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Rollei SL66

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campy51

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I am thinking about buying a non working SL66 in the hopes of fixing it myself God willing. This wouldn't be the first time I bought a camera that wasn't working as it should and have been pretty lucky so far in fixing any problems it had but I never spent as much as $700 for one. Mostly slow shutter, fungus or haze in lenses and I even bought a Rolleiflex 2.8E with slight lens separation and works absolutely fine. All have been purchased well under going prices and all are working fine. The problem with the SL66 seems to be the common shutter won't fire or cock and the mirror is up. I expect most will say I am a fool to work on it myself and a couple might even say what the problem may be. My over 40 years fixing copiers makes me believe since these are an all mechanical design the problem is probably a stuck lever, a broken spring or hopefully just flushing levers with a good electronic spray.
OK I am ready for my bashing.
 
I would never buy a completely dead camera because there is a very high chance that the amateur before you opened it up and lost a few screws and springs before closing it back and openly tell you: all I know is it needs to be fixed.

Fair game, yeah?

Buying an erratic camera, ok.
Buying a camera with faults but working, ok.
Buying a slouchy camera, ok.
But buying a completely dead camera? No.
 
campy51 said:
I am thinking about buying a non working SL66 in the hopes of fixing it myself God willing. This wouldn't be the first time I bought a camera that wasn't working as it should and have been pretty lucky so far in fixing any problems it had but I never spent as much as $700 for one. Mostly slow shutter, fungus or haze in lenses and I even bought a Rolleiflex 2.8E with slight lens separation and works absolutely fine. All have been purchased well under going prices and all are working fine. The problem with the SL66 seems to be the common shutter won't fire or cock and the mirror is up. I expect most will say I am a fool to work on it myself and a couple might even say what the problem may be. My over 40 years fixing copiers makes me believe since these are an all mechanical design the problem is probably a stuck lever, a broken spring or hopefully just flushing levers with a good electronic spray.
OK I am ready for my bashing.
Click to expand...

$700 for a broken camera, even a really nice broken camera seems like a lot. Especially a really complex hard to fix broken camera with not-so-great parts availability. Why not get a working camera for that price? Lots of professional grade 6x6 and up options at that price: a TLR rolleiflex, Mamiya C330, a bargain on a Hasselblad 500C w/ 150mm lens, bronica S2a, bronica SQ
 
Grim Tuesday said:
$700 for a broken camera, even a really nice broken camera seems like a lot. Especially a really complex hard to fix broken camera with not-so-great parts availability. Why not get a working camera for that price? Lots of professional grade 6x6 and up options at that price: a TLR rolleiflex, Mamiya C330, a bargain on a Hasselblad 500C w/ 150mm lens, bronica S2a, bronica SQ
Click to expand...
I have a 500 C/M, Rolleiflex 2.8E, Bronica EC-TL, Mamiya 6, Kowa Six and Minolta Autocord, but would love an SL66 but I just don't want to put the money out for one because of what I already have.
 
Do you have the service manual? I have had good results with broken stuff if no one has opened it up yet.
 
OK, that is something I would do... although I'm not sure how much I'd spend for a non-working SL66 - depends on it's condition.

However, a local repair tech that has worked on them (Hasselblads, Rollei's, and all sorts of mechanical MF bodies) warned me against one, he said it was the most pain-in-the-ass body to work on. (Mamiya RB's were the easiest) As a result, I have not picked one up yet.

Let us know how it goes, I'd be interested... and may follow your lead!
 
Go for it. @campy51 sounds like a mechanically adept person and this could be a lot fun.

I have fixed a lot of things in my life from Ducati carbs to antique firearms and a few cameras as well.
Right tools, patience and access to information goes a long way :smile:
 
The SL66 is a wonderful machine, but notoriously difficult to work on, with more then 1000 different parts.
Have a look here at its inerts.
http://www.sl66.com/pg/sl66_open.shtml

So far I have only dared to repair 2 non-functioning backs. I did have a peak inside the right side of my SL66 ones. Closed the side very quickly and send it to Jürgen Kuschnik, who unfortunately since past away.
 
Last edited:
itsdoable said:
OK, that is something I would do... although I'm not sure how much I'd spend for a non-working SL66 - depends on it's condition.

