Rollei for wedding?

[barrie_dail]

I am currently using a etrsi for wedding photography and now

considering moving up to 6x6. every one is telling me to go for a

hassie, how ever the 6008i sond like a better deal than the 501cm.

HAS ANY ONE USED A ROLLEI FOE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY HOW DOES IT HANDEL

PLEASE HELP IM CONFUSED THANKS

[jeff_drew3]

I don't do weddings any more, but did and used a Mamiya C330F which is close in size. I have used Hasselblad 500's also, and they fit my hands better. I love the square format. The Rollei integrated system is tough to beat, whereas the 'blad system is much more modular. Lenses on both are grand! How do you like to work with these tools, given their physical differences? Weddings are somewhat controlled shooting environments, but each "church", reception area, etc. has its own properties, so handling may be an issue. Keep in mind that Rollei is electronic, Hassy 500 series are not.

[lester___]

HI,

I am new to Rollei and may be able to help with my limited experience as I have done only two weddings with it. The Rollei is hard to beat for its exposure metering integrated into a medium format camera. However, it is a heavy beast to carry around for the whole day for a wedding. The lenses are really good and are relatively fast. The Hassleblads are very attractive too, however, you would need to take exposure with a hand-held meter, and the 5 series have few fast lenses. Weigh the pros and cons and buy the system you find suit you best. The Rollei is adequate for wedding and almost anything if you can afford those expensive lenses. You may even find the Bronica to be a faster system, anyway, good luck in your wedding career!

[tony_correa]

I also used an ETRS system for weddings. For the past year I've used a Rollei 6003 SRC 1000 system. Couldn't be happier. Square works better for me. No flipping the camera or flash over. The camera handles much faster. The builtin meer and winder works great. Bright viewfinder; easy to focus. The fact that it needs their specific NiCad batteries is not a hindurance. One fully charged battery usually last me the day, but I also carry a recharged spare and charger just in case.Recharging only takes an hour. The inserts are cheap at about $80 new/$50 used. I keep a few preloaded and swap as needed. Saves money and weight from having to use full backs. The handling is better with the accesory hand grip and 45*prism IMHO. Easier to hold with one hand, even with flash. The camera is not quiet but the noise has never proven to be a problem; about the same noise as any other motorized camera body. Hope this helps.

[dave_wilson1]

Hi Barrie, I use Hasselblads and they're excellent (after you get used to them), but after borrowing a Rollei I would switch in a minute because they are really a great camera. In fact when I save my $$ I will difinitely add one to my collection.

[jim_chow]

Although I shoot primarily nature/landscape, I've done a few weddings w/ my 6008i. I typically use either a 80/2.8 or 90/4 apo for closer shots and the 180/2.8 for a tele. With TTL flash metering, matrix metering, and the autowinder (critical, IMHO), you have it all. Don't worry about slr noise...it's not like the camera is low-key. :-) BTW, there's a new Zeiss 110/2 planar PQ w/ leaf shutter that would be ideal for weddings. I hear it's in such high demand that there's a waiting list in the US.

[eddyb]

Barrie,

I would either get a square Bronica (add to system) or a Rollei.

Perhaps you could really use the built in drawslide+safety and the quickloading film cartridges ($89.00) for weddings. really quick and cheap.

The grip comes on and off quickly, also the 6008i is comfortable with the packaged kit(rollei) neckstrap. Have you seen(held) one yet? viewfinder would be great for weddings. I've only shot 1 wedding with mine. I enjoy it in and outdoors(bright).

I would only get the Hassy if All your customers Demanded it, and

you had time to learn to use it. (IMHO)

The Rollei is a quick read.

However, one must prove any camera thoroughly before using

for particular jobs like weddings.

I really like carrying the 6008i, but rely mostly on tripod use. Great med. format camera both ways.

I suggest ordering a Professionals source catalog from B & H photo

and shop through all the accessories and compare.

I like all of it, but realize I may never get the optional digital back.

Good Luck,

Eddy

[peter_olsson]

I have a Hasselblad 503 CXi and I don't understand what would be

so difficult about it. Don't change lenses if you cannot see through

the viewfinder (e.g. the mirror is up). Use the advance on the

camera, not the one on the film back (unless your loading film).

