Rollei Magic- fixable?

[Dan Daniel]

Wondering if anyone here has worked on a Rollei Magic. The first version, not the Rollei Magic II. Someone has offered me a disassembled Magic along with a bag of unknown parts and a parts camera. Wondering what the chance is of ever getting one of these work.

I know that the selenium cell in the meter is one concern. Assume that the cell is good- any thoughts on if it would be worthwhile to spend a day digging into one, or, to paraphrase the William James story about the world sitting on the back of a turtle, is it turtles all the way down for these cameras?

 

[BrianShaw]

How much is your time worth? Are you a bit bored and looking for a real challenge?

I’d be willing to put about 59 minutes into an assessment of what parts are there and what might not be there. But after that I’d probably quit.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Not very hopeful, eh, Brian?

My gut instinct is to put the time into a Rolleicord and end up with a better camera that won't fall apart if looked at wrong.

 

[BrianShaw]

Nope. At one point in my life I was more interested in obscure challenges but that was a long time ago and many failures ago. I've been more interested in success for the past few decades. Been there; done that too many times with old clocks. In fact, I still have one, a late-19th century kitchen clock, in a box that someone took apart the case so I have about 100 little pieces of wood, some stripped and some not, along with a movement that is missing a few key pieces. I suppose it's all fixable. One of these days...

As you well know, there is no way to know what was really wrong in the first place. That for me is the non-starter.

 

[ic-racer]

The only way you will get that back together is to buy a working one and disassemble that one, so see how it goes back together. Then you have two cameras to re-assemble. Essentially it is good only for parts if it is not all together.

 

[BrianShaw]

The only way you will get that back together is to buy a working one and disassemble that one, so see how it goes back together. Then you have two cameras to re-assemble. Essentially it is good only for parts if it is not all together.

Alternatively, or supplementary perhaps, some folks can figure out things like this from documentation:

https://www.suaudeau.eu/memo/manuels_rep/mf/Rolleiflex/Rolleimagic.pdf

 

[gone]

I would think you may be buying trouble, even if it's free. You could easily put a lot of time and effort into it, only to discover that a vital spring or screw has flown the coop.

If the camera has issues w/ the meter cell, that might be the death knell. There's no user operated shutter controls other than B and 1/30 I believe. Like most auto exposure cameras, they become auto disposable cameras when they break.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Thanks for the comments. I think that my 'gee let's spend a day studying this weird collection of parts and see if I can get it to work' days may be behind me, also, Brian. And I needed to be reminded about the importance of having a working camera in hand. I may take the box and reassemble the exterior as a paperweight, but not much more.

 

[choiliefan]

If the selenium cell is good and all the parts there, you should have a nice Magic. Years ago when I bought mine, it came with the Rolleiflex WFL with the integral mirror and eyepiece for the sport finder.
Rollei-Magic was ahead of its time with the no-snag side toggles for the film spools and the ability for the AE system to automatically compensate for the exposure factors of the bay 2 filters.