Rewinding film on Rollei 35

Hi guys, I bought a 35 a few months ago and ran through my first film. Unfortunately I wasn't able to rewind the film and ended up cutting it out. Threads on similar problem suggested to not force the rewind.

So today I decided to do a little investigating and playing around with my ruined film to see how exactly the loading/rewinding works. Loading the film is fine. I can see how the loading and film advance works now with the back plate off. However, I'm not able to rewind the film. I've switched the rewind lever upwards, but the spool cannot be rotated in the opposite direction.

Is the spool supposed to be able to rotate freely when the rewind lever is in the upward position (with no film loaded/back plate off)?

Also, say I shot the last frame (24). Am I supposed to do the rewind with the lens still protruding outwards?

Thanks guys!

I had a problem with my Rollei 35 tearing the film when I tried to rewind it - I was able to solve it with a little maintenance of the take-up spool. I wrote up the procedure here.

When you flip the rewind lever upward (back on or off, lens extended or collapsed, shutter tensioned or not), the sprocket wheel should turn freely.


If the small lever next to the viewfinder does not allow the sprocket wheel to turn freely, then it is possible that the post is installed incorrectly.

Usually, this means that you have to remove the retaiing screw and the lever and rotate the post 180 degrees and replace the level. Test it before replacing the retaining screw.

I cannot say with certainty that this is the problem with your camera. I just offer this as a possibility.

If the camera has never been serviced, then it might be something else.

For what it's worth, make sure you push the little release button in as far as it will go and hold it there the whole time you're rewinding.

Thanks guys, especially your post 02Pilot. It looks like I need to lubricate the spool.
The outer spool actually does rotate against the inner shaft when the rewind lever is up. It just takes a huge amount of force to do so.

What kind of light oil/lubricate would you recommend?

I used Breakfree CLP, which is a lightweight firearms lubricant. I'm sure there are many other possible choices that would be suitable as well. What you should not use are any sort of 3-in-1 oil or WD-40; both will just make things worse. The stuff I used should be available online in small bottles inexpensively.