This is not difficult! The camera is lightweight, handles very well,

the lenses are very good etc etc. The Hasselblad is easier to use

than a 35 mm SLR, in my opinion, much thanks to the EV-settings on

the lens. There is no motor sound, since there is no motor (unless

you buy one). The modern focusing screens are very bright, and they

don't cheat you to put the focus on the wrong place (like another

screen brand that I bought for my Rolleicord) and are extremely

easy to change if you want to change from grid lines to split screen,

to the standard or whatever. The camera does not use batteries,

you will always get the picture. Even if your lightmeter suddenly

goes dead, you can guess the correct exposure (with experience and

with negative film, you will come very close).

 

The new Hasselblads have very good internal flare protection. My

model is very good in this respect and the newer models are even

better. Get the Hasselblad Manual by Ernst Wildi, it's cheap and

arguably the best book on any camera system (including 35 mm,

large format, APS (!) ...) and you will have good use for it even

if you go for another brand than Hasselblad.

 

Good luck!

[dzeanah]

 

<p><i>every one is telling me to go for a hassie, how ever the 6008i sond like

a better deal than the 501cm. </i></p>

<p>I've never shot a wedding with a Rollei, but I went through the same thought

process you are going through and chose the Hasselblad. Would recommend you

use square format regardless of which system you choose.</p>

<p>As far as the specifications are concerned, the Rollei <i>is</i> a better camera

than the 501cm. Faster leaf-shutter lenses with (some) 1/1000 shutter speeds,

automation built into the camera including metering, better back design, nifty

features (like the revolving 45^ prism), etc. But it still wasn't for me. </p>

<p>Issues that weigh in on the Hasselblad side that <i>might</i> mean something

to you include:</p>

<ul>

<li>Handling. I would have gone with the 6008i if it wasn't for this point.

The Rollei just didn't feel "right," even after 20 minutes of playing

with it. I could have made do with it, but the 503CW just felt "right"

from the start. It fit my hand better, and all of the controls fell where

I thought they should be. It was <i>comfortable</i>. I think I may be in the

minority though -- Rollei users really love their cameras. <g></li>

<li>Availability of rental equipment is excellent for H'blad.</li>

<li>Availability or repair service is excellent for H'blad.</li>

<li>Availability of used equipment is excellent. Price a new set of Softars

in B50 mount new vs the ebay price and you'll see why this is important. <g></li>

<li>It looks as if Hasselblad is never going to obsolete this design. I've got

a body from '58, 2 lenses from the early 70's, backs from the 80's, a finder

from the 70's, etc. <i>All</i> of the parts can still be serviced. Almost

all of the newest accessories that you can buy at B&H or Wolf will work

on my camera, even though it's 40 years old.</li>

<li>Durability. Everyone has horror stories with their equipment (mine are with

Bronica). There are those here who will curse the Hasselblad design for being

quirky and prone to failure, but there are many more who will call it a workhorse

that takes all kinds of abuse. There is a reason for Hasselblad's reputation

for reliability. As far as the "quirks" that people mention so much,

IMHO they're minor. You need to wind the camera before removing the lens,

which is hard to forget if you wind after every shot automatically. Everything

else is intuitive -- winding the back advances the film rather than resetting

the mirror & shutter. Removing the back, winding the camera, and replacing

the back gets you a double-exposure. Simple.</li>

<li>Status. This one is really stupid, but it exists -- the expectation is that

"professional" wedding photographers use Hasselblad equipment. I've

got examples I've run into in my dealings with brides, but you don't need

them: pretend you're a bride surfing the web for advice on hiring a photographer

for your wedding. There are a number of sites that say "professionals

use Hasselblads," and there are brides that believe them. This is probably

the same reason that people are recommending the 501CM to you -- all of the

wedding photographers I've talked to started using Hasselblads because the

photographers they learned from used Hasselblads. I guess this is the "if

it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality.</li>

</ul>

<p><i>HAS ANY ONE USED A ROLLEI FOE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY HOW DOES IT HANDEL PLEASE

HELP IM CONFUSED THANKS </i></p>

<p>You've really got to decide this one on your own. The Hasselblad fits my hand

better and is lighter. Others have other preferences. Any chance you could rent

one or the other? If I hadn't had a local rental shop, I would have bought a

Rollei or Mamiya RF. I'm glad I didn't.</p>

<p>In case you haven't seen it, check out <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/rollei-6008.html">Phil's

Rollei Review</a>. </p>

 

[rapfoto]

Barrie,

 

It's actually a very easy decision. If you are going to take money for producing photographs of a once (ha!) in a lifetime event, you better damn well produce! That means that you cannot have your equipment tied up in shipping should it need servicing, waiting six months for parts, etc. My point is, you have to look beyond the superficial nameplate on the body, and see what the completeness of the behind the scenes infrastructure is.

