Rollei SL35 SLR, any users out there?

[skorpiius]

You bought it for the lenses but you want to get rid of them? Were they no good?

No I didn't buy it, the body and lenses were given to me by my aunt who was cleaning out old stuff of my late grandparents.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

No I didn't buy it, the body and lenses were given to me by my aunt who was cleaning out old stuff of my late grandparents.

I'm a huge Rollei camera and Zeiss lens fan: numerous Rolleiflex TLRs, an SL66 set up, a Contax G2 and Zeiss lenses, and a few Contax SLR bodies and a nice set of Zeiss lenses. As a result I've always been very intrigued by the Rollei SLRs but from what I read it was one of their weaker moments in history at least for the bodies. Still the lenses and their formulas are legendary and it intrigues me. If I were you I'd either: 1. Find a working Rollei SLR body and have some fun with those lenses, or, 2. Sell the set to me cheaply and I'll do it.

 

[skorpiius]

I'm a huge Rollei camera and Zeiss lens fan: numerous Rolleiflex TLRs, an SL66 set up, a Contax G2 and Zeiss lenses, and a few Contax SLR bodies and a nice set of Zeiss lenses. As a result I've always been very intrigued by the Rollei SLRs but from what I read it was one of their weaker moments in history at least for the bodies. Still the lenses and their formulas are legendary and it intrigues me. If I were you I'd either: 1. Find a working Rollei SLR body and have some fun with those lenses, or, 2. Sell the set to me cheaply and I'll do it.

Stay tuned

And yes my impression too is that the lenses are epic, but the bodies range from decent to problematic. I actually think the SL35 was supposed to be one of the most reliable ones in the series, but apparently not mine.

 

[GarageBoy]

Sl35 is reliable, if fragile - that is, don't go nuts on the film advance, I've seen two with destroyed winding mechanisms

 

[skorpiius]

Sl35 is reliable, if fragile - that is, don't go nuts on the film advance, I've seen two with destroyed winding mechanisms

Sounds like you just diagnosed mine then. It won't wind.

 

[Sirius Glass]

So, the advice is the camera is great as long as it is not used?

 

[flavio81]

My collector friend has the SL35M and, being used to Canon F1 and Nikon F2, i would never ever consider using such a yucky yuck piece of equipment. It does not deserve the Rollei name, to be honest. Even the plastic Nikon and Canon cameras (i.e. Nikon FG, Canon T70) feel more solid.

Rolleinars were made by Mamiya, which is a very good manufacturer of lenses.

If you want to use Carl Zeiss lenses go Contax RTS (C/Y) mount, so you can enjoy japanese-made Zeiss lenses.

 

[aoresteen]

In 1977 I worked briefly for a camera store in the mid-west. We sold everything from 35's to 4x5 and sold a lot of Hasselblad equipment. We would take almost anything in on trade. One item on the DO NOT TAKE list was any Rollei 35mm SLRs. They always had problems. Heck, I could take a Miranda in on trade but not the Rollei SL35. And I avoid them to this day.

 

[skorpiius]

6 months later, I did indeed find another SL35 locally for $50. It isn't perfect, when you open the rear door the frame counter might only jump back a few numbers if it all, to get it back to zero I have to wack that side of the camera with a wooden dowel about 20 times with the rewind crank extended . Also today I ran a roll of film through it and the mirror stuck open at frame 22. I've since read that can happen if you don't advance the frame completely each time. Anyway I decided 22 test shots were enough and after some firm but not excessive pressure on the film advance crank the mirror dropped back down and it seems to be back in business. I also realized that the 50mm 1.8 xenon lens is missing its stop down pin! Luckily it's by far the cheapest of the 3 lenses. I tested the two seemingly working lenses with about 9 pics each, and then a few on the broken 50mm, at 1.8 for every picture of course just to see if the optics are at least working. It's hard to tell with these older cameras without diopter adjustment for my bad eyesight.

 

[Fixcinater]

That Xenon is still worth a good bit. More than the Planar of the same specifications, probably due to scarcity.