New production of Rollei 35 started!!

[HHPhoto]

Hi,

a german photomagazine published a report about DHW Fototechnik, Braunschweig, Germany.
That is the successor company of Franke&Heidecke, producers of the Rolleiflex and Rollei 35 cameras.

DHW Fototechnik has restarted the production of the Rollei 35 model!
It is built in small batches, all hand made (and therfore pricey, of course, but at least this marvel is built again new, who would have thougt this?)

Furthermore DHW Fototechnik is continuing the production of all three Rolleiflex TLRs, of all their high-end slide projectors, and even their MF SLRs.

Overall very good news, I think.

Cheers, Jan

 

[btgc]

Soon we'll see if new pricey 35's will be worth purchasing over old pricey cameras.

 

[hipsterdufus]

Very cool. I would buy all of the models in this renewed lineup if I suddenly came into money.

 

[JMQ]

HHPhoto, thank you for the info. Regards,

 

[HHPhoto]

Soon we'll see if new pricey 35's will be worth purchasing over old pricey cameras.

At least enough photographers think so to restart the production.

In this article is written that DHW Fototechnik has started the production because photographers (and probably some collectors as well) asked for this camera.

There is demand, especially from Asia due to the article.

Cheers, Jan.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Jan,

The price is however terrifying: 4300€, though this includes the buyer's choice of custom colours. It's in my Shutterbug report.

Cheers,

R.

 

[HHPhoto]

Dear Jan,

The price is however terrifying: 4300€, though this includes the buyer's choice of custom colours. It's in my Shutterbug report.

Cheers,

R.

Thanks Roger, the price is not mentioned in the article, only the production numbers: At the moment about 15 Rollei 35 cameras every months, all hand made.
This is definitely a camera for enthusiasts.
Personally I am not the photographer for scale focus cameras.

But the Rolleiflex 2,8 FX TLR in my dealers window for 3500€ is indeed very tempting 😉.
And the excellent Rollei multiformat slide projector!
Slide projection is a class of its own, nothing can beat that.

Cheers, Jan.

 

[lxmike]

Thats a lot of money for a Rollei 35, I would rather but Rollei 35S from ebay and gett it serviced. I have a Black Rollei 35S, a small ding on one side but mechaincally sound for £88 and a very brassed black Rollei 35 for £35. Yes it would be nice to own a custon Rollei 35, factory fresh, but if I had £4300, I would spend it on a leica M3 and a few lenses.

 

[David Hughes]

Thats a lot of money for a Rollei 35, I would rather but Rollei 35S from ebay and gett it serviced. I have a Black Rollei 35S, a small ding on one side but mechaincally sound for £88 and a very brassed black Rollei 35 for £35. Yes it would be nice to own a custon Rollei 35, factory fresh, but if I had £4300, I would spend it on a leica M3 and a few lenses.

I'll second that; buy a good looking undamaged camera on ebay and get it serviced or even re-furbished as (say) the best of two and you need not spend thousands.

Regards, David

 

[tlitody]

Is it just me because I had a look at the rollei club site and those 35 cameras have the film wind on the same side as the viewfinder which means you poke your self in the eye if you don't remove camera from your face when you wind film on. It just seems an illogical ergonomic design.

 

[robert blu]

wow !

wow !

Roger says "The price is however terrifying: 4300€" . Not so much less than a new M9 ! Ok, body only!
Wow, I'm lucky that my 35 T still works, more or less !
robert

 

[Mablo]

Rollei 35 is a classy camera. There's nothing like it. A nice chrome 35 Tessar cured me from my bad Leica III+Elmar GAS. I'm sure I will snap up a black 35 Sonnar one day.

I'm glad to see they restarted the 35 production along with other Rolleis. Unfortunately I don't have enough pesos to buy one but I'm sure the new production cameras will find buyers from collectors and photographers around the world.

 

[ZeissFan]

Is it just me because I had a look at the rollei club site and those 35 cameras have the film wind on the same side as the viewfinder which means you poke your self in the eye if you don't remove camera from your face when you wind film on. It just seems an illogical ergonomic design.

With a camera that small, the brilliance of Heinz Waaske's design is that it is a full-featured full-frame 35mm camera. It has a meter, manual shutter speeds and aperture, a hot shoe, flash synch at all speeds, single-stroke film advance, auto-resetting frame counter, lever rewind and excellent Tessar and Sonnar lenses in a package that's just a bit larger than a pack of smokes.

