What is a reasonable price for a Rolleiflex 2.8F TLR ?

[h._p.]

You might want to look in the UK. I bought a 2.8E2 (basically a 2.8F sans meter) for

300GBP from MWClassic in London. It turned out to have a sticky shutter which they fixed

in 48 hours (OK it took five weeks to get it to them but that was the Royal Mail's fault).

 

MWClassic and other UK dealers seem to charge quite reasonable prices for user cameras

and in my experience they they allways honour their guarantees.

 

Collectible cameras are, as mentioned above, quite another matter when it comes to

prices.

[pensacolaphoto]

Harvey,

The US$ is now 45% lower relative to the EURO 3-4 years ago, so buying a camera from Europe these days has become rather costly for us here in the USA. Add to it the rather costly insured shipping from UK to USA, and "inexpensive" buys become rather costly.

[bob_brown5]

Gosh, I bought 2 Rolleiflex 3.5 Automats on eBay over the past 3 years, and I paid $130 for a Xenar, and later $142 for a Tessar. They both have characteristic signs of light wear on the exterior, but the glass is clear, mechanicals work fine without having spent a dime on CLA's or anything else. Bottom line is, both cameras take stunningly sharp and beautiful pictures. I see no need to spend extra for the 2.8 model.

 

I bought one of each so I could do my own comparison of the lens manufacturers (indiscernable, by the way), and now I shoot color transparency in the Zeiss and black and white negs in the Schneider.

 

Nowadays, I've got one foot in the digital world, but even with digital's convenience factors, the Rolleis are still my greatest joy to use by far. Just the slower pace required to use the Rollei is refreshing. I think it is remarkable that a 50 year old camera, under $150, can deliver such top-notch performance.

 

I'd suggest taking a chance or two on eBay. If you are after a mint collectors item, you may be frustrated. If you are just looking for a damn good photographic instrument, fasten your seatbelt, take the plunge, and get ready to enjoy photography as it was meant to be enjoyed!

[dan_burnstein1]

I have been looking and over past few weeks seems they go for $700-1300. There is a website where the passionate amateur has been testing lenses and from what he shows the 3.5 vs the 2.8 (takes a while to understand the page - for instance the red entries are just newer testing). Anyway the Rolleis come out looking pretty good but so does one of the Mamiya models.

 

http://www.hevanet.com/cperez/MF_testing.html