However, a local repair tech that has worked on them (Hasselblads, Rollei's, and all sorts of mechanical MF bodies) warned me against one, he said it was the most pain-in-the-ass body to work on. (Mamiya RB's were the easiest) As a result, I have not picked one up yet.

Let us know how it goes, I'd be interested... and may follow your lead!
Click to expand...

naaldvoerder said:
The SL66 is a wonderful machine, but notoriously difficult to work on, with more then 1000 different parts.
Have a look here at its inerts.
http://www.sl66.com/pg/sl66_open.shtml

So far I have only dared to repair 2 non-functioning backs. I did have a peak inside the right side of my SL^^ ones. Closed the side very quickly and send it to Jürgen Kuschnik, who unfortunately since past away.
Click to expand...

The Hasselblad repairman I use also is authorized to repair Rollei SL66 and he recommended the Hasselblad over the SL66 et al.
 
Sirius Glass said:
The Hasselblad repairman I use also is authorized to repair Rollei SL66 and he recommended the Hasselblad over the SL66 et al.
Click to expand...

I guess he would, being a Hasselblad repairman. I also guess a Hasselblad is easier to repair. As a user tool I think the SL66 surpasses a Hasselblad quite handily.
 
Sirius Glass said:
The Hasselblad repairman I use also is authorized to repair Rollei SL66 and he recommended the Hasselblad over the SL66 et al.
Click to expand...
The repair tech I knew was quite frank about all the cameras. He did not like them because they were a pain to work on, it took 3 time longer to service than a 'blad, but you could not charge 3x the price. From a user standpoint, it's a really nice, reliable machine.
 
naaldvoerder said:
The SL66 is a wonderful machine, but notoriously difficult to work on, with more then 1000 different parts.
Have a look here at its inerts.
http://www.sl66.com/pg/sl66_open.shtml

So far I have only dared to repair 2 non-functioning backs. I did have a peak inside the right side of my SL^^ ones. Closed the side very quickly and send it to Jürgen Kuschnik, who unfortunately since past away.
Click to expand...
That does look like a pain. Layer upon layer of gears and levers.
 
Sirius Glass said:
The Hasselblad repairman I use also is authorized to repair Rollei SL66 and he recommended the Hasselblad over the SL66 et al.
Click to expand...

And if he hadn't, you would have found a new repairman. :D
 
$700 seems really high for a broken SL66. I've seen a couple of working ones in decent shape with clean 80mm lenses going for ~US$900 in the past year. They don't come up for sale as often as some other camera in the same class and from the same era, but they also seem to be less in demand. If you are a little patient you should be able to find a nice usable example for < $1,000 rather than one that you have to pray is fixable.

Oh, and as several other have observed, the SL66 is a pain to work on and parts are hard to come by. There's a reason you can find wrecked "for parts" SL66's stripped of anything useful on Ebay every other week.Stripping another copy is often the only way to get required parts – not cheap.

All of that said, I have one and it's a really nice camera, well worth owning!
 
campy51 said:
The camera was sold, so I guess I was saved.
Click to expand...

not :smile: there's one as-is because light leaks says the description, sold by Fotohaus in Basel, and listed also on the huge gringo online listings site, starting bid was 1 franc/euro, one week remaining.

the factory service manual has been floating online freely/legit since a little while, but even for a mechanically seasoned tinkerer, what does what isn't easy to figure out unless you are familiar with clockwork. An excerpt of some part:

rollei_SL66.jpg




sometime when I wanted a focal plane shutter Hasselblad-like SLR, I had to chose between SL66 and Bronica S2, and I opted for the Bronica because the prices for Rollei SL66 and lenses are basically speculative bullshit.
I typically buy two cameras, one for use one for tinkering, but Rollei 2nd-hand prices, nein Danke
 
naaldvoerder said:
I guess he would, being a Hasselblad repairman. I also guess a Hasselblad is easier to repair. As a user tool I think the SL66 surpasses a Hasselblad quite handily.
Click to expand...

He gave a long list of reasons starting with parts availability. He agreed with me that a working SL66 is a wonderful camera with capabilities that the Hasselblad does not have, however he feels that one would be happier in the long run with a Hasselblad.
 
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