Rollei A26

I came across one of these cameras for $15 in great condition. As I have a small stash of 126 film, thanks to my daughter gifting me an Olympus Quickmatic EES, I figured I'd try some film in the Rollei. The Olympus still works and has a nice sharp lens.

The Weincell MRB625 battery. What affect does it have on the exposure or does it really matter for most C41 and some B&W film. I don't have much of the 126 film or I would invest in having the meter adjusted for a modern battery. I'm not sure 35mm film will run through the A26 with a recycled film cartridge. It doesn't with the Olympus.

Thanks.

The idea behind Wein cells is that they deliver the same voltage as an original mercury cell, which ought to produce accurate exposures with cameras that call for mercury. Whether the Rollei needs 1.35V, or will expose correctly on 1.5 (alkaline) or 1.55 (silver oxide) is open to question.

It might be worth checking whether one or both of your 126 cameras can operate with unperfed film (as is the case with some of the better 110 variety); if so, you could slit 120 and get strips long enough for 24 exposures with recycled backing paper. If they can, you could block the hole for the feeler finger (glue in a small piece of plastic) and then they'd work with perfed 35mm, as well.

The slit film was a no go for the Olympus Quickmatic EES, but it seems the film advances and you can fire the shutter in the A26. No battery in the A26 but I see the shutter open and close when I click on the shutter button after advancing the film. Something I couldn't do with the Olympus. I have a roll of slit film for testing and an older 126 cartridge that I was careful to open with no breaks or cracks. I'd have to tap the window on the back of the A26 of course.

So, I'm wondering what affect does a 1.5v battery have on the exposure of the A26. If I were to slit 400ISO film vs 100ISO does that make a difference in respect to exposure.

wjlapier said:

So, I'm wondering what affect does a 1.5v battery have on the exposure of the A26. If I were to slit 400ISO film vs 100ISO does that make a difference in respect to exposure.

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Worst case, 1.5V in place of 1.35V will result in some over- or under-exposure (depending on the meter circuit used). If it's a big deal, there are modern replacements -- Wein cells are zinc-air 1.35V cells in physical adapters to replace the flanged cell shape of some of the mercury cells from the 1960s and 1970s. Sometimes you can manage with just a zinc-air hearing aid battery, and there are also some adapters you can buy that have a voltage regulator inside to provide the correct voltage.

BTW, you may not need to cover the framing window in the cartridge if you recycle and old backing paper -- but either way, there's no reason to cover the window in the camera door. As long as either the cartridge or the backing protects the film directly, the cartridge light trap will do so for other sources of leakage, as long as the springs in the door press the cartridge into the body of the camera.

The filmed pulled fine through the camera. A few times the shutter didn't want to fire and it advanced the film when I closed it. Manual says if the light is too low for the meter it won't fire and the film won't advance. Most of the time the shutter fired. This was 220 Fujifilm 400NPH slit down to 35mm. Wein Cell battery. What I don't understand is how the camera knows what cartridge is in it to determine ISO for meter. I have several different cartridges and they look exactly the same.

Camera loaded with Fujifilm Fujicolor 100. I saw some images on Lomagraphy where someone was able to shoot film with sprockets so I figured I'd give it a try.

wjlapier said:

What I don't understand is how the camera knows what cartridge is in it to determine ISO for meter.

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According to Wikipedia, "The top edge of the cartridge above the film gate has a square notch in a specific position corresponding to the speed of the film in the cartridge. Some of the higher-end cameras used this notch to determine the correct exposure, or to set the light meter, if so equipped. Although only film with speeds between ISO 64/19° and ISO 400/27° were ever manufactured in this format, the standard defined 20 different speeds, from ISO 20/14° to ISO 1600/33°."

I don't think the Rollei A26 likes sprocketed film--this was Fujifilm 100. I shot what I though was about 24 pictures. The last 10 or so didn't expose ( I don't think the film was pulled so that images could be exposed ). These were the first shots all overlapping:

The film cartridge I use I'm sure is for 100ISO film and the exposure looks about right. Lens is plenty sharp. I shot almost all of these at infinity.

I'm going to try some slitted 120 Portra 160VC then break into my stash of 126 film.

Every 126 camera I'm aware of uses a little finger to detect the one perforation per frame on 126 film and stop the advance (some also unlock the shutter release only at that point; others never lock it, and can be used with unperforated film and a little testing to know how far to advance, or original backing paper). If you load standard 35mm film, instead of one perf per frame, you have 6+ (probably best to advance by 7). Just like using single perf 16mm film in a 110 camera that depends on the perf finger, you then have to advance to stop, cover the lens, and shoot -- and repeat six or seven times for each actual frame. Of course, if you have backing and a camera that doesn't need the finger to unlock the shutter release, you can disable the finger by one means or another and avance by the backing.

Your A26 looks like it's complicated the situation a little -- it's advancing more than 1/7 of a frame, most of the time, but significantly less than a full frame. It may be that it doesn't extend the finger until near the end of the first advance stroke (assuming it has a lever type advance like the Instamatic 304 my dad had when I was eight or nine). That'll mean you'll have to do the cover lens, shoot, advance again dance, but likely only two advances per frame -- and that will likely get you wide spaced frames, but they won't overlap (if I'm reading the film strip above right).

I saw an image on Lomography that came from an A26 and sprocketed film. It looks about the same as the one above. I'm not too concerned about using sprocketed film in this camera. Slit 120 or 220 does fine, and I do have a large stash of 126 film. Once the 126 film is gone ( gonna take a few years ) I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I was just trying to see if it would pull any film other than 126 through it.

I like it. It's got a great lens. Some heft to it suggesting it's well made--it's pretty solid. And it only cost me $15. DAG says he'll look at it this summer ( if he gets caught up by then ) and maybe modify it to take readily available 1.5v batteries.

Sounds like you have no good reason to care if it can handle standard 4.5mm perf pitch film...

From a 126 cartridge. 1990 Kodak Gold 200.

The nice thing about this camera is if you don't take a photo you can close the camera and it won't advance the film. Only after you push the shutter button will it advance.

The A26 was one of the coolest looking sub-compacts.

wjlapier said:

From a 126 cartridge. 1990 Kodak Gold 200.

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The concrete bridge picture shows the Rollei's potential.