RIP Rolleiflex... the end of the line this time

This is an announcement of the auction of the machinery and equipment of the Rollei plant and a listing of the types of machinery available. It's not a sale of a going business, just the equipment, so I think the OP's opinion re: finality is probably correct. The notice states that "know-how" packages (proprietary information, I guess, and perhaps intellectual property) and work in progress will be sold separately. If German insolvency proceedings work like US bankruptcy, they likely would have attempted a sale of the entire business first. A sale of individual articles of equipment suggests that there were no takers on the whole package. Guess my Rolleiflex 3.5F and MVS-EV cameras may have become even more valuable, because we've likely seen the last Rollei TLRs. Guess that is not news though.
 
If you look at article 54, it appears to be a approximately 92 pieces of Rollei 'doppelauge' (TLR?) camera housings - bid(?) is 10 Euro
 
Seriously and most sincerely, this breaks my heart.

I saw my first Rolleiflex TLR as a young lad, in 1961, and I was mightily impressed (my standard at the time was a Kodak Duaflex IV). I have some lovely TLRs, including a Rolleiflex T, but I still haven't managed to acquire a Planar/Xenotar Rollei.

- Murray
 
Both, or rather, yet another company (in a long sequence) to catch up the remains has crumbled. The management stated that they want to buy out and continue the repair department, but the creditors declined their offers, so they'll have to buy the spare parts in an open auction - that is the reason why the inventory of spares is auctioned off in separate block rather than piecemeal like the factory and office equipment.
 
For decades I dreamed of buying a brand new Rolleiflex 2.8 for studio work (wanted to be Avedon maybe). Every time I got serious about it, the price had jumped another few grand. I think the last price I saw was somewhere in the $8000 range. When I first started looking at them they were under $2000.

Kinda sad.
 
Timmyjoe said:
For decades I dreamed of buying a brand new Rolleiflex 2.8 for studio work (wanted to be Avedon maybe). Every time I got serious about it, the price had jumped another few grand. I think the last price I saw was somewhere in the $8000 range. When I first started looking at them they were under $2000.

Kinda sad.
Click to expand...

You can buy one brand new,full warranty, from an authorized shop on ebay for $3800. About $4k less than bhphoto in the US!


http://www.ebay.com/itm/301558278961?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Of course, who knows what that warranty is worth now the company is gone.
 
I saw this earlier today, sad to hear. I only recently got my first medium format camera (a Rolleiflex) from a good friend and I plan to keep it for a long time.

Even though I fully appreciate that it's hard to find a sustainable place for manual TLR cameras in today's marketplace, it's always sad to see a brand that is effectively a piece of history shut down.
 
It's sad - but I imagine that any current production was done in small numbers similar to how Morgan builds cars in the U.K. The factory in the photos looked very small.

Best wishes to all that worked there. Fingers crossed that Kobayashi Hirofumi can keep Cosina alive for at least another decade.
 
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