This issue reports the end of Franke & Heidecke GmbH - Feinmechanik & Optik. We have been aware of the tentative situation that the company has found itself in recent months but we have to feel very sorry for all those who have worked hard and enthusiastically for a company which carried on the founders’ names and who now suddenly find themselves without a job. A small business is like an extended family and the employees work together as a team to follow a ‘dream’. That dream has been dashed to pieces through no fault of their own and they find themselves seeking a new livelihood. In these times, that will not be easy and I am sure that you will join with me in sending them all our very best wishes for the months ahead and hope that they soon find alternative employment. There is more information elsewhere detailing the situation as it has been reported in the press.
On a positive note, I am pleased to have edited our largest issue to date, running to 28 pages. This is not necessarily a permanent size but there have been an excellent number of submissions and photographs that deserve to be aired. There are still more items that I have in the file, which I am holding on to for the next issue. Having said that, do not feel that I have enough to fill the next issue so that you do not have to get your pens, typewriters or computer keyboards to work, or indeed your Rollei cameras.
Attached you will find details of the autumn meeting planned for October. I hope that a number of you will find the new dates preferable and in the meantime, I look forward to hopefully meeting some more of you then. If you would like to give a talk at the meeting, please let me know.
By having two meetings in a year, it does encourage many of you to get out of your armchairs and use the lovely Rollei equipment that you have amassed. I must confess that I do enjoy the ‘thrill’ of searching for items at ‘the right price’ to add to my collection and I do need a ‘prod’ to get up and get out with a camera. Editing Club Rollei User and answering your questions does at least encourage me to ‘peek’ outside the door and see if it is raining!
Contents:
Front Cover: ‘Karen’ Photo by Ian Parker
3 Future of Rollei? by David Morgan.
4 Rollei Items on Ebay by John Wild
4 Repainting a lenshood by John Wild
5 Photographica 2009
5 The Rollei Factory by Ken Williams
6 An Experience with the Rolleikin 35mm Adapter by Peter Moyse
7 Batteries not Included by John Wild
8 1999 Cannes Film Festival by Ian Parker
11 The Rollei TLR ‘Mini-digi’ AF 5.0
11 Kodachrome by David Morgan
12 Stereo Photography with the 6x17 Heidoscope by John Wild
15 Colourless filters for the TLR and the Rollei H1 Filter by David Morgan
15 SRB-Griturn Accessories
16 Photographs from the April Meeting 2009
20 Auction Team Breker ‘Photographica and Film’, 21st March 2009 by Ian Parker
21 Your Forum
23 Club Rollei Postal Auction results: Spring 2009
24 A Biography - Wulf H Koeler by Wolfgang Freihen
Back Cover: Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower and Gun Wharf Quays by John Wild L.R.P.S.
