Small Film Camera, Big Results (Rollei 35 Review)
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2022
- Small Film Camera, Big Results (Rollei 35 Review)
I recently got the opportunity to shoot a Rollei 35 film camera, and I'm here to talk about it. It features a Carl Zeiss lens and a compact form factor that once made it the smallest 35mm film camera in the world. I loaded it with some Ilford HP5, pushed it 2 stops, and hoped for the best.
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There's no difference between the Zeiss and Rollei manufactured Tessar lenses. Rollei's quality control on their in house under license from Zeiss lenses was superb! If anyone is reading this and wants a Rollei 35, do not hesitate to get the non german made in Singapore units, they are just as good.
Hi! Focus suggestion: measure your arm's length and make that your reference for close distance shots. Second, you know how tall you are. If you fall straight, where will your head end? Aha! This camera is actually a zone focusing camera. You don't have to be 100% right on the focus, use depth of field to make sure you're, at least, quite close and with decent results. DOF is written on the lens barrel.
On the viewfinder there are also paralax marks (small marks inside the framing white square), frame by them when close focusing. With time they might be faded.
I've a 35 and 2 35S, that's how I love these cameras. I've sent them all for a CLA and they'll probably be back this month. The Tessar is an incredible lens. What impressed me most on it was it has NO color aberration!! not even in the corners. At least on my sample, I've shot a burger store that had small signs on the corners - white words on black baxkground and they're perfectly readable, with no lateral color in any way. I scanned this film with my Coolscan III and I was really impressed with this, specially from such a small lens.
I'm a big fan o Rollei and its systems and the original 35 series (35, 35T, 35S, 35TE and 35 SE) is as incredible as the rest of their products. Then came many variations made cheaper and although some show some quality, many were created to try to scape bankrupt.
A bit of history on the lenses: ALL lenses of the original series were made by Zeiss, in a factory in Germany they both shared. What happenned was that, at some point, when Rollei decided to make SLR 6x6, Zeiss had a deal with Hasselblad that prevented them form using their name on products for companies that competed with them. So, it gradually took the Zeiss name from Rollei and Rolleiflexes lenses. BUT they still made them. If you take a look at the Rollei 35S/SE Sonnar lens, you'll notice that there's a Rollei-HFT in the exact color as the *T on Hasselblad's lenses. This means they use the same coating but with different names but the ones for Rollei now were branded Rollei, instead of Zeiss.
That's why these lenses are so impressive, be with color or B&W.
It is still the smallest 35mm full frame mechanical camera ever made. The only electronics goes on the light meter, which was made by Gossen, if I'm not wrong. All other smaller 35mm are electronic. And someday might become a paper weight. My best!
I think it’s slightly a misnomer when people call this a “guess focus” camera when one should really be thinking of it as a “zone focus” camera. Totally get that some people have a hard time estimating distances, and shooting it in low light is definitely hard mode for getting used to it, but often if you’re outdoors you can easily stop down to like f8-16 and suddenly be working with anywhere between like 8 and 30 feet of depth of field. I recommend using the aperture guides on the lens to see what the size of the zone is at your chosen aperture (some of the wider apertures won’t be marked). Also, some tricks I’ve used is imagining if I could reach out and touch something, then I know it’s somewhere around 3 feet (depends on the arm!) and also someone once noted that they imagine how many of their body lengths they could imagine lying down between themselves and the subject (and then doing quick math to determine how long that could be). Sounds weird, but I’ve found this is a pretty easy way to visualize and estimate distance (and I’ve missed focus only a handful of times over many rolls on these cameras!). With practice you’ll be a pro with this camera, and it can basically just become a point and shoot for you!
But......If you know that there will be an offset between the view finder and the lens by so much you can adjust the same amount when framing the shot. Thanks for the video.
I actually did often use that arm trick while shooting with the Rollei 35! I just didn't include me doing it in the video because I thought it looked kinda silly on video, but it totally works.
very good pictures
Great review! Every Rollei 35 came with a Zeiss lens, either Tessar or Sonnar. The 35 B came with the Triotar lens from Zeiss.
Some were manufactured by Zeiss himself though, the others were made under license in house by Rollei, not that it matters, they are all identical, Rollei did an amazing job.
That every lens on a Rollei 35 was made by Zeiss is not exactly correct. First, as another noted, only the earliest cameras use lenses actually made by Zeiss, the vast majority of "Zeiss" lenses found on any Rollei 35 version were made under license from Zeiss by Rollei. The Rolloi made lenses perform identically to the Zeiss made versions and include the Tessar shown here, the Sonnar on the S and SE models, and a Triotar on the "budget" models. Secondly, not every Rollei 35 used a Zeiss derived lens. There were times when Zeiss could not timely provide Tessar lenses to Rollei, so they used Schneider Xenar lenses of the same specification as the Tessar. Those perform, for better or worse, exactly like a Tessar. Because there were relatively few units produced, the Xenar equipped versions have a modest "collectible" status with some.
Just found your channel and subscribed!!! I hope you continue nurturing your passion for photography, your videos are lovely to watch
Neat video mate, what a cool little camera.
I've found rangefinders to be problematic to focus. I recently took my yashica gs35 out and its taken a bit to get used to!
Thanks for sharing. You'll have to let us know what other cameras are there in the housesit!
Neat video. Others have already noted zone focusing. Look into depth-of-field. Use the DOF scale on the lens barrel. Look up hyper focal distance. Using this, it becomes a fantastic street shooting camera. I’ve known pros who used this Rollei (and Leicas) by setting the focus for the other side of the street, using a smaller aperture (especially if you’re using b/w and moreso if pushing development) and then you can shoot most anything instantly without focusing again. Faster than an AF camera. The viewfinder offset is called parallax. Except for closer distances, it’s not that significant. Finally, pros loaded 35 mm film backwards: FIRST put the tongue into the take up spool, make sure the teeth catch the sprocket holes, THEN pull the cassette over to its spot on the other side of the camera. Close the back. Then advance film 1-2 frames to skip over light-exposed film. Confirm that rewind knob is turning, meaning that the teeth caught. Works really fast. I always did this with 35 mm SLRs (and the Rollei) and routinely got 38 frames per roll. Have fun!
Here's a life hack for scale focusing portraits- set for 1m and use your left arm as a distance guide.
The Tessina 35 was smaller, and came out 9 years before the Rollei 35.
i love grain in bw but not in color
As a decades long owner and occasional user of various Rollei 35 models, I agree with most of his comments about the camera. To expand a bit, the Tessar lens used here is very sharp in the aperture range of 5,6 - 11, but its resolution drops to half or less as you open up to its maximum of 3.5. The Sonnar lens on the 35S/SE models is a bit sharper at its best, and holds that sharpness over a wider range of openings. It is also noticeably sharper wide open at 2.8. Using zone focusing with these cameras, you need to rely on depth of field to compensate for any small errors in focus judgment. This means that your target aperture should be in the range of 5.6 - 8.0, which gives enough depth of field for most uses and also provides an optimum aperture for image sharpness. If you take most of your photos at close distances, find another camera so you are not driven crazy by "almost on" shots.
Images don't need to sharp. It should be exactly how yours are. Do you think photos taken 60/70 years ago were sharp? This is for those who like the vintage vibes
Get real........the shot of the flower through the door was a well framed shot............