Rollei 35 S Sonnar 2.8 repairs

Hi all,

I managed to snatch a chrome Rollei 35 S Sonnar 2.8 and an Olympus XA 1 for 17$ at a local flee-market last week.
The Rollei had a screw (not from the camera itself) stuck in its shutter mechanism, I managed to take it off and it worked flawlessly!

The state is quite good with minor dents. But the advance lever is in a quite bad condition. Should I buy a replacement lever (~10$) for it just to make it 98% perfect?

My oly xa 1 has a working light meter for the release mechanism, but the rangefinders light-meter is dead .

I havent developed the test rolls on them yet, what should I expect?

I cannot speak for the Olympus, but I can for the Rollei. I bought mine in the early 80's and it has been used extensively. The photos it takes are wonderful. I traveled for a living and shot mostly slides with it, and on the screen they just popped. I have not seen another camera that could do much better than the Rollei at any price. Mine also has the 2.8 Sonnar lens. Over the years I have had to clean the timing gears in it from time to time. It is easy to take off the top and clean the mechanism. You can tell when they need this when the slow speeds start to stick, start over, stick again. Other than that, nothing else has failed. As far as the lever goes, I would just leave it alone unless it is rubbing the camera.

Great finds!!

I realize it's just cosmetic, but the Rollei is such a good performer that I would invest the $10 for a new lever.