 

I'm a commercial photographer, I REALLY WANTED a Rollei 6008i. However, upon closer inspection of the customer service capability [i.e., my lens will not fire, my body locked up, the back won't come off the body, etc.] the fact that there only exists one authorized Rollei repair center in the US [New Jersey] was a deal breaker. I use my equipment hard, things break and/or get worn out. I need access to LOCAL factory authorized [read competent] repair and rental solutions. With Hassy you can get a rental [if you are charging for your services, you have to be there, no matter what, even if it means you have to eat your slim profit by renting equipment at the last minute to be able to shoot the job] piece of equipment in just about any major city in the world. Rollei just does not have that level of a support system established, yet. To bad too, the Rollei is such a testament to ergonomics and a very well thought out system.

 

I don't care what brand it is; if it's mechanical it can break! And according to my very close friend, Mr. Murphy, it will break at the worst possible time imaginable. Look at the BIG picture.

 

Good luck in your search.

[john_morrow]

Though weddings are not my thing, may I suggest that you are looking at the wrong Rollei camera? The 501CM and the 6008i are not equivalents. The 501cm is Hasselblad's low tech - The 6008i is Rollei's High tech. The lowest of the Rollei 6000 line is the 6001 and its Hassy equivilent would be the ELX or ELD.

 

Futher more, with the current buy a camera kit(body, back, and lens) get a free 6001 body deal that Rollei USA is pushing what are you waiting for?

 

John

[peter_olsson]

I forgot to mention that if you choose Hasselblad you should consider

the 503 CW (or the older 503 CXi) because it has through the lens

flash metering, which the 501 doesn't. Would be useful for weddings.

[ulf_reinhardt]

I have a SLX. It works just great with a 450 prism, especially for wedding. Show me how to change a roll within 10 sec with a hassy. It simply won't work. Show me how to take a couple of pictures a second with a hassy. Won't work either! So there is simply no alternative to the Rollei. As far as relaibility is concerned I had no problems with my 50/80/150 and 250 lens. Even the SLX (mod. 2!) works still great.

And if you need service do this while you don not work, during vacation etc. Once a year it should be sufficiant

[ryan_lombard]

Could you please take the battery out of your rollei

and repeat the above posting

 

>Won't work either!

 

Works with my 500cm.

[ulf_reinhardt]

Lets say a Rollei without a battery works as good as a 2000F, 202 or 203. And without a battery you won't be able to arrive at the wedding in time, because your car won't start...

[ShunCheung]

Could you take the film out of your camera and then repeat the above posting?

 

I never understand why people make such a big deal on cameras that require batteries. I simply carry extra batteries with me on location, just like I bring a lot of film with me also.

[rendy_cheng]

I agree with Shun. Without battery, the flashmeter, eletronic flash, motordrive .... do not work either. What do you do if your Hasselblad breaks down during the wedding? That is why people have backup equipment. If the only thing you worry about is the battery, you just bring more batteries.

[jim_chow]

How about changing lenses in a hurry in the heat of the shoot and forgetting to cock the shutter? Meanwhile, you don't happen to have a unjamming tool or spare body on you, but have extra batteries for the lightmeter and flash. What do you do?

 

When guys climb Everest, what do they use? Battery-powered 35mm AF slrs! BTW, according to a Japanese photo magazine on cameras used on the space shuttle, the hassy w/ autowinder/metering prism is used indoors. Bet those use batteries (hey,these guys aren't photographers..they just focus and press the button). For outdoors, they use a Nikon (yes, Nikon!) camera mounted on a pole connected to the spacesuit (doesn't resemble anything one can purchase in a photo store). There is also a new Linhof camera for outdoor use w/ 90mm schneider apo symmar lens (looks like a diving camera w/ a data 70 back).

[jim_chow]

How about changing lenses in a hurry in the heat of the shoot and forgetting to cock the shutter? Meanwhile, you don't happen to have a unjamming tool or spare body on you, but have extra batteries for the lightmeter and flash. What do you do?

 

When guys climb Everest, what do they use? Battery-powered 35mm AF slrs! BTW, according to a Japanese photo magazine on cameras used on the space shuttle, the hassy w/ autowinder/metering prism is used indoors. Bet those use batteries (hey,these guys aren't photographers..they just focus and press the button). For outdoors, they use a Nikon (yes, Nikon!) camera mounted on a pole connected to the spacesuit (doesn't resemble anything one can purchase in a ��photo store). There is also a new Linhof camera for outdoor use w/ 90mm schneider apo symmar lens (looks like a diving camera w/ a data 70 back).

