New Rollei 35AF Coming Soon...

[Freakscene]

A1's AF is not relevant, due to price been ten times more than incoming camera's price.

Perhaps you misunderstand me - I agree exactly. If you push less rapid tech, it works faster. Just having lidar alone is no guarantee of autofocus speed or responsiveness.

Performance, however, is relevant. At the same price as an iPhone Pro Max, a Nikon Z5 or similar focuses much, much more quickly.

Marty

 

[Out to Lunch]

much more quickly.

Very true, and then zone focusing the cheapy Color-Skopar 4/25 on my antique Epson 6Mp rangefinder camera is even faster...go figure 🤖

 

[Archlich]

Sort of put off by the basic viewfinder with the typical 1980-1990s twin confirmation lamps. Exposure should be fine with the twin dials, but focus...you won't get to know where the AF locked on until development.

 

[Godfrey]

Sort of put off by the basic viewfinder with the typical 1980-1990s twin confirmation lamps. Exposure should be fine with the twin dials, but focus...you won't get to know where the AF locked on until development.

I don't mind the simple viewfinder with the exposure confirmation lamps, although I have to say I prefer the simple 'match needle on the top deck' metering of the Rollei 35S over the later in-viewfinder LED indication.

(bolded) That is precisely my reservation about AF on this type of camera. I saw the same issue on my Olympus Infinity Stylus way back when... I got more consistent and reliable focus with my Minox 35GT-E and Rollei 35S.

G

 

[joe bosak]

Maybe I'm saying the same thing: but how does it decide what to focus on (just the nearest thing maybe?) and is there any communication between user and the AF to say either what it's doing or what you want it to do? Maybe that doesn't really matter... I used to have autofocus film cameras and although I can't remember what they did... both the 35DL Weathermatic and the Riva-some-number were fine for family shots at 6x4 which is all we usually printed at. A matter of the use case I suppose.

 

[Godfrey]

Maybe I'm saying the same thing: but how does it decide what to focus on (just the nearest thing maybe?) and is there any communication between user and the AF to say either what it's doing or what you want it to do? Maybe that doesn't really matter... I used to have autofocus film cameras and although I can't remember what they did... both the 35DL Weathermatic and the Riva-some-number were fine for family shots at 6x4 which is all we usually printed at. A matter of the use case I suppose.

IIRC, with the AF compact cameras of the '80s-'90s, the AF was set to focus on "approximately what was in the center of the viewfinder" ... you'd center your subject, half-press the shutter release to lock in the focus, than reframe and release the shutter. Instructions in the manual said as much; I expect Mint will include instructions of this sort with the Rollei 35AF.

I would say those old cameras of mine were consistent enough to satisfy a snapshooter. But I'm not a snapshooter and often am looking for more complex scene dynamics with my cameras. 😉

The notion of "only auto focus" in a camera is a new one for me to deal with. I'm much more comfortable with "only autoexposure" given some way of influencing it one way or the other (adjusting EV comp setting, ISO, whatever). But that's me ...

G

 

[sojournerphoto]

IIRC, with the AF compact cameras of the '80s-'90s, the AF was set to focus on "approximately what was in the center of the viewfinder" ... you'd center your subject, half-press the shutter release to lock in the focus, than reframe and release the shutter. Instructions in the manual said as much; I expect Mint will include instructions of this sort with the Rollei 35AF.

I would say those old cameras of mine were consistent enough to satisfy a snapshooter. But I'm not a snapshooter and often am looking for more complex scene dynamics with my cameras. 😉

The notion of "only auto focus" in a camera is a new one for me to deal with. I'm much more comfortable with "only autoexposure" given some way of influencing it one way or the other (adjusting EV comp setting, ISO, whatever). But that's me ...

G

It’s a fair point - I really haven’t melded fully with any af implementation yet. Amazing at one level, but getting them to focus on the right thing is often either luck or time consuming, even with near eye af. There again, I haven’t used a current Sony.

 

[kram]

Camera looks good. I will wait for reviews before deciding if I would buy one. Autofocus is great, when it works. Agree it would be better to have an indication in viewfinder of where the focus is, like my contax TVS or Minolta TC-1. I had a couple of autofocus only compacts in the past where the autofocus started to fail with not indication of the failing. Needless to say I stopped using them. So will it be October before independent reviews?
I wish Mint success with this product if it meets expectations.

 

[splitimageview]

Ordered.

 

[TenEleven]

They have this little OLED window on top, I wonder if they could not have used that to show a (roughly graded) focus distance upon half-press.
Not the most ideal solution but it would be reassuring for shots where one wants critical focus. The T3 does this and while this has obviously not saved me from wasting frames it has at least allowed me to re-take a critical shot.

The other thing I am wondering, something the website is very vague about, is whether aperture or shutter preferred auto is possible.
The site talks about full auto and full manual in a way that makes it seem that these are the only options. Seems as there is no confirmation either way. The OLED window is used for "exposure assistance" which I assume means that it will show you how many stops you are out from what the camera thinks correct in full manual mode.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Rollei 35AF: does anyone know from where it will be shipped?

