Can anyone tell me the signigicance of "flex", e.g. Rolleiflex, "mat", e.g. Yashica Mat and "cord" as in Rolleicord and Autocord (is that a Rollei too?).
Thanks,
Barry
Thanks,
Barry
Flex, Mat and Cord
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Flex comes from reflex. That refers to the mirror in the camera, which sends the light from the lens to the focusing screen. Some cameras are Single Lens Reflex (most 35mm, hasselblads, bronicas, etc..) others are Twin Lens Reflex (all the ones you mentioned.
SLRs send use the same lens to compose/focus and to shoot the image. (hence the single-lens reflex)
TLRs use one lens to focus/compose and another to shoot the image (hence the twin-lens-reflex)
As for the cord, I'm afraid I can't help you there.
SLRs send use the same lens to compose/focus and to shoot the image. (hence the single-lens reflex)
TLRs use one lens to focus/compose and another to shoot the image (hence the twin-lens-reflex)
As for the cord, I'm afraid I can't help you there.
Thanks Andre,
I knew about the flex in SLRs but Rolleis and Bronicas don't have mirrors that flip out of the way do they? That is what seems confusing to me.
Barry
I knew about the flex in SLRs but Rolleis and Bronicas don't have mirrors that flip out of the way do they? That is what seems confusing to me.
Barry
I am pretty sure 'mat' refers to Automatic, in the case of the Yashicamat frame spacing and shutter cocking. No clue on 'cord'.
I have to check my Parker TLR collector book - the word "Cord" was an idea by one of Franke or Heideke's wives if I recall.
From Parker:
Wilhelmine Heideke suggested cord. "Co" from Cop (Rolleiscop, Heidescop cameras), "R" from Reinhold (her husband), "D" from Deco
Wilhelmine Heideke suggested cord. "Co" from Cop (Rolleiscop, Heidescop cameras), "R" from Reinhold (her husband), "D" from Deco
Barry Dale Currence said:
Barry, I'll make it simple and easy for you.
Rolleiflex, still makes the best camera in the world. Rolleicords were the "cheaper" versions of the flexs, (both made by Franke & Heideke) with not as top notch lenses, or other features.
Yashica-Mats are no where near as well made, lenses and mechanicals are junk.
Autocords were made by Minolta as their particular attempt to copy the Rolleis. More junk.
If it's not medium format Rolleiflex, or Rolleicord, it's junk. Period. Not that I'm a 6x6 shooter only. 35mm keeps going in my Contax G with Zeiss lenses.
It IS true, that if it's not Zeiss, it's crap.
Rolleijoe.
yes, compared to Yashica, Zeiss equipment is the best. But, this is not the forum to argue about any other camera's or related equipment
Rolleijoe said:
I like the 'flex, and Zeiss lenses, but I do believe that the Xenotar on my 2.8E blows the Planar away.
aren't the Contax G and its lenses made in Japan by Yashica?
Your brain was not made by Zeiss. Does that mean that it's crap?
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Dear Rolleijoe,
Come on! To borrow your somewhat direct approach, if you want a well-made camera, don't mess around with cheap little Rolleis -- buy an Alpa. Then try to find the 38/4.5 Biogon for it.
(I hope this is taken in the spirit in which it is intended, i.e. light-hearted, but you never can tell with the internet).
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
Come on! To borrow your somewhat direct approach, if you want a well-made camera, don't mess around with cheap little Rolleis -- buy an Alpa. Then try to find the 38/4.5 Biogon for it.
(I hope this is taken in the spirit in which it is intended, i.e. light-hearted, but you never can tell with the internet).
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
Would that be the Alpaflex, Alpacord, or Alpamat?
Rolleijoe said:
What about Schneider lenses on Rolleis? And does the closing comment apply to Jena, Oberkochen, or both? What about Arsenal products built with Zeiss tooling under supervision of involuntarily expatriate Zeiss engineers?
I had thought until recently that Zeiss Planars on Rolleiflex cameras were better than their Schneider Xenotar counterparts, but I was recently proved wrong when I looked at chromes side by side on a lightbox. The Xenotar is *at least* the equal and may in fact be better. I own both and would grab either out of bag.
