Thought I bought a Rollieflex 3.5E Planar, KEH Ships me a 3.5 Xenotar, what to do?

[RicardoD]

Need some advice on a recent purchase:

I bought a Bargain condition Rolleiflex from KEH for $310. Description online and on invoice states 3.5E Planar, meter inoperative.

What I ended up receiving was a Rolleiflex 3.5E Xenotar. KEH misrepresented the item or shipped me the wrong thing. You can see a picture of it here:
http://www.digizine.com/ricardo/rff/rolleiflex.jpg

I bought this TLR for lens Sharpness and cause of the low price. I have a Yashica Mat 124G already and wanted to get a Rolleiflex with the sharpest lens I could. I love shooting wide open as well so again that's why I chased the Planar. I was excited to get a 3.5E Zeiss Planar cause I like the Zeiss brand name to be very honest. However, my research indicates that the 3.5 Xenotar from Schneider is every bit as good.

So I am debating whether to return this item to KEH or just accept the fact that this is what you get for $310 and dealing with KEH. I have a sharp lens Rolleiflex at $310 dollars. The condition is about what I expected.

I purchased this ahead of time knowing that I would send it off for focus and shutter adjustments. That was included in my overall purchase budget. I checked the 1 second shutter speed and it is 2 seconds long.

There is one other odd thing however with the serial number which I believe is the seven digit number above the "Rolleiflex" name on the camera. The Serial number is 1645785 and according to this website it should be a Rolleiflex 2,8 E. So I don't now what to make of this. Do I have a frankenstein type unit where someone replaces the lenses down the road?

So now I don't know whether to return or keep this thing and get it overhauled.

 

[rogue_designer]

The Xenotar is in fact very good. I'd call KEH and see what they are willing to do, but you don't exactly have a dog of a camera, and at a good price. 🙂

 

[FrankS]

ditto, Give them a call and see what happens.

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

give them a call, my guess is they will just tell you to send it back (as opposed to making price adjustments).

The Xenotar is every bit as good as the Planar (and I speak as an owner of both). So practically, you won't see a difference. The difference is only important when you decide to resell it, as the Planar (rightly or wrongly) commands a slightly higher premium than the Xenotar.

Why not test it first, and then decide whether to send it off for a CLA? good luck

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

Did the serial number on top of the camera match the 'hand-written' one on the invoice?

 

[RicardoD]

Yes, the serial number on top of the camera matches the one handwritten on the invoice.

The only thing that is making me nervous about keeping it is this serial number issue. I will of course call KEH tomorrow to see what my options are.

Shutter speeds definitely need adjusting.

 

[GeneW]

There are some who claim the Xenotar is actually the better lens. I've only used the Planar version but they're evidently so close in quality they can't be told apart.

Gene

 

[Socke]

When my father bought a Rolleiflex in the late 50's he got the Tessar version, money was not a problem for him then and when I asked him decades later why he bought the 3.5 Tessar instead of the 2.8 Sonnar he told me that the Tessar is the better lens. Now I know what he meant, the less complicated lenses have a way to render an image which is very pleasing, my father shot only slow B/W in the Rolleiflex, Perutz and Adox 25ASA, and his negatives look very differnt from what I get from my normal Planars. I can't describe it, it just looks good.

Oh, by the way, resale value of the Rolly is still not a problem, the price for a CLA, the first, is 🙂

 

[Trius]

Perutz? Please elaborate!

 

[x-ray]

I've owned multiples of both the Xenotar and Planar in both 3.5 and 2.8. I currently own a 2.8 Xenotar and can not tell any difference in either make. Schneider is a fantastic lens maker and always has made stellar products. Leica even use or used Schneider designs in the Super Angulons and P A Curtigons. In the early days Schneider made LTM lenses for Leica under the Schneider formula names. Today Schneider makes the finest view lwnses money can buy and also makes a full line of lenses for Rollei for the new medium format cameras. I think they're even more expensive than the Zeiss.

