Rollei XF 35

R

Robert

Guest
I have a Rollei XF35 rangefinder camera.

I don't see a section for this camera. Although the 40mm lens is fixed it has a rangefinder.

I haven't used it for many years but I think I will start using it again now my Minox has broken.

Has anyone any experiance of there cameras?
 
I have recently acquired one on ebay, very cheap and in good condition. They have a very nice Sonnar lens that produce lovely images (I spent only two rolls on it).
The camera is very beautyfull in my opinion, but the fact that it is all made in plastic (unlike rollei 35) and all auto-exposure didnt make it very popular. Beeing in plastic is good in a way that it is very light, but the production quality doesnt seem very good...
I have been told that the rangefinder is prone to get disaligned, but I didnt find very hard to align (you have to lift a little bit the leatherette).

If you click the shutter button a bit you can hold the exposure settings, and that's the way to be able to do some good shots.

I guess I will keep it on my shelf, but it is not a camera to use often when you have some others with manual exposure capabilites...
 
SergioGuerra said:
The camera is very beautyfull in my opinion, but the fact that it is all made in plastic (unlike rollei 35) and all auto-exposure didnt make it very popular. Beeing in plastic is good in a way that it is very light, but the production quality doesnt seem very good...
Click to expand...

Uh? Is it plastic? I have one now in my hands and it seems to have bottom and top cover made of metal as well as the advance lever. The barrel of the lens, on the other hand, is indeed made of plastic (or at least covered in plastic).

The lens is very good but I agree that Rollei made a huge mistake to give no possibility (except by playing with the iso-setting) to control exposure.

I bought mine because of the lens and finished up never using it becasue of this huge limitation.

Giella lea Fapmu

PS
It goes without saying that by playing with the iso-setting and/or by blocking the exposure by half-depressing the button one can get very good pictures.
 
Giella, I didnt meant to say it was 100% plastic, but "plastic" is the overall feeling you get when handling it...

Cheers,

Sergio
 
rollei xf 35

rollei xf 35

SergioGuerra said:
I have recently acquired one on ebay, very cheap and in good condition. They have a very nice Sonnar lens that produce lovely images (I spent only two rolls on it).
The camera is very beautyfull in my opinion, but the fact that it is all made in plastic (unlike rollei 35) and all auto-exposure didnt make it very popular. Beeing in plastic is good in a way that it is very light, but the production quality doesnt seem very good...
I have been told that the rangefinder is prone to get disaligned, but I didnt find very hard to align (you have to lift a little bit the leatherette).

If you click the shutter button a bit you can hold the exposure settings, and that's the way to be able to do some good shots.

I guess I will keep it on my shelf, but it is not a camera to use often when you have some others with manual exposure capabilites...
Click to expand...
Hi Sergio, hey I have a rollei xf 35 and I have never experience any issue with this camera, she even take real nice pictures, try using a fuji 200 asa and set the camera in
automatic, this camera is design to take good outside pictures, if you use the flash then set it to (b) wich means bulb. Many photographers hate this camera, I would say is not the camera is the experience person who makes nice photos. Many people do not realize that this is a fixed lens camera and they expect to much from it, do not get dissapointed, grab your rollei an shoot.
Paulo
 
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sweet little brick

sweet little brick

I bought my XF 35 because of it's simple and clear design. That's the way to make photo's with it: it's clear and simple. Insert a film, adjust film speed and from that moment on you only have to adjust the distance and to shoot.
For the most situations this is enough. Taking a look at the technique raises the wish for more: you got one of the best viewfinder windows, with really high contrast and sharp contours in the meter spot, and a wonderful lens system. So why did Rollei made this camera as a fully automatic one? And the design is nice, true, but why the hell did they made the fim lever and the shoot button in that cheap way? The rewind crank is a little bit cheap, too, and the covers are stable but aluminium, not brass made. Hey, put a Rollei 35 aside and eveyone will choose that one.
It looks and feels and sound like a cheap camera. Therefore you can by a good one (like mine :)) for less than 17 € (thats roundabout 20 $). Adjusting the rangefinder is very easy, if someone needs informations about it i can help. By the way: adjusting vertically is tricky, you have to open the camera, and than you will see that the mixture of high quality with cheap tricks goes on inside.
And, after my first roll, i decided to take the XF 35 with me more often, i made better pictures with it than with my Olympus 35 RC and the Minolta Hi-Matic F. And if i want to make ambitous photo's i take the Rollei 35 T. That one makes high end photo's, really.

