Hood for a Rolleiflex 2.8A Quandary - Bayonet II or...?

I've been trying to find a hood for my Rolleiflex 2.8A. The authentic ones from the 1950's, when available used are pretty expensive, so I bought an aftermarket Bay II hood (these are made in China and are commonly sold on eBay). This hood arrived and appears to have the correct outer diameter for the outer bayonet flange on my camera, but it will not engage because the trio of curved slots milled into the hood diameter are shorter in arc length than the mating flange pieces on the lens. My question is: Is there more than one Bayonet II "standard". I know for instance, that Bayonet II size is also the specified as the proper hood size for certain later era F3.5 Rolleiflex models (like the 3.5F if I'm not mistaken). I believe most Bayonet II accessories are also marketed for these later Rolleiflexes cameras as well (the 2.8A is sort of an orphaned camera, but I just love it!). I do own a few Bay II filters (AKA B36) that fit my 2.8A fine. All of this is pretty strange!

By the way, the aftermarket Chinese hood is not a low quality item, it is made of metal, has a nice paint job, and otherwise well made. I own another Chinese metal Bayonet III hood which I use very successfully on my Rolleiflex 2.8C, so I do not think this is likely to be a manufacturing fault. I may be able to file out the slots one the hood to enlarge them - sort of a cheesy fix though (or better yet, mill them out if I can find access to a milling machine).

I have the Rolleiflex 2.8A. The hood for it is unique to that model and will not fit on later models. It took me a long time to locate one on eBay. Bay II hoods for later models will not mount on the 2.8A. Bay II accessories like filters will fit. As for Bay II lens caps there are two versions - long and short for late and early models.

The 2.8A bayonet is rotated 180 degrees from later Bay II bayonets. Get out the file.

For my 3.5F I need Rollei B II hood with “outer bayonet”. The same kind of hood but in BI I need for Baby Rolleiflex.
Nobody I asked so far was able to tell me “proper” naming of those different hoods types.

On the left : Rollei BI, on the right Rollei BII.
Maybe you need BII hood with “outer bayonet”. Does Rollei BII “straight” exist at all??

Bay II hood for Rolleiflex 2.8A

I bought a Bay II to 43mm adapter for my 2.8F. It was cheap, cheaper than a Rollei filter. The 43mm filter (and adapter) is the same outer diameter of the lens so you don't even notice the adapter.

beemermark said:

I bought a Bay II to 43mm adapter for my 2.8F. It was cheap, cheaper than a Rollei filter. The 43mm filter (and adapter) is the same outer diameter of the lens so you don't even notice the adapter.

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That’s the best solution for hard to find sizes. I used a Bay IV to 49mm adapter before finding the hood for my Rolleiwide.

You can see in Rayt's photos that the outer tabs that the metal hoods use are aligned with the inner openings for a filter. Effectively rotated 180 degrees from a later Bay II design.

Rayt, could you post a photo of the back? It might let the OP (and others) know if a later hood can be hacked to work. I seem to remember that I was able to rotate a later hood backwards, but it was not stable. Been a while since I had an A, and I was lucky enough to locate a correct hood after some time.

Two types of Bay II hoods

I don’t see how the later hood can be modded because the lip of the hood comes in contact with the rim of the viewing lens so can’t be mounted. it isn‘t like it mounts but off by some degrees.

beemermark said:

I bought a Bay II to 43mm adapter for my 2.8F. It was cheap, cheaper than a Rollei filter. The 43mm filter (and adapter) is the same outer diameter of the lens so you don't even notice the adapter.

Click to expand...

Rayt said:

That’s the best solution for hard to find sizes. I used a Bay IV to 49mm adapter before finding the hood for my Rolleiwide.

Click to expand...

Yes, the adapter uses the inner filter bayonet. You can buy one cheap, works well while you hunt for the Holy Grail Rollei hood. No need to butcher a later Rollei hood.

Thanks for all those who posted. Rayt your post with the photos of the two types of Bay-II hoods tells me all I need to know, and also what I suspected. There is more than one "Bay-II" !

I also won't be able to modify my hood, at least not without some careful machining, but that's not even an assured solution. Other than not engaging the bayonet lugs, I now see that the outer hood diameter is too thick. This causes an interference with the viewing lens flange and the iris/shutter control wheels (as some of you realized).

Yes maybe an inner Bay-II to some standard filter thread might lead to a solution, but I will still need to locate an appropriate hood for that - probably not a big deal.

Plan on using a circular hood.

Blocking a small section of the viewing lens has almost no effect on the focus screen image, and the benefits of a hood far outweigh any viewing lens effect.

beemermark said:

I bought a Bay II to 43mm adapter for my 2.8F. It was cheap, cheaper than a Rollei filter. The 43mm filter (and adapter) is the same outer diameter of the lens so you don't even notice the adapter.

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Where did you find this adapter? All I can find are Bay II to 39mm...

You may be able to find an original -- I did -- by looking carefully at the photo images in ads selling Rolleiflex hoods. The correct hood for a 2.8A is marked "34" followed by a "0" with a slash through it to indicate diameter on the "bottom" side of the hood -- the Rollei logo is usually on the "top" side of Rollei hoods. I found this info several years ago in a post by "flstutterheim" on photo.net, to give credit where credit is due -- here's the URL: https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/223937-need-a-rollei-lens-hood/

Trask said:

You may be able to find an original -- I did -- by looking carefully at the photo images in ads selling Rolleiflex hoods. The correct hood for a 2.8A is marked "34" followed by a "0" with a slash through it to indicate diameter on the "bottom" side of the hood -- the Rollei logo is usually on the "top" side of Rollei hoods.

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This hood is marked "34⌀" on the same side as the Rollei logo and looks like the correct one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/304130687953

Trask said:

You may be able to find an original -- I did -- by looking carefully at the photo images in ads selling Rolleiflex hoods. The correct hood for a 2.8A is marked "34" followed by a "0" with a slash through it to indicate diameter on the "bottom" side of the hood -- the Rollei logo is usually on the "top" side of Rollei hoods. I found this info several years ago in a post by "flstutterheim" on photo.net, to give credit where credit is due -- here's the URL: https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/223937-need-a-rollei-lens-hood/

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This is in fact exactly what I did (before reading this post). I saw such a hood, at a moderate price, and bought it, figuring it was probably for the 2.8A and taking a chance. It works perfectly!