Where I live, however, is the pits in terms of humidity control. Even in winter time, our humidity, like St. Louis to the north and Memphis to the south, is higher than the maximum Kodak and others specify for storing slides. I've only had a couple of examples of fungus, however. Otherwise, as for household conditions, if mildew were a cash crop, southern Illinois would be in 'clover'. Far north as we are (37.7ºN, about the same as Richmond), we are still in the Gulf Coastal Plain.</p>

<p>I also made copies of the slides I used the most in classes and professional presentations so as not to subject the originals to projection stresses. These were all scanned from the originals, of course. Except for playing around in Photoshop on copies of the files for effect, the slides as shown here are as true to the originals as technology allows. Interestingly, I discovered that with a little work, it was possible to bring up much more shadow detail in the Kodachrome, and that led me eventually to scanning in the "seconds" I had not quite been able to bring myself to toss away -- and discovered in many of them why I took the picture in the first place. None of these shown here have had the "ozone" method applied to them.</p>

<p>As I said above, the primary variable on both old GAF and old Kodachrome slides seems to have been who processed the film. I usually sent them to the manufacturers for processing. Those that I did send to Drewery (sp?) or other non-manufacturer processing houses, are the ones, especially for GAF and Ektachrome, that show color shifts.</p>