To do all of that in the Rollei 35 required a couple of compromises. And that requires a new approach from the photographer. Some people can't or are unwilling to adjust their style.

The pressure plate keeps the film extremely flat, and the negatives reflect this. The only omission is a rangefinder.

I first picked up one of these when I was 19 years old, coming over from using SLRs. Never had a problem with the zone focus.

 

[unixrevolution]

Zone Focus takes getting used to, but just like being able to guess exposure with a meterless camera, all it takes is practice to be able to focus properly without any mechanical or optical aids.

Not only that, but a 40mm F/2.8 or F/3.5 has a lot more fudge factor than say, a 50 1.4 or 90 2.8 🙂 You can be a little off and still get it pretty much spot on. I got really good at zone-focusing my 50mm F/3.5 Ektar lens on my Kodak Retina.

 

[Jamie123]

But the Rolleiflex 2,8 FX TLR in my dealers window for 3500€ is indeed very tempting 😉.

Is that the price for a brand new one? I just saw a used one of the new Rolleiflex 2,8 GX's (i.e. the ones F&H made until they went under) for sale at a local dealer (here in Switzerland) for approximately 2350€. It's a pretty expensive dealer so I'm sure you could find it even cheaper if you look around.

 

[lxmike]

As Stephen Gandy et al have pointed out the Rollei 35 is indeed quirky in its ergonomics, but I find it an endearing camera to use. I have a black 35S and a black 35, I would like to add a chrome 35B, the Triotar is a great little lens, the Tessar superb and the Sonnar stunning. I find them easier to use than the minox, mainly beacuse the scale calibration and f stop ring are slightly largerin thier markings that my eyesight can cope with. Scale focusing coupled with the 4o mm focal length are quite forgiving the further away your subject is, close by and fully open can be a little tricky. As some have pointed out as cameras go they do take some getting used to and certain practices have to be modifed, winder being on the left for example.

 

[HHPhoto]

Is that the price for a brand new one?

Yes, it is a brand new one, the FX model.
Before the insolvency of Franke&Heidecke the price was about 4000€. The new DHW production price is a bit cheaper.
But I still need a bit time for money saving 😉.

I just saw a used one of the new Rolleiflex 2,8 GX's (i.e. the ones F&H made until they went under)

The production of the GX model was stopped years ago. The FX is the latest model with 80mm Planar, and was produced for several years by Rollei Fototechnik, and then by Franke&Heidecke.
If I remeber right, in 2003 the wide angle Rolleiflex 4,0 FW was introduced, and in 2007 the Tele-Rolleiflex 4,0 FT with a complete new lens with much closer focus distance (suitable for portraits) than the first Tele-Rolleiflex from the sixties.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Jamie123]

Yes, it is a brand new one, the FX model.
Before the insolvency of Franke&Heidecke the price was about 4000€. The new DHW production price is a bit cheaper.
But I still need a bit time for money saving 😉.



The production of the GX model was stopped years ago. The FX is the latest model with 80mm Planar, and was produced for several years by Rollei Fototechnik, and then by Franke&Heidecke.
If I remeber right, in 2003 the wide angle Rolleiflex 4,0 FW was introduced, and in 2007 the Tele-Rolleiflex 4,0 FT with a complete new lens with much closer focus distance (suitable for portraits) than the first Tele-Rolleiflex from the sixties.

Cheers, Jan

Oh ok, then it wasn't the most recent model. But it did look fairly current. IIRC it was one like this: http://35photo.ru/files/items/4344.jpg

Must've been a model from ca. 2000.

 

[awilder]

"The pressure plate keeps the film extremely flat, and the negatives reflect this. The only omission is a rangefinder."

I use to own a 35 SE and found although the lens was very sharp, corners were not. When I checked the channel depth from the outer to inner rails, I found they spacing to be greater (at least 0.25 mm) than my Leica (0.20 mm). The extra 0.05 mm would allow more film curl, thus film would not be extremely flat. Also, given the extemely short length od the film rails due to the compactness of the camera, this to would lead to more flim curl.

 

[JPD]

There's no real reason why a Rollei 35 or TLR should cost much more than a Cosina/Voigtländer Bessa rangefinder. Didn't the 2,8 GX cost about $1000 new in 1986? That was a fair price.