Rolleiflex TLR Folklore

[trhull]

Wasn't sure if this should go in the travel section or medium format, but i was surprised during a trip last week to Salvador Brasil by the numbers of people who stopped me to admire my 2.8f. The reason? Most remembered a song by a famous brasilian singer ( Joao Gilberto I think) " eu quero tomar in foto de voce usando meu rolleiflex."

I am always surprised bvy the 2.8f ability to get good exposures using the camera meter.

 

[analogfotog]

I'm not at all surprised. I have never been to Brazil, but any time I have had one or both of my Rolleis out for a shoot (I am in Ottawa, Ontario), I am usually stopped by an admirer or two. In fact, one day I was stopped by a local pro photographer, a fellow who had been one of my customers when I worked in a local professional laboratory, and he spake thus: "TWO ROLLEIS!! You're a good man!"

I own a Rolleiflex (a model E2, with a 75mm f/3.5 Xenotar lens), as well as Rolleicord (a model III), the camera I usually have with me 24-7. Both still VERY usable, even in this age of digital fauxtography.

 

[Rolleiflexible]

I've not heard the Gilberto song. But Jobim sings about Rolleiflexes in his bossa nova classic, Desafinado:

Fotografei voce na minha Rolleiflex
Revelou-se a sua enorme engratidao

Which, roughly translated, means: "I took your picture with my trusty Rolleiflex but now all I have developed is complex."

The prize, however, for most prominent mention of Rolleiflex in a song goes to Serge Gainsbourg for his 1960s jazz beat, Negative Blues -- classic Gainsbourg, a bit disjointed, a bit surreal, very playful:

Où est ma petite amie ?
Elle est dans mon Rolleiflex
Je le regarde perplexe
Dois-je le foutre aux orties

Où est ma petite amie ?
Elle est dans mon Rolleiflex
C’était mon premier réflexe
J’aime la photographie

Je revois la p’tite chérie
Posant pour mon Rolleiflex
Un p’tit machin en lastex
Lui donnait un peu d’esprit

Où est ma petite amie ?
Elle est dans mon Rolleiflex
J’y ai filé des complexes
Elle a filé cette nuit

Où est ma petite amie ?
Elle est dans mon Rolleiflex
Faut connaître le contexte
Le pourquoi et le pour qui

Sanders

 

[George Papantoniou]

Desafinado is sung by Joao Gilberto in the famous recording with Stan Getz on the saxophone. This is the song everyone knows about.

 

[Sirius Glass]

It would really help if you guys would sing it to us and post the recording in this thread!

Steve