[ryan_lombard]

Ok, ok, I apologize. I never said a rollei is not a good camera, in fact I think it is a great camera, and so is hassy, pentax, mamiya, bronica,... (in no specific order). I am the last one to like an X vs. Y argument.

 

The only point I wanted to make was that given a camera like the 500CM, it is 100% mechanical, but still accurate. It doesn't make it superior, but it takes a lot from a manufacturer these days to resist the temptation of an easier way to getting energy from one point in a camera to another. The same thing goes for a 205 TCC without a battery, it still works and is by no means "low tech".

 

All things considered, I think the original poster would find the rollei a better option. Dime for dime it works out better.

 

A hassy is a hassle, true. But I never had a jam, and it takes me no more than 30 seconds to load mine in a hurry.

 

For one perfect camera to exist, there has to be only one mind and all others exactly alike. Fortunately, that is impossible.

[msitaraman]

My goodness, this is the closest we've got to a flame war on MFD ! :-)

 

Rolleiflex must be doing all right vis a vis Hassy.

 

Makes me all the more smugly happy that I bought Rollei several years ago ;-)

[ryan_lombard]

Au contraire, a gentleman will walk but never run

:)

[tom_loftis]

i shoot a lot of wedding and have used hassy until recently switching to a 6003 src 1000. hassy pluses are weight, simplicity and for the most part are rugged. pluses for the rollei are motor drive, metering, ttl (limited to 400 speed film), but perhaps the most attractive part is the price of inserts. for the price of one new hassy back, you can buy 10 new rollei inserts. BTW it seems much easier to me to load these than the hassy backs. also, film changing is a bit quicker. i;ve also found that athough there is a somewhat limited supply of used equipment for rollei, some dealers will deal on this stuff as in many parts of the country it is very hard to sell. i purchased the 6003 with 80 pqs, back, charger, sca adaptor, and a metz 45 ct4 for &1800.00 and i know of a dealer who has another who had offered it to me for less than that (no flash, sca etc just the kit). I've also found that the older lenses work fine in manual or even simi metered mode and these can be less than half the price of the hassy. wedding photography need IMHO to be kept simple. I shoot most of the indoor tripod stuuf at the church all at f8 @ 1/30 of a second, and most of the indoor reception stuff @ f8 @ 1/60 hand held. I have been using either 400 or recently 800 nhg 2 with very good results. You need to measure light with an light meter (even though the camera has a preaty good reflective meter) when ever it is possible. the real trick to good wedding photography is possing and understanding background lighting. the hassy or the rolei will both work exceptionally well. The only other option is the sqa and i have not used them.

[kornelius_j._fleischer]

On a wedding, I go through a lot of film. So, easy and quick film loading is essential. In my experience the 6000 series Rollei beats everything in this regard, even many modern 35 mm SLRs. If I didnot use Rollei 6008i on weddings I would need an assistant.

[mark_saba]

I started out with Hassleblad and now shoot weddings exclusively with Rollei cameras. I use a 6008 and a 6002. I have never had a lens fail in 9 years of shooting with these cameras. I have had the backs repaired several times and the 6008-camera body has been in twice. Marflex is the only repair station that I know of and that is a concern so i have a plenty of backup. I have 5 backs for the two cameras and three lenses which has been enough back up for me. I shoot about 35 weds a year the rest is location portraits. I love the way these cameras work much better than Hassleblad. There seems to be a lot more intelligent design in the Rollei. I like to be able to change film backs quickly and not mess around with a dark slide. You will appreciate this when you just shot frame 24 on their first dance and now they decided to head straight for the cake. I like the consistency of exposure with electronic shutter and aperture instead of mechanical. The auto exposure and TTL is very reliable and works great for outdoor weddings in changing light conditions. Also I have never had an issue with the camera battery. I have four but I have never had to change a battery in the middle of a wedding. Fully charged I get 600+ exposures from a battery. Three of the older packs I had rebuilt using 600mAh cells instead of the 450 that they came. The new pack I just bought has 500 or 550 mAh batteries. In either case it is more than enough power to shoot a whole wedding. I have never had a camera stop functioning during an assignment even though I have total redundancy in backup equipment. One time the auto exposure went down because of a bad connection. I just used my hand held meter to finish the job. I could have switched cameras but no need. A couple of times I have had a film back fail during an assignment. I did not lose any exposures it just advanced too many frames so I switched backs. All in all I think it is the best choice of 6x6 cm and I would not let the Hassy owner with the take the battery out and do that scenario talk me out of it.