Rolleiflex Hy6...One of the last medium format cameras in production

[ic-racer]

 

[ic-racer]

 

[Pieter12]

Nice photos. All with the 80mmAF?

 

[ic-racer]

The ice pictures are 80mmAFD and the distant photos are with the 50mm/2.8 AFD.

 

[Eric Hiss]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

These are my most recent prints. They are on Ilford MG FB.

View attachment 294960

 

[leicaboss]

I definitely regret coming back to this thread and will once again unsubscribe. I suggest anyone interested in the Rolleiflex SLR system to ignore it as well. Just one big FUD fest at this point which forum posts tend to be. I'll remember to deal some of my equipment vendors that I'm buying my next piece of lab gear in escrow and getting lawyers involved...I'm sure that'll go over well!

Here are some images I made with the amazing 180mm 2.8 PQ on RDP100. If I recall correctly I just used aperture program and shot away. The camera tends to nail exposures on chrome even in difficult lighting. The Schneider lenses are IMHO the reason to get into a 600x or Hy6 camera.

View attachment 293177 View attachment 293178

These are some amazing samples.

 

[victorsd]

Hello,

Sharing some of pictures taken during the recent trip to Mexico, Yucatan. City of Merida. December 2021.
Rolleiflex hy6 mod2 with AF-Xenotar 2.8/80 and Sinar eMotion 75LV back,

 

[victorsd]

Cathedral of Merida

 

[victorsd]

Museo Casa Montejo, Rolleiflex hy6 mod2 with AF-Xenotar 2.8/80

 

[victorsd]

Convento de San Antonio, Izamal, Mexico
Rolleiflex hy6 mod2 with AF-Xenotar 2.8/80

 

[ic-racer]

Thank you for sharing the images.

 

[LeoAokma]

Has anyone ever encountered film back communication failures? I'm living in New England and I found that as the temperature goes lower, the film back sometimes is not responding to the shutter. After a shutter release, the film back won't forward. If I put the bar all the way down, the camera cannot recognize the back, no "darkslide closed" warning on the side screen and there's no shutter counter on the status bar. I bought hy6 mod 2 last summer. I have both new 4560 and 6060 and they all appear to have the same problem. Usually it only happens under 35 degrees F. For 6060 back it just stop responding. But for 4560 back, it can surprisingly work in vertical mode (but not working in horizontal way). Any solutions?

 

[Pieter12]

Has anyone ever encountered film back communication failures? I'm living in New England and I found that as the temperature goes lower, the film back sometimes is not responding to the shutter. After a shutter release, the film back won't forward. If I put the bar all the way down, the camera cannot recognize the back, no "darkslide closed" warning on the side screen and there's no shutter counter on the status bar. I bought hy6 mod 2 last summer. I have both new 4560 and 6060 and they all appear to have the same problem. Usually it only happens under 35 degrees F. For 6060 back it just stop responding. But for 4560 back, it can surprisingly work in vertical mode (but not working in horizontal way). Any solutions?

Try replacing the batteries in the back with fresh (preferably silver oxide) batteries. Also make sure your camera battery has a good charge.

 

[ic-racer]

Yes replace those batteries in the back. I have already replaced mine at least once.

 

[LeoAokma]

Try replacing the batteries in the back with fresh (preferably silver oxide) batteries. Also make sure your camera battery has a good charge.

Thank you for the advice. I searched for the difference of silver oxide and lithium. The silver one can have a better low-temp performance. But then I found when the problem occured, if I apply a force to the back to make it hold firmly to the camera, the communication can go through...

 

[Pieter12]

I don’t know if there are lithium batteries that would fit and be the proper voltage. If you need to push the back against the body, it might not be fitted properly. Try removing and replacing the back, making sure there are no gaps and it is seated well.

 

[Anaxagore]

Thank you for the advice. I searched for the difference of silver oxide and lithium. The silver one can have a better low-temp performance. But then I found when the problem occurred, if I apply a force to the back to make it hold firmly to the camera, the communication can go through...

