A number of you have contacted me recently stating that Andrew Bell’s website: http://www.rollei.co/ has been unavailable. Andrew told me that he has had computer problems and is working on it and hopes to have it up and running as soon as possible. Whilst on the topic of websites, Jaap Roskam has really made tremendous strides with the www.rolleiclub.com and www.sl66.com websites. The Rollei TLR and Rollei 35 series pages are active and very impressive. The SL66 has its own site and a CD is available with instruction manuals, brochures, repair manual and more. Well worth taking a closer look.
Without appearing to be a ‘traitor’, I recently purchased a Minolta CLE with 40mm Rokkor lens at a camera fair. I relate to Ken Williams’ article on the Rollei 35RF in CRU Issue 4, January 2007 and using different lenses on it. I have always kept an ‘eye out’ for a second hand RF35 at a sensible price; no luck so far. I did acquire a Leica CL a couple of years ago, with both 40mm and 90mm lenses, because it was a ‘classic’. It is a lovely compact rangefinder camera, although I found it a bit slow to use for ‘grab’ shots. The Minolta CLE, is of course based on the Leica and was the first rangefinder to have TTL metering and TTL flash, only much more recently surpassed (I understand) by the Konica Hexar. I found a SCA331 (Minolta) adapter and attached that to a Metz 32CT4 flash. Being an aperture priority with manual overide camera, it is similar to the 35RF but it does have TTL flash metering. In use, it is quick and easy to use and produces some really stunningly sharp colour images when enlarged.
We are all Rollei afficiendos but at the end of the day we are also photographers and we want to take good photographs. There are some cameras that are better than the Rollei equivalent (if there is one) in some some situations but in others, a Rollei is undeniably the best. There is no question about the TLR’s; the majority of the 6x6 SLR cameras (other than some early troublesome SLX/6000’s) were well ahead of the competition of the time but the 35mm SLRs (except for the unconventional 2000/3000 series) always seemed to lag behind the latest offerings from the other major manufacturers. Judging by comments, the current trend of ‘badge engineering’, as with the 35RF, may be of dubious benefit, in this instance, to the name of Rollei quality and value, although it may add to the sales figures. But is it the camera body, the lens, the photographer or just ‘luck’ that ‘makes’ the photograph - or a bit of each?
Contents:
Front Cover: ‘Diver with Rolleimarin’ by Wolfgang Freihen
3 Latest news from Franke & Heidecke
4 The Mecila MAG 150
8 Rollei Portraiture by Denis Camp A.R.P.S.
12 Picture Fun by Wolfgang Freihen
14 The Rolleimarin - part 2 by John Wild
16 Sales and Wants
17 Your Forum
19 The Rolleiflex 4.0FW by David Morgan
Back Cover: Photographs by Carlos Manuel Freaza
