[Leica] Rollei

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

There were six basic families of 120 TLR cameras 
produced by Franke & Heidecke and its successors, 
of which two survive into these days.

There were the "original" Rolleiflex TLR's 
through the New Standard of 1939.  These cameras 
had Zeiss Jena Tessar lenses and viewing lenses 
from OAS, the Zeiss plant at Saalfeld (new part 
of Docter Optic Technologies).  Film loading and advance was entirely manual.

There were the Rolleicord line;  most had 
three-element Zeiss Jena Triotar lenses but 
towards the end they were upgraded, if the word 
works, to four-element Schneider Xenars <he 
grins>.  These cameras also had manual film 
loading and advance.  The most sophisticated was 
the final one, the Vb, though it was still limited by that four-element lens.

There was the Automat line which featured 
"automatic" film loading.  These sported Zeiss 
Jena and Zeiss-Opton and Carl Zeiss Tessars and 
Biometars and Planars and JSK Xenars and Xenotars 
in a rather dizzying array which is a bit hard to 
condense to a quick e-mail summary.  The line 
started with the original Automat around 1936 and 
ended with the final gold and platinum plated 
2.8F's in the middle 1980's.  Both Franke and 
Heidecke sent their kids through college on the 
proceeds from these, and then ended up almost 
bankrupting themselves in pouring money back into 
the firm, in a manner similar to that which hit the Leitz family.

There were the Postwar Rolleimagic family, a 
rather unfortunate marriage of a selenium meter 
integrated into its controls.  Not my cup of tea, 
but some guys love 'em.  These had JSK Xenar lenses.

There were the Tele-Rollei and the 
Rollei-Weitwinkel made in the 1960's.  The 
Rollei-Weitwinkel has recently been reintroduced 
to general yawns of disinterest from the Rollei 
community.  There have been several announcements 
of a revival of the Tele-Rollei which would be of 
much more interest to that community but it, so 
far, has been all smoke and no fire, with claims 
of "it's on!" followed by "no, it's not" and the like.

Finally, a simplified version of the Automat was 
introduced in the late 1950's as the Rolleiflex 
T.  The current GX and FX cameras have Rolleiflex 
T bodies with 2.8F lenses.  These cameras do not 
have "Automat" loading.  The 2.8GX and FX enjoy a 
feature unique in camera history, "TTVL" (through the viewing lens) metering.

Then there are the 127 "Baby" Rolleiflexes and 
the older stereo cameras from which the TLR was developed.

Me?  I only own five Leica bodies (IIIc, IIIf 
RD/ST,  IIIg, M3 DS, and M6 Wetzlar) but I own 
six Rolleis (Postwar Automat Type 3, Rolleicord 
IV, 2.8F 12/24, 2.8GX, Prewar 3.5 Baby, Baby 
Grey).  But, what the hey, I have two Retinas, 
two Ikoflices, and three Hasselblads as well, along with a few others.

In general terms, the Rolleicord was the economy 
model.  The lenses were adequate but do not 
measure up to the stiff standards set by the 
"big" Rolleis.  I have never had a Rolleiflex 
which failed to give me great service but then, 
other than my two M4's, I've never suffered 
disappointment at the hands of a Leica, either.

Marc



msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!