Rollei
Encyclopedia

Rollei is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 manufacturer of optical goods founded in 1920 by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke in Braunschweig
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....

, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werk. The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's premier line of medium format twin lens reflex cameras...

 and Rolleicord
Rolleicord
The Rolleicord was a popular medium-format twin lens reflex camera made by Franke & Heidecke between 1933 and 1976. It was a simpler, less expensive version of the high-end Rolleiflex TLR, aimed at amateur photographers who wanted a high-quality camera but could not afford the expensive Rolleiflex...

 series of cameras. Current products also include specialty and nostalgic type films for the photo hobbyist market.

After being purchased in 1995 by Samsung Techwin
Samsung Techwin
Samsung Techwin is a surveillance, aeronautics, optoelectronics, automations and defense company. It is a subsidiary of Samsung Group. The company employs 4720 employees and is headquartered in South Korea. Its totals sales in 2010 was 3,198 billion won....

, part of the South Korean Samsung Group
Samsung Group
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...

, it was sold back to its internal management in 1999. In 2002 it was bought by a Danish investment group, and in 2005 was split into two different companies: "Rollei GmbH" in Berlin, owner of the Rollei brand and selling various OEM
OEM
OEM means the original manufacturer of a component for a product, which may be resold by another company.OEM may also refer to:-Computing:* OEM font, or OEM-US, the original character set of the IBM PC, circa 1981...

 equipment, and "Franke & Heidecke GmbH, Feinmechanik und Optik" in Brunswick, an equipment factory.

In early 2009, Franke & Heidecke GmbH, Feinmechanik und Optik declared itself insolvent.

Currently Rolleiflex medium format cameras and Rollei 35 are being produced by DHW Fototechnik - a company founded by former Franke & Heidecke employees.

Rollei cameras typically use Carl Zeiss or Schneider Kreuznach
Schneider Kreuznach
Schneider Kreuznach is the abbreviated name of the company Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, which is sometimes also simply referred to as Schneider. They are a manufacturer of industrial and photographic optics....

 lenses, as well as lenses manufactured by Rollei based on designs by Zeiss, and occasionally lenses made by Japanese manufacturers.

Classic examples — medium format

  • Rolleiflex 3.5F TLR with 75 mm f/3.5 Planar — as used by David Bailey and Diane Arbus
    Diane Arbus
    Diane Arbus March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid.....

    .
  • Rolleiflex SL66
    Rolleiflex SL66
    The Rolleiflex SL66 is a single lens reflex camera made by Rollei, in regular production from 1966-82. The SL66 represented a change in direction for Rollei, which until that time had focussed almost exclusively on its popular twin lens reflex cameras, the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord.- History :In...

     and SL66E SLR with rise and fall lens plane and exceptional close-up abilities — as used by Brett Weston
    Brett Weston
    Brett Weston was an American photographer and grew up in LA. He was the second son of photographer Edward Weston. Van Deren Coke, former curator of the San Francisco Museum of Art referred to Brett Weston as the "child genius of American photography." Brett began taking photographs in 1925 and...

    .
  • Rolleicord Vb — A medium format twin-lens reflex camera
    Twin-lens reflex camera
    A twin-lens reflex camera is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" , while the other is used for the viewfinder system, which is usually viewed from above at waist level...

     designed for non-professional users, like the rest of the Rolleicord
    Rolleicord
    The Rolleicord was a popular medium-format twin lens reflex camera made by Franke & Heidecke between 1933 and 1976. It was a simpler, less expensive version of the high-end Rolleiflex TLR, aimed at amateur photographers who wanted a high-quality camera but could not afford the expensive Rolleiflex...

     line.
  • Rolleiflex 2.8GX as used by Helmut Newton
    Helmut Newton
    Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."-Early life:Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara...



Classic examples — 35 mm

  • Rollei 35
    Rollei 35
    The Rollei 35 is a 35mm miniature viewfinder camera built by Rollei. The original Rollei 35, when introduced at Photokina in 1966, was the smallest existing 135 film camera. Still today, the Rollei 35 series remain the second smallest 35 mm camera after the Minox 35...

     compact original viewfinder (Germany) with 40 mm f/3.5 Carl Zeiss Tessar
    Tessar
    The Tessar is a famous photographic lens design conceived by physicist Paul Rudolph in 1902 while he worked at the Zeiss optical company and patented by Zeiss; the lens type is usually known as the Zeiss Tessar....

