I have been passionate about bw photography for as long as I can remember. I normally use my Nikon N80 to shoot with, but have recently found a need to explore with medium format. I purchased a Rolleiflex TLR camera on eBay. I've been doing a lot of reading and it seems so far that I got a good deal, but I would like some opinions.

It is a Rolleiflex with a Carl Zeiss Tessar 3.5/75mm taking lens and a Heidosmat 2.8/75mm viewing lens. The camera has been modified and was used as a "press" camera. It has a custom, working strobe bracket. Everything is in working order and it looks good cosmetically. I paid $180. Was this a good deal?

-- Anne Sesko (asesko@onebox.com), March 19, 2001

Answers

Seems like a good deal.

-- Isaac Torres (isaactorres@hotmail.com), March 19, 2001.

Great deal, IMHO.

-- Torben Rolfsen (foo@bar.com), March 20, 2001.

I'm no expert on Rolleiflex, but I do know that the Tessar is a relatively early Zeiss lens. It was superceded by the Planar. Rolleiflex TLR's with an f/2.8 planar are usually priced above $500. I would say you got a good deal. The nice thing about the Rollei is that it can still be repaired. I had an old Zeiss Ikoflex with a 75mm Tessar--when it broke (10 years ago) I was told parts were no longer available and it wasn't worth repairing.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), March 20, 2001.

Like the others say, you did get a good deal but... the only thing is is that you you only have one lens... maybe you'll be able to find aux. lens but other than that it has a very sharp lens!!!

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), March 20, 2001.

Great deal! I have an old friend who actually preferred the Tessar over the Planar. He shot wedings and found his portraits more flattering with the Tessar equiped Rollei over his Planar equipped model.

-- Robert Orofino (minotaur1949@aol.com), March 20, 2001.

Just saw this thread and thought I'd respond- I bought an old Rollei Automat at a camera show for $75- I think mice had been living in it- but i cleaned it up and ran some film through it and the results were great- I dont use it that much, I am sure the speeds are off, but i learned to load it and point it and set it etc, in other words use it in a non-klutzy way. You pay to learn this stuff.

I think you'll find the Rollei is limited by its short focal length- the lens is like a 35mm on a 35mm camera. People will tell you of all the great old artists who used these cameras, and they were used for great pictures- in fashion, say, of an outfit from the hat down to the shoes they are fine. But any closer and you start to get perspective distortion that is unsatisfactory. Even if you're doing head and shoulders you'll find you'll have to move back until the nose doesnt stick out into space, and then the subject occupies such a small place on the film that you may as well have used a 35mm camera.

In fact, I have found that if you have enough light, (e.g. a studio) you can use a slow film like Plus-X in 35mm and get amazingly fine grained large prints... After years of puzzling over the expense, and trying to find my way around it, I decided that there was no real substitute for a MF system, with different lenses and Polaroid backs, and I went straight to 4x5, which you can way into for about $1000. Now, portraits are really my thing, and thats what I'm talking about here. If you do landscapes, these wide angle MF cameras are probably fine-

-- Chris Yeager (cyeager@ix.netcom.com), March 29, 2001.

Hmmm... A 75mm lens on 6x6 seems to me more like a "normal" (50mm) lens on 35mm format, than "wide angle". Not exactly a traditional portrait focal length, but fine for environmental stuff, and okay for the occasional head and shoulders if you don't mind losing a bit of negative.

-- Chris Ellinger (ellinger@umich.edu), March 30, 2001.

I have used Tessar, Xenar, and Yashinon lenses on TLR cameras...all fine 4 element lenses, and, to me, much preferred...excellent quality images. If everything else works fine, and the modifications are not a problem to you, you got a very fine deal, for sure!

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), April 17, 2001.