Strange coincidence.. I have a similar problem with the rotating adapter for the Sinar eMotion series. When in landscape mode, there is no problem, everything works fine (with the limitations of these backs, that is a date that has to be set up when starting to use it and that cannot go past 2017..). Nevertheless, in portrait mode, without touching the back, the contact with the body fails somewhere and the body shows the usual greyed out sensor speed… but I can temporarily fix that by kind of applying a torque on the back- not only pushing on it towards the body at the “top” but also slightly pulling on it at the “bottom” (top and bottom in quotation marks as they are the rotated sides..).
Whether that comes from rotating adapter or body, no way to know, as the adapter was made by Sinar and Sinar does not care anymore about past customers…

 

[Pieter12]

Strange coincidence.. I have a similar problem with the rotating adapter for the Sinar eMotion series. When in landscape mode, there is no problem, everything works fine (with the limitations of these backs, that is a date that has to be set up when starting to use it and that cannot go past 2017..). Nevertheless, in portrait mode, without touching the back, the contact with the body fails somewhere and the body shows the usual greyed out sensor speed… but I can temporarily fix that by kind of applying a torque on the back- not only pushing on it towards the body at the “top” but also slightly pulling on it at the “bottom” (top and bottom in quotation marks as they are the rotated sides..).
Whether that comes from rotating adapter or body, no way to know, as the adapter was made by Sinar and Sinar does not care anymore about past customers…

Service for the Hy6, Leaf and Sinar variants is close to impossible today. What is left of the factory does not seem to have many parts or technicians in Germany. In the US, Key Camera will do service but if they need parts, they don't have any way to get them except from the factory--which can be iffy at best. And of course, Leaf is gone and Sinar is no longer in the medium format digital back business.

 

[LeoAokma]

Strange coincidence.. I have a similar problem with the rotating adapter for the Sinar eMotion series. When in landscape mode, there is no problem, everything works fine (with the limitations of these backs, that is a date that has to be set up when starting to use it and that cannot go past 2017..). Nevertheless, in portrait mode, without touching the back, the contact with the body fails somewhere and the body shows the usual greyed out sensor speed… but I can temporarily fix that by kind of applying a torque on the back- not only pushing on it towards the body at the “top” but also slightly pulling on it at the “bottom” (top and bottom in quotation marks as they are the rotated sides..).
Whether that comes from rotating adapter or body, no way to know, as the adapter was made by Sinar and Sinar does not care anymore about past customers…

Applying force to the back also works for me, temporarily...
I asked around during these days. I got a Chinese friend who used to be one staff in the Rollei repairing center in China. He told me that these problem happened frequently. They told me it's cheap and easy to get these cameras fixed in China, but I'm too busy to go there in person and I don't trust the shipping (custom problem). Then I tried to figure this out by myself. So I tore the contact plate on the back of the camera apart. I found that these coper panels is actually a part of an individual part, rather than welded to the PCB on the body. So basically there's two coper-contact connection for the communication to go through. This is not a reliable design. They can easily detach under vibrations or temperature changes.
But after I put it back in place, the problem just solved somehow... I don't know why it suddenly worked but it turns out till now it's still working (for 40 rolls). The only possible reason that came to me was the temperature change from summer to winter (usually from 85F to 40F in CT). The coper contact get shrinked in winter (very tiny amount), causing contact problems (which is supported by what I observed, worse contact in winter lower than the freezing point). So when I tore it apart in winter, reset the position of the contact, it would work normally.

 

[buildbot]

Applying force to the back also works for me, temporarily...
I asked around during these days. I got a Chinese friend who used to be one staff in the Rollei repairing center in China. He told me that these problem happened frequently. They told me it's cheap and easy to get these cameras fixed in China, but I'm too busy to go there in person and I don't trust the shipping (custom problem). Then I tried to figure this out by myself. So I tore the contact plate on the back of the camera apart. I found that these coper panels is actually a part of an individual part, rather than welded to the PCB on the body. So basically there's two coper-contact connection for the communication to go through. This is not a reliable design. They can easily detach under vibrations or temperature changes.
But after I put it back in place, the problem just solved somehow... I don't know why it suddenly worked but it turns out till now it's still working (for 40 rolls). The only possible reason that came to me was the temperature change from summer to winter (usually from 85F to 40F in CT). The coper contact get shrinked in winter (very tiny amount), causing contact problems (which is supported by what I observed, worse contact in winter lower than the freezing point). So when I tore it apart in winter, reset the position of the contact, it would work normally.

