Rolleiflex for street photography?

Agree with all said above, except Gabriel, when I changed the focusing screens on my Rolleicord and Rolleiflex to Satinsnow glass, I had to recalibrate the focus by adjusting both lenses under the front hood...you did it by the mirror? I think I heard of that method, but then I thought I heart it wasn't right. Well, if you're getting sharp images I guess it worked okay.

Lots of fun to shoot anywhere, but in public it's great. It's subtle, yet it draws attention sometimes because it's so odd. But it's good attention.
 
Woohoo, RFF has a TLR forum!

I've worked on a few Rollei TLRs and my understanding of screen replacement is:


  • models with removeable wlf - screen is held down against the reference surface, so screen thickness shouldn't matter (image forms on the bottom of the screen).

  • models with fixed (by screws) wlf - screen is held up against the reference surface (which is inside the wlf assembly, rather than the body), so changing the thickness of the screen will change focus. Adjustment is by screwing the viewing lens in or out, which usually requires removal of the front fascia and loosening a locking ring.

I'm no street photographer, but I took a few people shots with a Rollei whilst on a work trip to Indonesia recently:

 
The 12 frames can be finished very fast if you get into the mood.
Loading a 'flex is not as quick as loading a bessa.
If you are the shoot, shoot type, you might be very annoyed by this. You will tend to see images missed while loading, all the time (even if they would not really be anything fantastic, you will think they would have been the best of the day).

If you prefer less amount but better composed and higher technical quality, the 6x6 neg with the ground glass composing is definitely much better than an unprecise frameline of a rangefinder and a tiny piece of film 🙂
 
"There ARE no images while reloading"

quote by the great Gary Winogrand after beeing asked if he isn´t sorry missing the shots while reloading his M4...

Yea...12 frames is few for street but with practice one learns better when to push the shutter or developes a better "Eye" for situations. (at least I hope so)
 
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