Couple questions about my "new"Rolleiflex

[kbrede]

I just received a 3.5E in the mail today.

Two things:

The aperture wheel has no clicks. Is this normal? If so, does that mean intermediate steps can be chosen, like f/4, f/4.8, f/5.6, etc.?

Also there's a red dot next to the lettering "DBGM." What does the red dot signify?

Thanks

 

[henry finley]

No clicks is normal. But don't go between on the shutter speeds.

 

[summicron1]

red dot? if it has a meter, that red dot is exposed when you switch the meter from high-scale to low-light. There's a little switch on the top left of the housing that has the name.

If your camera does not have a meter, then it still has the red dot but no switch and no meter -- just a red dot. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Do you have any idea what leica users pay to have a red dot on their camera?

ok, being silly, but that's why the dot is there. At one point a meter could be retro-fitted.

There's no click stops on the f-stop because if you look on the left (as you are looking down at the top of the camera) wheel to adjust the shutter speeds you see a little race-track shaped thingy. When that is lined up to make a complete circle it locks in with the shutter speeds so yu can change lens/speed without changing the exposure index yu are using. To disconnect, push the center of the little race track thingy in and give it a quarter turn.

f-stops can be set at intermediate settings. Shutter speeds cannot.

 

[Argenticien]

Same with my E; no click-stops. It seems like most cameras/lenses allow intermediate aperture settings. Even with those that have click stops, if you can get the ring to stay where you put it between detents, it often works. (Easy enough to test -- just watch the iris.) I suppose there are probably some click-stopped ones where the blades don't move at all until you get to the next click stop, so half-stops are impossible -- but I can't think of which cameras/lenses do this. Anyway, you'll love the E. Great, great machine. Well worth the expense of a CLA if it needs one. Then load up some ASA 50 film and go at it. Planar or Xenotar?
--Dave

 

[henry finley]

Perhaps I'm missing something here. I'm thinking of the 3.5E, Xenotar 75mm, and selenium meter. THAT model. With the 2 wheels on the front, one of either side of the middle of the top and bottom lens. One wheel is aperture, the wheel on the opposite side being the SS. As far as I ever knew, there was no click on the aperture wheel. Hmm... wonder if I was wrong, or just had a Rollei n bad shape.

 

[kbrede]

Same with my E; no click-stops. It seems like most cameras/lenses allow intermediate aperture settings. Even with those that have click stops, if you can get the ring to stay where you put it between detents, it often works. (Easy enough to test -- just watch the iris.) I suppose there are probably some click-stopped ones where the blades don't move at all until you get to the next click stop, so half-stops are impossible -- but I can't think of which cameras/lenses do this. Anyway, you'll love the E. Great, great machine. Well worth the expense of a CLA if it needs one. Then load up some ASA 50 film and go at it. Planar or Xenotar?
--Dave

Tomorow I'm going to run a roll or two through it. I'm looking forward to it.

I got it from Krimar Photo, so it's been CLAed. It's a Xenotar. It's the first camera I've owned that I kind of have a crush for. I hope I still feel the same after shooting it.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Kenton- you'll love it even more after you shoot with it. Might take a couple of rolls to get the feel for using it, but it's an awesome camera when applied properly. Just don't use it for action or wildlife and you'll be eternally happy. I like mine so much I got a second as a backup and/or shooting two media at once (b/w and color).

 

[Argenticien]

I got it from Krimar Photo, so it's been CLAed. It's a Xenotar. It's the first camera I've owned that I kind of have a crush for. I hope I still feel the same after shooting it.

You will still feel the same, or more so. The only thing I buggered up on early forays with mine was forgetting to run the film leader under the appropriate roller to make the auto-sensing film advance work. If you make that mistake, the film will wind on forever instead of stopping at frame 1 ready to go. That's totally my user error due to coming from 35 mm and from other medium format where you line up arrows or use ruby windows. Anyway, I find that the Rolleiflex feels right, and has appropriate rendering (with the Planar anyway) for street/post-industrial scenes, textures and geometric forms, and the like, although there are plenty of people out there making portraits with them, which they were also intended for.

I concur with TheFlyingCamera; it's not good for action, wildlife, chasing spastic small children, etc. Skip the various kludge add-ons that were gamely offered over the years to try to surmount these limitations. Those things have become expensive due to collector interest; you'll do better to use more appropriate cameras that you already have, for other situations (RF for very low light, SLRs for long tele work, etc.).

--Dave

 

[dpurdy]

In case you were curious, my FX has clicks on the stop and half stop on the aperture and it has clicks on the shutter speeds. Earlier Rolleis, not sure when it ended but, had intermediate shutter speeds as well. I would prefer not to have the clicks on the fstops but I like them on the shutter dial.
Dennis