Bye
Wolfgang

Edit: and i forgot the battery problem. I've solved it with zink air batteries and some tape, simple and a cheap trick, too ;-)
 
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The XF has become one of my favorite portrait lenses of my daughters with XP2 film. It gives ultra smooth images. The simplicity of operation and the forgiveness of the XP2 make this camera with this film a wonderful combo. The Sonnar lens is first class. This is not a low level lens.

Raid
 
No slight to the Rollei was intended; just a
pointer to a similar, more common model.

The Canonet 28 is also a good alternative.

Chris
 
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I bought one recently on the cheap and when I got it, the rangefinder was misaligned both horizontally and vertically. The screwdrivers were soon out and after opening it and looking at its internals, I manage to align it correctly (in the end).

However: the rangefinder system on this one is pretty different from the standard rangefinders. The moving image is created by a prism, which is right behind the viewfinder front window; this is the window that is aligned with the window at the back through which you look at when composing. When you rotate the focusing ring, the prism is moved horizontally in front of the viewfinder window and thus shifts/alters the main image. In this camera, the double image (i.e. the one that is coming from the secondary window via the internal mirror in the rangefinder) is fixed and not altered at all as you move focus (even though I think it also goes through a prism lens in the rangefinder).

Altering the main image via a prism has a serious shortcoming: it depends on the relative angle you look at the image through the prism. If you eye is 100% aligned with the axis of the prism lens, then you are fine (as long as you can stay that way). But if you move your look and your eye is no longer aligned with the axis of the prism lens, then what you see depends on the relative angle between your eye and the axis of the prism lens. In essence, moving (or tilting) your look through the viewfinder will alter the image you see and on which you base your focus.

In practice, here is a manifestation of this odd design: set the focus to infinity and look through the viewfinder at an object far away (preferably in daylight). Move the relative position of your eye to the viewfinder (e.g. try to "tilt" your look) and you will see that the double image is moving as you change the angle of your look. All that without even moving the focusing ring.

The other thing to note is that the focusing arc from the minimum distance (=1m) to infinity is around 50º. It is very small. Hence, one small rotating move on the focusing ring can take you meters away in the focusing scale. I have tried focusing at an object which is around 3m away, and I got a distance on the focusing ring ranging from 1.5 to 5m, depending on how I was looking through the viewfinder. Not impressive at all.

Bottomline, I don't think that this rangefinder is designed for accurate focusing. You are looking at a curved image through the viewfinder, and hence its position in the viewfinder window depends on the angle of your look. The small deviations (or errors) as a result of that can be very significant if you shoot near distances and wide open and probably minor or insignificant when you shoot in daylight.

Other than that, I like this little thing. The viewfinder is bright and contrasty and the controls are dead simple. The only plastic parts i encountered were mostly external: the Auto/Bulb/Flash ring, the mount directly inside the focusing ring and a few small levers further inside (the actual focusing ring is metal even though it looks plastic). The rest is metal, e.g. the lens construct, the focusing helicoid, the mount for the focusing helicoid, the top and bottom covers and the film transport lever. I cannot see serious stress on any of these components (especially the plastic ones), so if you get yours cleaned up and lubricated, they (and the camera) should last for a long time.

I'm now ready for some film, in order to check this Sonnar optic.
 
the XF is just a rebranded OEM model.

There is a Chinon, Zeiss Ikon, Canon, Mamiya, Voigtländer, Revue and other variants that look identical, except for the nameplate.
 
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