No big deal about the SN. I don't think Rollei kept any better records than leica in the early days.

Keep it and make great pictures!

I used SL-66's for about 25 years and have had a Rollei TLR constantly for about forty years. The repairs that I've had on my SL-66's (few) have always gone to Jimmy Koh at Koh Camera. Very good and reasonable service. I had heim repair my 500CM Hasselblad and rebuild it and found the work excellent, reasonable and fast. I sent a 150 sonnar to KEH repairs and was not excited about their quality of repair.

 

[Turtle]

The CLA could be expensiev and this IS and issue to take up with the shop assuming it was not mentioned as having shutter speed issues! Could cost a few hundred$$

 

[Dougg]

I bought a Bargain condition Rolleiflex from KEH for $310. Description online and on invoice states 3.5E Planar, meter inoperative.

Is the meter indeed inoperative on the one you received?

 

[Pherdinand]

COmplain to them and tell them you will be satisfied if they give you some 'present'. Some film, maybe, or a small accessory (do you have a hood already?).

 

[RicardoD]

Meter is in fact inoperative as indicated. The bag it came in is clearly labelled with the matching serial number but the bag label also states Planar lens.

 

[Scarpia]

Perutz? Please elaborate!

Us old timers who have spent time in Europe remember Perutz as a pretty good German maker of film which eventually was bought out by Agfa, I think, but wouldn't swear to.
Kurt M.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Inventory mistake followed through... That is to say, when the camera was inventoried, someone made a mistake and they simply kept repeating. The KEH people have a reputation to maintain, so call them, explain the situation, see what choices they give you and act accordingly.

Like me, you seem to be not too crazy about calling a vendor on issues of this kind. I dislike it myself, because the whole transaction should be satisfactory to all parts involved. Whether you are indeed satisfied or not, just call them to give them a chance and help you with the matter. I'm sure they'll come through.

Did you buy the camera online or by phone? If you did it online, look their names up in their website. The whole idea is to call someone and not to talk to the first person who answers the phone. Now, if you called, take your receipt and give them the order number to track down who took your order.

I've always purchased small items from KEH, and only this week did I buy an expensive lens from them. The service I got was very good. I'm sure they'll help you in this case. Take care! 🙂

 

[taffer]

Ricardo, sorry to hear about the trouble. However, if you were already aware of the shutter issues and had in mind a service for the camera and there's nothing else 'wrong' (Rollei slow speeds are famous for becoming a bit sticky with time), well, you know what it's said about a bird in the hand... 🙂

As for the Planar vs Xenotar... truth is after several years reading opinions all over the place, my take would be that they don't seem to have anything to envy from each other.

The only thing I could think could be picky is if one model has a clearly higher 'value' than the other or S/N don't match or you end finding a strong reason why one model shouldn't be sold as the other one. In that case what they did is not fair and they should be willing to solve it at no cost for you.

In any case, best of luck ! (And just for the record, years ago, locally, I paid just a bit less than that for a RolleiCORD Va with sticky slow speeds and dust in the lens, so you already had some luck there 😉 )

Oscar

 

[raid]

The need for a CLA should be your issue of concern and not the Planar/Xenotar confusion. Count on paying $125~$225 for a good CLA by a specialized professional.

Raid

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

KEH can sometimes be excellent, and sometimes be total morons, it all depends on your luck of the draw on who you talk to.

Needless to say, the minute you sense you are talking to an idiot, ask for his/her supervisor and start over. Eventually, it will be sorted out. Might take some effort.

KEH's big weakness is not showing actual photos of the items, and not putting the serial numbers of the items in their descriptions so that type and date of lens/camera can be determined without having to call them.

 

[nksyoon]

At KEH I've always dealt with Tim Smith. With my most recent purchase, he was willing to pull the camera from the store to answer my questions on things like exposure counts. He would also advise me against certain examples because he felt the rating was too generous.

As the previous poster wrote - if you're not getting the right response from the person on the phone/email, try a different person.