Rollei 35 RF

With the kit now discounted to $1,199 USD it is almost to the point where they are giving the camera away for free with the lens. The stand alone cost of the lens, silver version, as I checked it this morning was $1,000. If bought in the kit, that means the body is $199. Wow!! It would be nice to see the cost of the lens come down some. I have not seen any of the lenses offered second hand yet.
 
Rover, on the B&H website, the body alone is still listed at $1250! My best guess is that the lens was priced where it was to make it unattractive to buy the lens alone & mount it on a Voigtlander body. Now that the price has dropped, that is no longer relevant.

I believe that B&H is clearing inventory & probably making little or no profit on this. On their website, the body & lens, each listed separately, are a "special order" item. So I expect that they have no inventory to clear on these as separate items - just the kits. The price of the lens by itself would therefore be controlled by Rollei. Same for the body.

IMO, this is the neighborhood where this camera should have been priced all along. Priced under $1200, this is a very nice package for a Rollei camera with a Zeiss lens.
 
I agree. Actually, it is a nice package price for a CV camera with a Zeiss lens too. I mentioned the rumors about Konica-Minolta re-entering the RF market. There is a pricing point here, a little above CV and below Leica, where a very high quality camera/lens can be offered and be successful. I think there are people who just won't buy CV for what ever reason, but can never step up to Leica. Kinda like the Canon EOS 3 or Nikon F100, just a good solid camera that is all what you need, but not necessarily all that you can have.
 
B&H has dropped prices on the 2 Rollei RF lenses. 40mm f/2.8 Sonnar is now $650, 80mm f/2.8 Planar is now $1400. Both are now listed as "In Stock" rather than "Special Order." It would appear that Rollei International has dropped its wholesale price, moving these out of the "clearance sale" category at B&H.
 
It has been interesting to review this thread again 🙂 Mainly now that Robert White has the 35 RF + T winder + 40/2.8 + hood for a special price of 489 pounds, and 450 without lens.

That's almost throwing in the lens for free !? 😱

I asked them about the lens alone, but they ran out. Probably nothing more than dangerous curiosity, but I'd love to see the silver 40/2.8 on the Canon P... 🙄
 
...I'd love to see the silver 40/2.8 on the Canon P...

but for those prices for the lens alone, I'll do with the Voigtländer 35/2.5 (which is in fact an excellent lens).

Huck, how do you like your 40 Sonnar ?
 
I'm very happy with the 40/2.8 Sonnar, Taffer . . . & I've yet to see anyone else post a bad word about it either.

Now that Cosina has come out with the 40/1.4 & rekindled intrest in this focal length, the real advantage of the Rollei body is that its 40 mm frame lines are so much more viewable than those on the R3A. Despite the fact that Cosina reduced the coverage of the 40 mm frame lines to 85%, they are still barely discernible for most people & just about impossible for eyeglass wearers. This eliminates one of the features of rangefinder photography vs SLR - the ability to see outside the picture area.

Huck
 
Well, you're right, most opinions I read seem to agree that the 40 lines on the R3a are almost useless with glasses, and not that visible without them, that in some way confirmed by the amount of barely used R3as I've seen so far maybe the interest in the 35RF will wake up again. For me the Sonnar advantadge is clearly the screw mount, it opens a vast world of options and again as you say, common agreement is that it's an excellent lens.

That said, I'd be tempted, but with prices around $500, no way... 🙁

PS: Jorge thanks for the ol' style smilies !!!!!!
 
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Taffer, I understand your aversion to the price. Hopefully it will start showing up on ebay or other sites as a user for sale. The fact that it hasn't been showing up kinda shows that people like it. I've been surprised to see R3A's & 40 Noktons showing up for sale already. I don't know what this says - if anything??

You're right about the advantage of the screw mount - & not just because it can be mounted on LTM-mount cameras. The comment from so many people about the other 40's is: "Nice lens, but my camera doesn't have 40mm frame lines & the lens brings up 50mm frame lines. Can it be modified in some way to bring up 35mm frame lines?" The Rollei 40 will bring up whatever frame lines you choose, based on the adapter that you fit to it.

