jim_jensen

I have bought hundreds of items on eBay, including many

cameras and lenses. I have had very few problems, all of which

were resolved. None were scams, just normal human error.

I use common sense and intuition in making these purchases,

based on careful use of the great amount of information eBay

provides. In many cases this resulted in good bargains. I know

of no other venue which provides the wealth of data about

sellers which eBay does.

Certainly there are eBay scams. Most are fairly easy to detect,

as indicated in the postings above. My buying experience has

been very pleasant.

Jim

"No wonder e-Bay is a cash cow."

This gives me a great idea. Buy Rolleis and sell them on eBay

at wildy inflated prices. Easy money! Why didn't I think of this

before?

I totally empathize with your son. There is no "kamena" more fun

to operate than a Rolleiflex. The hood, the crank, the focus knob

just call out to be played with. He won't appreciate the clever

mechanism which locks the back until he's older.

Thanks for the funny story. The grouches who criticized your

parenting skills should lighten up and enjoy it. Weren't they ever

kids? Many of us still are.

Good luck in solving this.

Congratulations, Cliff! You got a dandy camera at a very fair

price. I think you will love it.

Note that, taking condition into account, my data supports Barry's

estimate of $400 to $500.

Earlier this year I kept a tally of Rollei sales on eBay for about a

month. The ten cameras sold having the 3.5 Planar or Xenotar

ranged from $204.00 to $535.00. The cameras varied in their

condition.

I would prefer a meterless model, without the protrusion of the

meter dial, because I would not use that meter anyway. Other

than that, it would be my top choice.

Here is the thread Jim was thinking of:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=

008TJ1

You can find detailed reviews of the 3200 and the 4750 at this

site:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/

I have the 3200 and I like it.

Read this thread, especially the post by Mike Kovacs:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=

008TJ1

You should get a couple of quotes for repair and CLA. Describe

the problem when requesting the quote. The repair may add

little or nothing to the cost of the CLA, which you want anyway.

Time frame should be more like 2 weeks than 2 months. Do a

search of this site for repair services.

I base this on my recent experience getting a CLA and minor

repair (not on a TLR) from Essex. I was very happy with their

service. Marflex is one which specializes in TLR (Rolleis).

It may be quicker, easier and ,hopefully, cheaper than you think.

Good luck.

Geoff,

Can you recommend a reputable shop which will CLA a Rollei

for $75? I have one which I am about to send out and I was

expecting to pay a lot more.

Thanks.

Well, my hyperlink didn't work for some reason. The site is

www.photo-i.co.uk.

"Maybe buy an Epson 4870 to goof around with."

If you are inclined to do that and have not already looked at <a

href="http://www.photo-i.co.uk/">this site,</a> have a look.

Vincent provides a very useful review I think. I bought the 3200

based on his review and couldn't be happier. Perhaps I am

more easily pleased than some, but I've read of quite a few other

happy Epson owners.

Chris,

Very often, close-ups are of still subjects using a tripod. In that

case it is very easy to eliminate parallax and get a perfect sight

line with a TLR.

Just frame and focus, then raise the tripod elevator by the

distance of the lens spacing. Now the taking lens sees exactly

what you saw through the viewing lens.

If you don't mind the minor inconveniece of moving the close-up

lens from the viewing lens to the taking lens, this requires only

one close-up lens, not a set of two. Only hitch is remembering

to do it. :-)

Your initial cost of $100.00 is next to nothing for this camera. A

Rollei for parts would be maybe $50.00.

So you have a gamble. I think the odds are in your favor.

Everthing but possibly the lens board dent is fixable for the price

of a CLA at the going rate of $150.00. I'll guess that, for $200.00

or less, everything can be fixed and this camera can be a fine

user worth much more than your $300.00 investment. As

mentioned above, the gamble is reduced by simply getting a free

estimate. What a deal!

Fleenor is excellent, but you need a more economical service.

There are a number of good shops you can find by doing a

search here.

Expensive, but worth it!

I am imagining the bidding on that "ice axe" as you slid toward

the water. I wonder how high the bidding would have gone

before you reached the brink. Pretty high I guess. But we will

never know, will we?

A similar situation I read about was a carpenter sliding down a

roof. He saved himself by sinking the claw of his hammer into

the roof. Cost of hammer = $20.00. Cheap "ice axe".

Great story, Nicholas.

Actually, just to clarifly for anyone who may refer to this thread in

the future, my diagnosis as described above is a bit off.

What was happening was that, upon beginning to wind, the

exposure counter would drop from "0" to "1", thus messing up

the loading procedure.

What happens now, when starting from "8" instead of "0", is that

when I start winding, the counter drops from "8" to "0" and

everything then goes normally from then on.

There may be something out of whack with this camera but it

seems as though it will function OK with this procedure.

Success!!!!

My sincere thanks and gratitude to everyone, including the kind

person who E-mailed me a couple of pages from the user

manual. Every one of your suggestions was useful to me.

This footnote from the user manual was the clincher:

"If the camera is loaded with the exposure counter at some

figure other than "0", the winding mechanism will lock before the

figure "1" appears in the red window."

That's exactly what was happening, even though I was careful to

set it to "0" each time. The winder would lock and I would have

to fire the shutter and reset to "0", after which it would wind only

one more frame length and lock again. When I then tried to

initialize frame counting as the number "1" appeared in the red

window, it did not initialize, just kept winding.

I finally realized that the exposure number dial may be out of

sync, meaning I should set it to something other than "0". Sure

enough, starting with a setting of "8" made everything work. I

could free-wheel all the way to "1" in the red window and initialize

the exposure counter.

Again, thanks, because all the information I received led me to

that final solution of the problem.

Kelly,

I'm more inclined to think that the problem is operator ignorance

at this point. The camera just had a CLA by a reputable firm and

I see evidence of a thorough job.

If not, you are undoubtedly right that the problem is with that

measuring mechanism. If so, I am confident that the service

guys will make it right.

I recently aquired a Medalist and have experimented with a junk

roll of 120 film. I have searched this site, but the information has

been a bit vague on the points which are troubling me.

My understanding of the film loading process (I have no manual)

is to insert the film, thread it into to take-up spool and close the

camera. Then, with the frame counter set to zero, wind the film

until the number one appears in the ruby window. Then set the

frame counter to number one and shoot, cocking the shutter if

necessary. After that, the shutter is cocked automatically with

each winding and the frames are spaced properly when the

camera stops winding.

Either I am wrong or the camera isn't working right. I can't get

the frame spacing to begin at the number one on the film

backing.

I would like to hear from a current Medalist user, but speculation

from those who think they may have used one is welcome as

well. :-)

Whichever camera you decide on, be patient in your eBay

bidding if you want to be economical. If you get in a hurry, you

undoubtedly will see one go at a bargain price within a couple of

weeks after your purchase. Patience really pays.

My suggestion for a good, budget priced exposure meter is to

look at the auctions for a used General Electric Type DW-68.

They are cheap, versatile and built like a tank. For low light

situations they have an incident light mode.

I can offer less advice on the camera. Rolleicord maybe?