Rolleiflex SL35E Thread

kl122002 · Feb 12, 2024

Hi, I just received my very first SL35 E . The meter works fine and so as the electronic controlled shutter. The one flaw is sometimes the shutter won't fire after the mirror raised, and it only won't continue if I push up the mirror slightly. I believe it should be the old grease/ oil causing this happen .
Do you have any advice how to deal with this ? THank you.

Andy_Nguyen · Apr 8, 2024

ic-racer said:
I have a second SL35E that won't open the first curtain when the camera is upright, but opens it ok if the camera is up side down.

Since the mirror going up leads to first curtain release, the mirror, working against gravity, does not have enough umph to open the first curtain.

I took that one apart and adjusted the first-curtain opening adjustment on the mirror box but it either opens as soon as the camera is cocked or won't open at all.

Then I lubricated all the moving parts of the mirror box.

THAT FIXED IT. There had been just a little binding on one of the levers.

Then I went ahead and adjusted the springs for opening and closing to the times correct.

Otherwise that camera has perfectly functioning electronics.

Hi, Could you guide me how to access and lubricate moving part of mirror box?

Ten301 · Apr 26, 2024

I apologize for bringing this thread back from the dead for what looks like the second time, but I have a question…

I own a SL35E, a beautiful camera to look at and hold, but it suffers from all the electronic and shutter maladies this model is infamous for. However, the shutter at the flash sync shutter speed of 125th/sec does seem to be reliable. I think my understanding is the camera is totally manual at that speed, am I correct? So none of the camera’s faulty electronics are involved? So even though the camera otherwise cannot be repaired, it can still be used at that speed, setting the aperture according to a separate light meter? The lenses are great. I would just like the opportunity to use them.

Thank you!

ic-racer · Apr 26, 2024

Yes, at 1/125 it is all manual, the camera should still be usable with an external meter. Timing at 1/125 is set by the screw circled.

ChrisLA · Aug 2, 2024

Sorry for another late addition to this thread, but in the past week I decided to take a gamble on a Rolleiflex SL35M. So far it seems to be more or less working, except that the ISO dial is frozen. The manual simply says to turn it, but it does not. Any ideas?

ic-racer · Aug 2, 2024

These are the only photographs I have of that mechanism. Lift up and twist to change the settings. Looks like they left out that instruction in the manual.

ChrisLA · Aug 2, 2024

Thank you! That works, although it is rather stiff.

Flapper · Nov 7, 2024

I just bought a Voigtlander VSL 3 as untested. I understand these are essentially identical to the Rolleiflex SL35E.

I put a battery in last night, and rolled a test roll of 12 shots. The meter was working and responding well and the test shots came out as they should.

But I have a couple of questions:

- I picked up the camera this morning, looked in the meter and it was still on. How does this thing turn itself off?
- This morning A mode was not working at all. Just a big bank of LEDs or 16 secs. Was somewhat downcast until half hour ago when I downloaded the service manual. Noticed the reference to the Diaphram Simulator. I then moved that up and down a few times an A mode seemed to work again! May be coincidence though.
- The manual makes reference to the film winder acting as an on and off switch of sorts (like my Nikon FM2N did) but that doesn't seem to work and having dissembled the winder I can't see how it would

I'm sure more questions to follow, but any notes on the above greatly appreciated.

Sam

ic-racer · Nov 7, 2024

As I recall, there are two sets of contacts activated by the shutter release under the front cover on the 'winding' side of the camera. Light press on the shutter button turns it on and shows the meter reading in the viewfinder, harder press locks the reading, harder press mechanically trips the shutter at the locked reading.

ic-racer · Nov 7, 2024

All the LEDs blinking in AUTO was the common 'fail' mode of half my cameras. As hard as I tried to narrow it down to the Diaphragm Simulator, I could not fix any of them. But maybe those cameras deserve a tenth look, if you had success.

ic-racer · Nov 7, 2024

I think the next step to figure out these cameras is for someone to attach the PC board to a breadboard with something like eight SPST switches and nine, or so, potentiometers. That might be the only way to see if the PC board is messed up or the camera body is faulty.

Flapper · Nov 7, 2024

Thanks so much IC racer. 20 minutes of swapping lenses, batteries and messing with the Diaphram Simulator and the camera has been working properly for maybe 10% of the time. The rest of the time it has ranged from completely dead, to showing screwy readings, to various odd behaviour.
I might try to strip it and clean the contacts etc but I suspect that something is very messed up.