Even thought the price is higher than the Voigtlander line, it doesn't look so bad these days in the context of the prices of the new Zeiss line of M-mount lenses. It is essentially the cheapest Zeiss lens for M-mount on the market. Big difference from where it was a year ago.

In my view, it now holds the same position in the Zeiss line that the 50/2.8 Elmar holds in the Leica line-up. Both are cheaper than anything else from these companies. Both are the most compact lenses in their respective lens lines. Both are not quite as fast as other primes in their respective focal lengths. Both use old lens designs - the Rollei a Sonnar & the Leica a Tessar - that are sharp but not overly so & give a certain look that people just seem to like.

Huck
 
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Yes the option of change framelines by using a different adapter is also a very nice plus, and again, the fact that they are seldom seen for sale used may mean something...
 
Doug, I feel much the same about this 40/2.8 Rollei/Zeiss Sonnar as Peter feels about his 50/2.8 Leica Elmar. Both are classic designs & both are very sharp, superb lenses with pleasing bokeh. Very well built and compact, too. It is not a low light lens in the sense that an f/1.4 lens is, but at f/2.8, there is no daylight situation that it can't handle. This lens is sought after for its signature & its price in relation to other lenses in its lens line, i.e. Zeiss designs (& the Elmar in comparison to the cost of other Leica designs). If your comparison is with the cost of Cosina lenses, you're talking apples & oranges - especially regarding the quality control that Zeiss requires of its licensees.

Huck
 
No criticism intented or implied, Huck! That just what would be in my mind if I asked myself the question QuillianSW voiced. The answer might well be "yes!", as I've learned to appreciate a lens's character. Peace... 🙂
 
Not that I want that particular lens that badly - too ignorant to know better; my experience with SLR photography is that I rarely ever stopped below that point (f/2.8) anyway, despite having a few f/1.4 or thereabouts lenses. That package, however, appealed to me as I don't have any RF equipment and am starting from zero. Nothing against used equipment, but...anyway, that's why this looked like a good value to me. I also have a Rollei AFM 35 as my P&S, and have been impresseed with the build quality (it's made in Thailand or someplace as well).
 
Doug said:
No criticism intented or implied, Huck! That just what would be in my mind if I asked myself the question QuillianSW voiced. The answer might well be "yes!", as I've learned to appreciate a lens's character. Peace... 🙂
Click to expand...

Actually, Doug, my reply was intended more for Quillian's benefit, so that he might be aware of lens characteristics that are prized other than speed. Didn't mean to snap at you. 🙂

Cheers,
Huck
 
QuillianSW said:
Not that I want that particular lens that badly - too ignorant to know better; my experience with SLR photography is that I rarely ever stopped below that point (f/2.8) anyway, despite having a few f/1.4 or thereabouts lenses.
Click to expand...
This brings up an interesting point to be made about lens speed in the RF world... Here lenses are expected to perform wide open. With an SLR a user may choose to buy the f/1.4 lens never intending to actually shoot wide open, but that wide aperture is still valuable by contributing to accurate focusing and brighter viewing. Of course, for an RF camera, lens speed has no effect on focusing accuracy or viewfinder brightness, so if there's no operational need for an aperture faster than f/2.8, there's little reason to get a faster lens!
 
QuillianSW said:
Not that I want that particular lens that badly - too ignorant to know better; my experience with SLR photography is that I rarely ever stopped below that point (f/2.8) anyway, despite having a few f/1.4 or thereabouts lenses. That package, however, appealed to me as I don't have any RF equipment and am starting from zero. Nothing against used equipment, but...anyway, that's why this looked like a good value to me. I also have a Rollei AFM 35 as my P&S, and have been impresseed with the build quality (it's made in Thailand or someplace as well).
Click to expand...

Quilian, many rangefinder photographers shoot with available light & don't use flash. This is based on the belief that lack of mirror slap allows the camera to be hand held at slower shutter speeds & the fact that rangefinder lenses seem to maintain their quality at maximum aperture unlike SLR lenses which seem to show a more significant drop in performance wide open. As a result fast & ultra-fast lenses seem to be more popular among RF users. Many shooters also like to use such lenses to reduce depth of field when photographing people, a favorite RF past time.

Huck
 
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