    .
  • Rollei 35S
    Rollei 35S
    The Rollei 35S is a compact 35 mm film camera designed by Heinz Waaske and made by the German camera maker Rollei, in their Singapore factory plant. It uses a Zeiss-licensed f2,8/40mm Sonnar lens...

     compact camera (Singapore) with 40 mm f/2.8 Zeiss Sonnar made by Rollei.
  • Rolleimatic compact camera with unique film transport mechanism.
  • Rolleiflex SL2000 (or 3003) SLR — a 35 mm SLR with interchangeable magazines
    Camera magazine
    A camera magazine is a light-tight chamber or pair of chambers designed to hold and move motion picture film stock before and after it has been exposed in the camera...

     — not the first, but now unique for a modern 35 mm SLR.
  • Rolleiflex SL35
    Rolleiflex SL35
    The Rolleiflex SL35 is a range of SLR cameras from the German camera maker, Rollei. This range of camera uses 35mm film. The camera bodies were initially made in Germany, and later, Singapore.-History:...

     range — 35 mm SLRs produced from 1970 until the late 1980s, using Carl Zeiss optics. Other lenses, like the Schneider
    Schneider Kreuznach
    Schneider Kreuznach is the abbreviated name of the company Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, which is sometimes also simply referred to as Schneider. They are a manufacturer of industrial and photographic optics....

    , and the Rolleinar (manufactured for Rollei mainly by Mamiya
    Mamiya
    is a Japanese company that today manufactures high-end cameras and other related photographic and optical equipment. With headquarters in Tokyo, it has two manufacturing plants and a workforce of over 200 people...

    ) were also available.

Modern examples — medium format

  • Rollei 6008 integral — advanced SLR with fast handling.
  • Rollei 4.0 FW TLR with 50 mm f/4 Super-Angulon — classic reissue.
  • HY6 — in conjunction with Leaf and Sinar
    Sinar
    Sinar AG is a Swiss company producing medium format and large format cameras.The name SINAR is explained as an acronym for "Studio, Industrie, Natur, Architektur, Reproduktion", though in , the acronym is explained as "Sach-, Industrie-, Natur-, undArchitekturfotografie sowie Reproduktion"...


cameras from the Rolleiflex series 6000
camera model period of production description
SLX 1976–1979 prequel of the series 6000
SLX 2 1978–1985 improved electronics
6006 1984–1989 interchangeable magazin, TTL-measurement
6002 1986–1990 without interchangeable magazin, TTL-measurement
6008 Professional 1988–1992
6006 II 1989–1993 multiple exposures
6008 Professional SRC 1000 1992–1995 with PQS lenses up to 1/1000 s
6003 SRC 1000 1994–1996 like 6008 without interchangeable magazin
6008 Integral 1995–2002 Master Control
6003 Professional 1996–2003 improved electronics, faster transport
6001 professional since 1998 no exposure meter
6008AF since 2002 autofocus
6008 Integral2 since 2003 electronics from 6008AF without autofocus
Rolleiflex Hy6 since 2007 "hybrid" for digital and analogue
X-Act1 since 1999 view camera
View camera
The view camera is a type of camera first developed in the era of the Daguerreotype and still in use today, though with many refinements. It comprises a flexible bellows which forms a light-tight seal between two adjustable standards, one of which holds a lens, and the other a viewfinder or a...

, with wide angle bellows
X-Act2 since 1998 view camera

Modern examples — digital

  • Rollei Mini Digi — digital camera styled like a miniature Rolleiflex TLR.
  • Rollei Prego series — a line of 18 consumer digital cameras with resolutions up to 10.1 megapixels (as of September 2007).

Accessories — TLR

Some accessories manufactured for Rollei TLRs:
  • Rolleinar: A set of close-up lenses, in three magnifications (Rolleinar 1, Rolleinar 2, and Rolleinar 3). A pair of Rolleinar lenses are placed on both the viewing and taking lenses.
  • Rolleisoft: A soft focus lens for the taking lens only available in two grades, "0" and "1", which softens the definition and produce striking halo effects, particularly when used with back lighting. The Rolleisoft lens has concentric circles ground in groves and is used principally for portraiture.
  • Rolleifix: Instead of screwing the camera body to a tripod, this tripod head clamps down on the TLR.
  • Rolleipol: Rollei's polarizing filter.
  • Rolleikin: Allows the use of 35 mm film.
  • Rollei panorama head: Attaches the camera to a tripod, and enables the photographer to take a series of aligned pictures to create a panoramic photo in an arc up to 360°.
  • Rollei Pistol Grip
  • Rolleimarin: underwater housing.

External links

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