Rollei 35 TE First Test Roll of Film Through

Come and join the Rabbit as he chats about the Rollei 35 TE and shoots a test roll of Ilford HP5+ iso 400 film
i see this camera described often as a rangefinder and/or a point and shoot ... and its neither. its a completely manual camera that requires zone focusing ... at least thats how i would describe it, imho
Rollei 35 TE
film 35mm
shutter speeds 1/500 - 1/2 sec + B
aperture 3.5 - 22
focus 3’ - infinity, zone focusing
light meter over/ok/under LEDs in viewfinder
viewfinder large, clear brightlines, parallax correction
production dates 11/1979 - 9/1981
production numbers 120,000 units
msrp at release ~$150.00 USD
Rollei 35 Fun Fact: at the time of its initial production, the Rollei 35 (later renamed to the Rollei 35 T) was the smallest 35mm camera in production (consumer)
light meter appears to function properly. there is a slight film transport issue as the “gap” between exposed frames is inconsistant in size. shutter speeds 1/30 sec and below also seem to be slow or inconsistant. shutter speeds 1/60 sec and above function properly. aperture functions properly. focus is smooth and nicely weighted. given the age of the camera, and the fact that i rarely shoot below 1/60th of a second, the issues seem minor and im ver happy with the camera overall performance.
almost time to throw out my developer, CineStill Df96 ... advertised for 16 rolls and a shelf life of one year, ive developed about 20 rolls in two plus months, starting to lose contrast and its getting a little thin, altho chems still clearing the film ... i sorta thought at some point the chems would stop clearing the film ... the developer is still clear and about the color of Coors Light =:3
personally finding shooting with the Rollei 35 very fun, and i am tending to stray away from slr use, and preferring zone focusing ... even with my rangefinder cameras, im noticing that i prefer to zone focus most times rather than use the rangefinder
00:00 Camera Intro
15:04 Test Roll Photos

[@randallstewart1224]

Boy, the photos in the video do not do the camera any justice. The Tessar lens used is actually quite sharp, like all other Tessars, in the range of 5.6 - 11.0. The 355TE here is exactly the same as the first Rollei 35 from 1968, except for the light meter. The original meter used a 1.35 volt mercury cell, and the accuracy of the meter was directly coupled to that voltage. When mercury batteries were made illegal in most countries, 1.5 volt cells replaced them, and the Rollei 35 meters no longer worked accurately without one or other workarounds. What distinguishes the meter in the TE (and is companion 35SE model) is that the solid state meter used only in these models is not voltage dependent for accuracy, so you can use a variety of single or multiple cells in the battery compartment, so long as they fit and add up to more than the 5.6 volt (mercury) battery the camera was designed to originally take. (I use four lithium watch batteries in mine. So far good for 6 years.) This battery convenience makes the 35TE and 35SE the best choice among all other Rollei 35 models as users. The other, 1.35 volt, models can work fine if you spend significant money to have them modified or use relatively uneconomical zinc-air batteries.

[@CrusaderRabbit59]

hello. thank you very much for watching and taking the time to comment. i believe the sharpness issue is the digitization (sp?) process ... mostly ... i have made changes and improvements to that gradually since, so hopefully i am doing a better job of that now ... its a constant learning process. i do like the “se/te” variant as you can see the ‘meter’ inside the viewfinder, and i can adjust the shutter speed to match proper exposure without having to stop viewing through the viewfinder. i really appreciate your comments and i didnt know that the “se/te” meter still worked properly if slightly overvolt unlike the needle matching meter on the top of the camera. thank you again for your time and comments. the Rabbit. =:3