Are these fussy about the type of batteries you use?

It's a shame as it worked perfectly last night, was very nice to use and the lenses are great.

ic-racer · Nov 7, 2024

FYI, the meter "on" and "hold" contacts,

ic-racer · Nov 7, 2024

What really tempered my enthusiasm digging deeper into the SL35E is a Nikon N55 that that was listed on Photrio as "FREE" for shipping.

Even though it is a 'bottom of the line' Nikon with limited functions, compared to the SL35E, it is quite amazing; something from the future.

Shutter Testing a Most Inexpensive 35mm Camera...How Bad Is It?

The Nikon N55. These cameras can be had for very little money. I got one for $7 from KEH and another for very little (shout out to user "multivoiced" as an excellent and safe seller!!) The N55 was the bottom of the line for Nikon's F-mount AF cameras. So...how bad is it...

www.photrio.com

Flapper · Nov 8, 2024

Thanks. I have a Nikon F100 from the same era which is excellent.

Any tips on removing the top from the Voiglander (essentially Rolleiflex SL35E)? I've seen the basic post from the old mailing list but I don't want to start twisting something that not meant to be twisted

kl122002 · Feb 2, 2025

Just would like to update a finding here. Perhaps it is not so important, but I believe a good quality battery plays a key to SL35E.

My SL35E survives from cleaning up the old oil . Then I was asked a few times to repair their SL35E. Some claims are like :

-was ok at first, then the meter gives out a very wrong reading, and later becomes error (all lights on)

-the camera can give correct reading without lens, but faulty once mounted (coupled with aperture pin from lens)

-it gives faulty meter reading randomly.

But all these resolved after changing with a battery. Seriously, a fresh Alkaine 4LR44 could help but won't last long in some cases. In some scenarios, the Battery Check lighted up too.

And these above mentioned events finally happened to me as well. I wondered, and so replaced my own with a better Silver Oxide based battery 4SR44. Everything just back to normal. The Lithium based one like PX28L works well too.

I read the manual again , and inside it has mentioned to use Silver Oxide battery. So I believe this camera is quite sensitive to voltage changes and this is why a silver oxide battery plays a key here.

On the other side I checked those alkaine 4LR44s that causing faults : they all dropped to 5V or much lower already. Those cheap and poor quality one could case problem within a roll or two of films, and the voltage was about 2V inside.

ic-racer · Feb 2, 2025

The owner's manual indicates PX28.

kl122002 · Feb 2, 2025

ic-racer said:
Did you see somewhere that 4LR44 is the correct battery? The owner's manual indicates PX28.

Is that PX28 is equivalent to 4LR44?

4LR44 / PX28 Battery - Bristol Cameras

The 4LR44 alkaline battery is the replacement for the now discontinued PX28 mercury battery which were used in many car key fobs and older 35mm slr cameras. 4LR44 batteries are also known as A5AA, PX28A, K28A, V34PX, 7H34, 4NZ13, V4034PX, L1325, 4SR44, 544, PX28, V28PX, KS28, RPX28, 4G13...

www.bristolcameras.co.uk

ic-racer · Feb 2, 2025

Now that you show that, maybe you just had a bad battery. I just checked my cameras and it looks like they also have the same substitution of four LR44 in a PX28 package. So perhaps the 'real' PX28 is long gone.

I did have one SL35E that 'ate' batteries. There was a faint glow of the LED. Turned out to be a short of a wire to the top cover. Maybe other shorts could occur to make the batteries drain when not in use.

MattKing · Feb 2, 2025

I don't think that web information is correct.
AFAIK, the PX28 was never a mercury battery. It was either silver oxide - most frequently used in cameras - or alkaline, which was usually associated with shorter term uses.

Disconnekt · Feb 3, 2025

There was also a Lithium version, not sure if that version is easy to find though

Found the infro from here: http://photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/batteries.html

ic-racer · Feb 20, 2025

Looking again at the PC board of the failed SL35E cameras I see what look like tantlum capacitors. A post recently by Korkas indicated a high failure rate for that style capacitor.

If I ever go back to this project, that might be a place to start looking for the source of the electrical fault of these PC boards.

Rolleiflex SL35E Thread

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