I also have this issue!!! I sent my Hy6 mod 2/1 into the factory, they could not replicate the issue and sent it back, it took from early March to yesterday to get back to me. It still won’t work with my 6060 and Sinar emotion backs

 

[LeoAokma]

I also have this issue!!! I sent my Hy6 mod 2/1 into the factory, they could not replicate the issue and sent it back, it took from early March to yesterday to get back to me. It still won’t work with my 6060 and Sinar emotion backs

The Germany factory is taking too much time.... Maybe you can try to unscrew four little screws on the back of the body, and re-install that contact panel. I don't know whether this can be reproduced. At least for now I never encounter the problem.... But the stripe-shape light leak and auto-focus failure (off focus and fail to move the lens elements) is still a big problem

 

[Pieter12]

The Germany factory is taking too much time.... Maybe you can try to unscrew four little screws on the back of the body, and re-install that contact panel. I don't know whether this can be reproduced. At least for now I never encounter the problem.... But the stripe-shape light leak and auto-focus failure (off focus and fail to move the lens elements) is still a big problem

The factory in Germany has very few employees and things can take a long time. I prefer to send my Hy6/6008 repair work to Key Camera in Colorado. when he can get parts, he seems to be able to turn around jobs faster than Braunschweig. Still, Dave runs a small shop and things can get hung up there, too.

As far as your other issues go, the lens elements not turning sounds like a broken AF ring to me. I have had 2 80mm AFD lenses repaired for that problem. Also, what kind of light leak are you getting from the film back? Since day one, the new back I purchased has been problematic, both with light leaks and frame spacing. The back was returned to the factory for repair (I should have insisted on a new replacement!) but has never performed consistently well. I thought the spacing might be caused by the film inserts--of which I now somehow have 4 and all have been serviced--but I always wonder if a roll will come out as expected or with overlapping frames or light leaks. The camera is a joy when everything works. But unfortunately, I have become hesitant about what I'll get.

 

[LeoAokma]

The factory in Germany has very few employees and things can take a long time. I prefer to send my Hy6/6008 repair work to Key Camera in Colorado. when he can get parts, he seems to be able to turn around jobs faster than Braunschweig. Still, Dave runs a small shop and things can get hung up there, too.

As far as your other issues go, the lens elements not turning sounds like a broken AF ring to me. I have had 2 80mm AFD lenses repaired for that problem. Also, what kind of light leak are you getting from the film back? Since day one, the new back I purchased has been problematic, both with light leaks and frame spacing. The back was returned to the factory for repair (I should have insisted on a new replacement!) but has never performed consistently well. I thought the spacing might be caused by the film inserts--of which I now somehow have 4 and all have been serviced--but I always wonder if a roll will come out as expected or with overlapping frames or light leaks. The camera is a joy when everything works. But unfortunately, I have become hesitant about what I'll get.

View attachment 343129

Thank you for the info. My first 6060 back had a broken gear inside and it took me half a year to get it repaired from Germany (w/ warranty). Then I bought a new 4560... My leak looks like this, which is far more servere than yours. I think the reason might come from the connection between the back and the body... This leakage can be seen on both 4560 and 6060 backs. But I'm not sure what's the reason. I don't know how to veryfy the problem either. The light leakage is in stripe-shape and sometimes it occurs especially when I'm keeping the slide open for a long time, shooting under bright sunlight, and changing the direction of the film back (most of the time its not significant). I always kept the slide of the back open even when I'm not using the camera... I'm wondering is that the reason? Early in this year I tried to finished one roll in 2 hours when I tried to close the slide immediately after exposure. No leakage was observed that time. Another thing to notice is if I'm shooting with AFD180 (which I always kept it capped after shooting), the leakage is somehow alleviated.

 

[buildbot]

The Germany factory is taking too much time.... Maybe you can try to unscrew four little screws on the back of the body, and re-install that contact panel. I don't know whether this can be reproduced. At least for now I never encounter the problem.... But the stripe-shape light leak and auto-focus failure (off focus and fail to move the lens elements) is still a big problem

I tried that with no luck, after the factory stopped responding to my emails…really infuriating to be honest.

I never had issues with light leaks or scratches at least, but now the camera is useless.

I might try to disassemble the entire thing to solder wires between the plate and the PCB, but right now I am too annoyed to even look at the camera.

 

[LeoAokma]

I tried that with no luck, after the factory stopped responding to my emails…really infuriating to be honest.

I never had issues with light leaks or scratches at least, but now the camera is useless.

I might try to disassemble the entire thing to solder wires between the plate and the PCB, but right now I am too annoyed to even look at the camera.

Lol that's the reason I don't want to contact Germany factory anymore. I'm also tired of resolving problems on my own... At least I got the focusing unit working with the help of my friend... The thing now is to resolve the terrible but random light leaks and recalibrate the focus.