Rollei 35 SE meter questions

[thegman]

I am the new, proud owner of a Rollei 35 SE. I managed to find somone selling 5,6V cells, and the meter fired up just fine. I took it out for a spin yesterday, and it's a great camera to use, however I've been having a little trouble with the meter.

Generally, the meter appears accurate compared to my handheld meter, but when I meter something very dark, and the Rollei reports under exposure with the bottom red LED, it seems to get "stuck" on that under exposure. i.e. if I then point the Rollei out of the window on a bright day, it still reports under exposure, when even without comparing with another meter, it should clearly be reporting (way) over exposed. Sometimes I can "reset" the Rollei by changing the shutter speed to what I think it should be, and then the Rollei will "wake up" and start metering correctly again.

Also, sometimes the over/under LEDs show at the same time, but I only just noticed that today.

So, a couple of things:

1) My 5,6V cell looked pretty old (although was in the packaging, sealed), could this be failing and causing the meter to fail?
2) Is the meter in the 35SE a bit temperamental like this, or could there be a fault?
3) Should I just get it adjusted to take a new 6v cell, and be done with it?

Any thoughts appreciated, I really like this camera otherwise.

Cheers

Garry

 

[Mablo]

Rollei 35 meter is notorious for not being very sensitive or accurate. It needs a certain amount of light to move and even then it's mostly wrong. I don't use the meter in my 35 any more. I carry a handheld meter or just estimate. It's a great camera and I just love the size and particularly the lens (mine is Tessar equipped).

 

[FrankS]

I'm not sure, but do both meter LED's light up when the meter's range is exceeded?

edit, additional info: some info here -
http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/forum/messages/6901/2904.html?1095957964

 

[fidget]

I guess that the metering is the same as a 35TE?

If so, the metering goes into some sort of error mode in response to the settings on the shutter and aperture dials, the light reading seems irrelevant when in this odd mode.
I'll try mine and we can compare at what point it goes unhappy.

Edit: my 35TE shows both red LEDs when it's unhappy with the exposure settings. This state has nothing to do with the light it sees, but the settings of the aperture and shutter.
For example, it goes into this mode as it is opened more than f5.6 @1/30th @ISO200, or any mix of these giving that same exposure.

 

[thegman]

Thanks to all, if it's just a quirk of the Rollei, that's fine with me.

@fidget, that's probably exactly what it is, I would have been putting the shutter and aperture settings all over the place to get a response out of it.

I'll see how my results come out when I send off a film today or tomorrow, I really enjoyed using the Rollei, the meter seemed OK with basic tests compared to my handheld, so if it's good enough for negative films, it's good enough for me. Failing that, Sunny 16 is OK, I shot like that for the first time ever last week, totally meterless, and I was very happy with my exposures.

Thanks again to all.

 

[awilder]

If the battery has enough juice to light the LEDs, I would think it's properly functioning as these mercury cells have a flat discharge voltage and then quickly die out. To be sure, just check the voltage on a volt meter. The CdS cell could be going bad or there may be a malfunction with the linkages of the speed and apertue dials to the variabe ND filter/pinholes that regulate the meter's response to light. Parts are no longer available but a qualified Rollei tech like Krimar Photo Shop can look at it and see what's wrong.

 

[thegman]

Well, the meter seems to meter correctly if I just point it at a subject and compare it's findings to my handheld meter, it just goes a bit funny in low light. If it were a computer I'd turn it off an on again and expect it to be fixed, but obviously the electronics are so basic in these things. I'll see how I go and if I think the meter is off, I'll see about having it looked at. I find it a real pleasure to shoot, so it's worth spending a little money to sort out as far as I am concerned.

 

[awilder]

Low light metering is practically non-existent as it's meter only goes down to EV 7 @ ISO 100. Rather than investing much money to fix it, consider a small hand held meter.