Rollei rubbish

[belgiumreporter]

Now and then i buy a camera just to see if it lives up to the hype surrounding the camera or the maker.
This Rollei 35S is by many higly acclaimed and i wonder why... it's the second one of the 35 series i've bought. These cameras are rather expensive and the limited edition special issues are ridicilously expensive.
Now i can imagine somebody buying a special edition Leica M series, they are way overpriced as well, but you still end up with a decent camera, something wich can not be said about the Rollei.
Why on earth would somebody torture themselve with an expensive piece of s.... that is badly put togheter (my first 35 just fell apart)
has a so-so lens (though the sonnar is better than the tessar), has a non coupled viewfinder with non moving parralax lines,
focussing by distance guessing,non coupled lightmeter with no info in the viewfinder,very bad ergonomics, difficult film loading (no hinged back)
a numb release button and when you want to take flash pictures you have to keep the camera upside down.
Is all this justified just because it's a rollei and looks cute ?
It is obvious something is wrong with these cameras as you can find them in abundance on the net, a lot of people seem to be trying to cash in on the hype.
Prices range from around 100€ to more than 1000€, for that kind of money you can find a lot better cameras than the Rollei, and for a lot less you could probably find a minox EL 35 wich is in my opinion a better camera, in case you want something super pocketable, full frame and of german heritage.
I hope i haven't offended rollei fans ( to much) but i had to get this off of my chest.



Looks nice though...

[Stephen]

I sold quite a few if these, no complaints that I remember, and I have one as well, same version with Sonnar. The small size is not much of a feature these days, but when it came out it was tiny in comparison to other so called compacts.

So small, nobody expected the extras like a rangefinder, nor wanted them in many cases. The flaw was the change over to the Far East for production, it shot Rollei in the foot, the home market collapsed, only abroad did they sell.

The design was quite old right at the start, it came from an Ex Edixa designer, after Edixa did not want to make the camera. Rollei bought the design, and modified the lot, really only keeping the size as the main feature.
As they say, size matters!, and the camera sold well to travellers, and it fitted Ladies purses very nicely!, and women were the main purchasers of the Rollei miniatures.

Stephen.

[belgiumreporter]

Maybe i was a little harsh on the rollei,the troubles i've had with rolleis (TLR, SLX, Flex and the 35) probably has biassed my opinion. 
The timeframe in wich it was produced puts its relevance into perspective. With 2 million sold it must of had some appeel towards the public. 
It was indeed the smallest full frame camera of it's day and i can imagine it was a relief to people who didn't want a heavy full size slr, but still wanted quality output by a small size camera.
The 16mm "spy" camera's of those days were small indeed but the IQ was way below that of 35mm cameras.
But then time (and products from other makers) caught up quickly with the features of the 35 and it became obsolete.I guess it is now considered to be a goofy looking oddity wich is nice for the collection but will take some bravery to actually use it.

Still today this www.photoscala.de/Artikel/Rollei-35-magic-in-Kleinstauflage is beyond me...

[paulhofseth]

I belong to the tribe which when travelling prefers to bring one piece of hand luggage. I found the picture quality of the little Minox C too limiting, so its bigger brother was for a while the camera I brought in hand luggage when travelling.

The electronic shutter of the Minox EL is not one I would recommend. Years ago I got an EL since it was a pocketable full-frame. The shutter conked out, was repaired and stopped working again. Another EL, same story after a few years.

I have not found the Rollei 35S unreliable. Like every Compur/Prontor/Seiko....the long exposures of the wholly mechanical shutter does stiffen with time if not used. The only peculiarity with the Rollei is that you cannot collapse the lens unless the shutter is cocked and as with all complicated machinery, using force is not a good idea.

As for lenses, the Sonnar was good enough for my purposes, -as was the Minox optics. Sharp & good contrast in the age of Kodachrome.

p.