Rolleiflex SL26 possibility to shoot nowadays

I have a possibility to add Rolleiflex SL26 to my collection. BUT it has a

marvellous pro-tessar 80mm and I`m dreaming of testing it. DO you know is it

possible to load normal film into the cartridge or any other way how can I use

the camera?

No, it is NOT possible to re-load the 126 cartridges with 35mm perforated film since the film in these cartridges has just one hole per frame, indicating that the advance mechanism has to stop.

 

There are rumours that Ferrania of Italy still makes 126 film cartridges but I haven't seen any for a long time now.

Ferrania still advertises it: <http://www.ferraniait.com/solutions/photography/photograph.htm>

Delete that last > to make that url work....

Thanks. My friend is going to Rome. I wonder is there a place to buy Ferrania film for SL26?

Here in North America The Frugal Photographer sells it through the mail:

http://www.frugalphotographer.com/cat126.htm

If you want to shoot black & white, wait for some Verichrome Pan or even Tri-X to turn up on Ebay. I just bought 4 rolls of 1979 vintage Verichrome Pan. I haven't tested it yet. I did once manage to spool some TMAX 100 into an empty 126 cartridge to use ib an Olympus Quickmatic which had a film advance which was defective. With the extra sprockets only every third frame overlapped. IMHO, not worth the trouble to try again though.

I have successfully taken apart the solaris cartridges made by Ferrania and have preserved the backing paper. I used black and white perforated film in Instamatic 500 and the results were good. It's a bit of work but it is also fun.

The Rolleiflex Sl26 is an amazing camera and against what people may tell you it gives excellent results. Color print film of ISO 200 is not difficult to find in the internet, in several websites in the USA, UK and Germany. Look here in Photo.Net, you will find the addresses in other old posts about 126 film. You can also buy on eBay.

 

Processing is a little bit more tricky. ALL machine capable of processing 35mm can process 126 film. The problem is finding people who want to o it. I had a shop in my town that used to charge me teh same price as 35mm but now they simply don't want to do it. I now go to an expensive lab to process it.

Hi Folks,

 

I worked briefly for Rollei and while my favorite camera was/is the SL66, and the Rollei 35 for a back up, I did quite a bit of shooting with the SL26 complete with its Pro Pro-Tessar lenses. I found this camera so good that I sometimes shot professional assignments with it! I sold it to somebody who wanted it more than I did (financially speaking).

 

By the way, of cameras which were made both in Germany and Singapore, we preferred the Singapurean cameras, their quality control was better, by far. I still own and use a Singapore Rollei 35 with Tessar f3.5 that goes back over 35 years. It is dented and scratched but still working.

 

Lynn