 

[TenEleven]

Since MiNT who makes this operates out of Hong Kong it's a safe-ish bet that the cameras will come either from Hong Kong or China.
That being said, their website says that European orders will be handled by Rollei Europe - whatever that means.

 

[Archiver]

TBH this camera looks really intriguing. The original never grabbed me because of the zone focusing, but this new AF system with LIDAR makes in much more attractive.

 

[Archiver]

Who was it here that did a 365 project with an original Rollei 35 and Tri-x? Was it @petronius ?

 

[Archiver]

 

[Godfrey]

The other thing I am wondering, something the website is very vague about, is whether aperture or shutter preferred auto is possible.
The site talks about full auto and full manual in a way that makes it seem that these are the only options. Seems as there is no confirmation either way. The OLED window is used for "exposure assistance" which I assume means that it will show you how many stops you are out from what the camera thinks correct in full manual mode.

When the exposure time dial is set to Auto (or any of the EV compensation settings), the camera is in Aperture Priority AE mode, since the aperture setting is manually controlled by the other dial. There's no setting I can find that surrenders the aperture setting to the camera's algorithms, as would be needed for a "full auto Program" mode or a shutter-priority exposure mode.

I agree that the OLED display probably has a metering indicator in it when you've switched to manual control of shutter time, but I can't find that explicitly written down anywhere either just yet. I'm waiting for the Rollei 35AF instruction manual to become available.

G

 

[Godfrey]

Who was it here that did a 365 project with an original Rollei 35 and Tri-x? Was it @petronius ?

Yes, @petronius has been doing a "Rollei 35 - One Year" project since 2010.

Rollei 35 - one year

In the last few weeks I thought a lot about my photography. All that changing of cameras, lenses and films, the change between digital and film, all that gives many technical opportunities, but is often frustrating. I´m a person that is mostly afraid to have the wrong gear with me. So on August...

www.rangefinderforum.com

G

 

[CMur12]

It's intriguing. I like aperture-priority automation as long as it includes AEL (auto-exposure lock); otherwise I find it useless.

Regarding lidar autofocusing, if this bears any resemblance to some of the old sonar-based autofocus systems of the past, it won't focus through a window. It will focus on the window. As far as I know, lidar detects the nearest solid object. I don't really know much specifically about lidar, so I could be wrong.

- Murray

 

[Godfrey]

I've thought about this camera a lot in the past couple of months. I know Gary and his team at MiNT Camera have worked very hard to produce a high quality camera, and I'm sure it is. But the more I think about it, the more I'm sure that it's just not for me.

One of the fundamental bases for the Rollei 35AF design is to answer the issue 'many people find zone focus difficult or impossible to use'. So the Rollei 35AF has a state of the art Lidar-based AF system, which from all reports I've seen works very well. BUT ... I've never had any problem getting accurate focus with my scale focus Rolleli 35S, and I can focus it just about instantly no matter the circumstances I'm shooting in.

The Rollei 35AF does not support manual focus, not at all. That's simply a step too far for me. One of the reasons I love my Rollei 35S is that I can pre-set everything ... focus, shutter time, aperture ... and just release the shutter at the appropriate moment without having to do anything but frame my subject. And when I do that I know for a fact that the focus and exposure are EXACTLY where I set them, with no ambiguity. I'm not willing to buy a camera that doesn't give me that capability.

So ... I'll not be ordering a Rollei 35AF. Don't really need one in the first place (sheesh, I have a new-to-me Voigtländer Vitesse, a Vito II, another Kodak Retina IIc, and my favorite old Rollei 35S all due back from service soon, and a new-to-me Leica M6TTL on the way as well ...), and I just can't get beyond the notion of having a Rollei 35 that doesn't allow me to control the focus explicitly.

I guess that means there's one more for someone else to buy and enjoy. 🙂

G

 

[Godfrey]

It's intriguing. I like aperture-priority automation as long as it includes AEL (auto-exposure lock); otherwise I find it useless.

Regarding lidar autofocusing, if this bears any resemblance to some of the old sonar-based autofocus systems of the past, it won't focus through a window. It will focus on the window. As far as I know, lidar detects the nearest solid object. I don't really know much specifically about lidar, so I could be wrong.

- Murray

I can't tell for sure from the info I've found, but I suspect that the AF and exposure lock on a half press of the shutter release. Nearly every AF/AE point and shoot I've ever had did that.

Dunno enough about the Rollei 35AF Lidar focusing through a window ... Sonar AF was stymied by shooting through glass because the sound waves bounce off the glass, but I imagine a pattern generated by a set of laser beams will pass through glass and illuminate a subject on the other side. There might be some scatter that reduces the efficiency of the beam, but I suspect it will be a matter of testing the specific implementation of the Lidar AF system on this camera to determine how effective it is. I know other Lidar focusing systems do fine with a glass barrier in the path.

G