New Rollei rangefinder

[derek_stanton2]

Has anyone seen/heard about the upcoming release of a new

Rollei 35mm rangefinder? The Rollei 35RF

(http://www.k-repair.net/topic/topic_rollei6000AF.html)....

 

I was initially very happy to see such a thing, but upon noting

focal lengths of the accompanying lenses, i'm perplexed. Seems

they're starting with three lenses: 40mm, 50mm, and 80mm.

What? That doesn't seem to give one much variation in range. If

we are to consider the 50mm 'normal,' the 40 then doesn't seem

wide enough to be wideangle, nor does the 80mm seem to be

long enough for a reasonable telephoto/portrait lens.

 

What gives? Does anyone know if if the mount makes this

camera compatible with another camera's range of lenses?

Unless this is the case, i can't see why anyone would want to

own one.

[bob_shell]

The camera has Leica M mount, so lenses are plentiful. Rollei

will only be offering TWO lenses initially, the 40 and 80. The

camera has viewfinder frame lines for 50 so you can use Leica

or other brand 50mm lenses on it.

 

It will be relatively expensive. Maybe as much as $ 1,000 for the

body with no lens, and $ 800 for the lenses, but this has not

been set yet for the USA. Rollei USA expects to have them after

photokina.

 

Bob Shell

[derek_stanton2]

Thank you for the information. I'm encouraged to hear about the

M-mount. I'm just hoping now that the viewfinder is as good as

an M6/7. I recently tried a Hexar and was disappointed to find that

i couldn't focus it as well as a used M6. I thought it was

supposed to be the other way 'round.

 

Where did you come to find this information? Any links you could

post? Do you know if it will be available in black, as well?

 

I'm still curious about the three lenses they're making. Why? And,

since the switch on the top apparently correlates to those focal

lengths, how will the rangefinder/guidelines react with a 35mm

or 28mm lens? My ideal situation would be 35mm, 50, and

90-ish, so it seems the 35RF will not be ideal for me....

 

Regards,

[kelly_flanigan1]

The camera sure looks like the Bessa R/R2; right down to the screw locations. It must be a rebadged Bessa; with hopefully some better modifications. The led's on the Bessa are too darn bright on mine. I wish there was a high low brightness option. The short rangefinder baseline on the Bessa makes a fast tele dicey to focus correctly; Rollei was wise to limit the f stop to F2.8 on their new tele.<BR><BR>Bob the Jupiter 9 on the Bessa is a nice super light weight setup; but the adventures of the Jupiter's focus problems as you well know can be a nightmare. Hope you get your Orion for your Kiev; I remember your adventures on THE Russian site at beststuff.com and the old yahoo groups.

[bob_shell]

I heard the details from my old friend Tosh Komamura, the

Japanese man in those photos. He's the Rollei distributor in

Japan. There is no link as this was private e-mail

communication.

 

There are only *TWO* lenses coming from Rollei, the 40 and the

80. Why those two should be clear to anyone who knows about

Rollei.

 

Whether the viewfinder is better than the Hexar RF remains to be

seen. I have a Hexar RF, so when I get the Rollei I'll compare

them side by side.

 

Bob Shell

[kelly_flanigan1]

Here is my Bessa R along with a spliced photo of the new Rollei. The bessa has its hot shoe removed; I was fiddling with the rangefinder adjustment which is hidden below the shoe. The Rollei appears to be a like an R2 with M mount. The older link below has several photos showing all sides of the Rollei; which appears to be made from the same dies etc as the Bessa R2; but trimmed slightly different.<BR><BR><img src="http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=997442&size=lg"><BR><BR><a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003jip">Horror! Rollei's NEW 35mm Rangefinder!</a><BR><BR>KF