Nice find - 1939 Rolleicord Polizei

[archeophoto]

Maybe somebody here also collects Rollei TLRs and appreciates this.

I made a nice Ebay find. I collect Rolleicord cameras and found a 1939 Rolleicord 1a Model 3 made specifically for the German Police force (Polizei in German). Only 500 of those cameras were made in total and who knows how many survived...
The Police Rolleicords have a different Triotar lens one stop faster then the other Cords' 1a Model 3. (f3.5 instead of f4.5)
Because of the bigger lens, the Franke und Heidecke Logo had to be moved from the top of the lens to under the Rolleicord nameplate. Those two things are the give-away for the Polizei models.
Those Rolleicords are very uncommon. I was looking for one for quite a while. The ones that come up for sale are usually out of reach for me price wise.
The camera is in very nice shape all things considered. The shutter will need a little CLA, but this is no big deal. The lenses are great and the camera is all original with no dents.

The seller indicated the camera came from an Estate sale from the US East coast.
I suspect that the camera was brought over to the US after the war as a souvenir by a soldier.

I'm thrilled and had to share 🙂

Cheers!


Rolleicord Polizei 1 sm by Archeophotography - Herbert Eisengruber, on Flickr


Rolleicord Polizei 3 sm by Archeophotography - Herbert Eisengruber, on Flickr


Rolleicord Polizei 2 sm by Archeophotography - Herbert Eisengruber, on Flickr

 

[johannielscom]

Nice find, congrats on locating and securing it!

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Thanks for the information. I don't own an early Rolleicord yet but this is the one I will be on the lookout for eventually now I know.
Regards,
Brett

 

[farlymac]

That's a great find, Herb. I suppose quite a few found their way to the states that way.

PF

 

[fotomeow]

Cool. does it say "Polizei" anywhere on the camera?

 

[Ezzie]

Lovely, just the right amount of patina.

 

[archeophoto]

No, it doesn't. Just the two indications with the lens and the logo that I mentioned in my original post. Also the serial number is within the range of the Polizei Rolleicords. There is some information about it on the Rolleiclub.com website:
http://www.rolleiclub.com/cameras/tlr/info/rolleicord.shtml

scroll down to Model K3 - 541.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of information about it on the web. I had to do a bit of searching to get all the clues.

It's not unusual that cameras did not have markings like "Police, Army" or the likes. Sometimes it's even just a certain serial number range.

Cool. does it say "Polizei" anywhere on the camera?