Regarding Yashica TLR's, I've owned a few. When I was a teenager I took apart a Yashica LM that wasn't working, thinking I'd be able to figure out how to reassemble it. LOL. Yeah, right. A friend just came back from a visit to Italy. He'd asked me to find him a TLR for the trip to try out. I helped him buy a nice little Yashica TLR from Cameta, and his color neg images were really pretty. Okay, not as sharp as Rolleiflex or Hasselblad images, but very nice for $125.
As for lenses on Rolleicords, I've shot them enough to know that they're noticeably inferior until they're stopped down considerably, and even then they're not as sharp. I own an old Rolleicord I keep for sentimental reasons, but I'll grab any other camera before that one.
Neal
Regarding Yashica TLR's, I've owned a few. When I was a teenager I took apart a Yashica LM that wasn't working, thinking I'd be able to figure out how to reassemble it. LOL. Yeah, right. A friend just came back from a visit to Italy. He'd asked me to find him a TLR for the trip to try out. I helped him buy a nice little Yashica TLR from Cameta, and his color neg images were really pretty. Okay, not as sharp as Rolleiflex or Hasselblad images, but very nice for $125.
As for lenses on Rolleicords, I've shot them enough to know that they're noticeably inferior until they're stopped down considerably, and even then they're not as sharp. I own an old Rolleicord I keep for sentimental reasons, but I'll grab any other camera before that one.
Neal
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Junk is in the mind of the elitist...
Spoken like a true elitist. Mac versus Intel anyone????
Yashicamat 124/G is is not junk. We have had many debates on this, and the optics stack up quite well. For most shooting there is no discernable difference. Neither the Rollei or Yashica is good for taking pictures of the hairs on a fly's pecker. Get a Hassy or Mamiya with extension macros of that....
Want to gripe about junk? Go fly a Seagull!!!
Rolleijoe said:
Spoken like a true elitist. Mac versus Intel anyone????
Yashicamat 124/G is is not junk. We have had many debates on this, and the optics stack up quite well. For most shooting there is no discernable difference. Neither the Rollei or Yashica is good for taking pictures of the hairs on a fly's pecker. Get a Hassy or Mamiya with extension macros of that....
Want to gripe about junk? Go fly a Seagull!!!
Rolleijoe said:
Shouldn't that be, "If it's not Zeiss, then it's Scheiss?"
The Xenotar on my 1956 Rolleiflex 2.8E is at least the equal of the Planar on my SL66. Its probably the sharpest lens I own in medium format.
Rolleijoe said:
I own (and use) both , Rollei and Yashica and this embarrassing mental diarrhoea above tells me you don't know at all what you are talking about.
Worse, it excludes that you have any clue of photography at all, you live on hearsay only.
What guys like you never learn is that their big mouthed "all crap if not.." statements tell us much more about themselves than about the facts. Go and get yourself another bottle.
Prost,
Bertram
Dear Bertram,
A friend of mine shot a 32-sheet poster on an Autocord. I forget what the campaign was -- it was 30+ years ago -- but it certainly argues that the cameras weren't 'crap'. I assumed Rolleijoe was joking (hence my Alpa post). Presumably if he wasn't joking he'd have said so by now.
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
A friend of mine shot a 32-sheet poster on an Autocord. I forget what the campaign was -- it was 30+ years ago -- but it certainly argues that the cameras weren't 'crap'. I assumed Rolleijoe was joking (hence my Alpa post). Presumably if he wasn't joking he'd have said so by now.
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
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Grunthos said:
Mine is a also a Vb with a Xenar 75 f3.5. It's always been a little soft. If you say yours is sharp, maybe there's something wrong with mine.
N
Xenars may be somewhat soft in the corners when used wide open but it should be sharp in the centre, otherwise something's amiss. By f8 the corner softness should be gone, at least by my standards. The Cords (only TLRs I have any experience of, having had 5 or 6 of them!) are a bit front heavy and quite a few of the ones I've seen have had dings and dents on the lens panel, mostly on the underside. A blow to the lens panel can get the optics out of whack. If the lens panel doesn't go all the way in, it may have a problem, but the interior parts not always affected. You have to check for yourself, on the negatives. Small defects may not show up unless you shoot wide open and do a big enlargment. The optics can be calibrated by screws hidden under the leather around the lenses, not a recommended job if you feel all thumbs! 
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