Rollei 35

[riz]

<p>Just walking by on downtown busy street in Karachi I entered into one old camera pawn/repairing shop and suddenly my eyes got stuck on one small chrome camera. I was Rollei 35! It was great feeling to hold that in hands. It felt like a beautifully crafted piece. And it surely is apex of German technology.</p>

<p>I checked the camera, its was in perfect working condition. All apertures and speeds were working fine. The meter cell was missing (after buying, I put cell and meter is also OK).</p>

<p>The shop owner didn't want me to haggle on price, it was fixed and I bought it in 23.50 USD.</p>

<p>When I came back home and Googled for the images I found just two issues with the Rollei I bought:</p>

<p>1) The film advance lever is not original<br>

2) The rewind know besides viewfinder is missing.</p>

<p>Now I am looking for the original film advance lever and rewind knob.</p>

[steve_levine]

<p>In the 1966 "MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY" magazine buyers guide. The newly introduced Rollei 35 gets described this way: "Rollei has taken a film cartridge and built a camera around it"! These are a quite capable of professional results too. I hope you can find the missing parts?</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>If it works, I'd just enjoy it as the bargain it is. You'd have to buy a "parts only" to get any parts for it these days, and that would likely cost you considerably more than you paid for the camera.</p>

<p>I have one of the Singapore-made versions of it and it saved my chestnuts (see "chestnuts out of the fire, pull someone's") more than once as a back-up camera.<br>

It's surely a sort of tribute to German design, but "apex" may be a bit on the strong side.:)</p>

<p>Its size for full-frame 35mm in a normal cassette is the marvel, but there are later, small cameras that are much more ergonomic.</p>

[marc_rochkind]

Here's my Rollei 35 page, with photos and a Pop Photo review from 1967:

 

http://basepath.com/Photography/Rollei35.php

[michaelging]

<p>I had and just sold my 35SE Black camera. It has a great sharp lens. Here is a photo shot with it and Infrared film. </p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/photo/2535152</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Even if you don't replace the knob, you should still be able to load film. At end of roll engage the rewind lever and open camera back in total darkness. You should be able to remove the film and wind it by hand into the cassette. Not very fast, but you could at least see if the shutter and apertures work properly before deciding to invest in a "parts" camera.</p>

[ridinhome]

<p>Congratulations Rizwan. Sounds like a good find. Please post pics of and from the camera when you can!</p>

[riz]

<p>Thanks Steve. JDM I will try my best to arrange them for free :) Marc I found your website before getting your response, good work :) Nice pic Mark. Yes Mike will try to do that. Thanks Kayam, pic of the camera is here :)</p><div></div>

[janne_moren]

That chunky advance lever is pretty cool, actually; if it works fine I'd just keep it that way.

 

The 35S is my constant take-along camera; it pretty much lives in my coat pocket or in my bag. Scale focusing takes a little getting used to, but it's not a big problem. Just go for smaller apertures when you can so you have some margin for error. One thing: they (or at least my unit) tend to be prone to flare. If you're not a fan of the "dreamscape" look you may want to keep strong lights out of the frame when you can.

[aplumpton]

<p>Great buy. The meter in my 35TE has been out of action for many years (very expensive to repair) but the camera works fine. As Mike says, you can unload film in the darkroom until you solve the rewind knob problem. The Tessar lens is a very fine lens and was particular good at focussing the rays onto infra red b&W film and regular B&W film. Not sure relatively fast IR film is stil procurable (Germany?) but the camera is very suitable for that, amongst other compact camera uses.</p>

[mlg28]

<p>Quite a bargain! Enjoy it, and please post some photos taken with it around your hometown.</p>

[riz]

<p>Here are couple of pictures from Rollei 35 with minor adjustments in Photoshop using Nik Software.</p><div></div>

[riz]

<p>Another....</p><div></div>

[riz]

<p>Another...</p><div></div>

[riz]

<p>Another</p><div></div>

[riz]

<p>Another one</p><div></div>