1 Rollei 35 SE - 1 Room - 10 days 

Yes, the lens is really good. even if I still struggle wide open and at close range to hit the focus. But as an outdoor camera, I feel quite comfortable in the meantime. :-)

Hi Randal (again) ;-), Last week in went out and shoot a couple of pictures with my playing children. Because of the 1/500th f2.8 is no question outside and I got a little more confident about guessing the distance. I figured out to use 1m 3m and 6m as guesses and because I was at f/8, I Hope the out of focus rate is much lower than on my first try. Maybe the Rollei and me will get warm after a while. 😁 Also Interesting to hear about to little differences on details. When the company’s numbers are bad and people have to improvise, sometimes pragmatic solutions are needed. Maybe it was also a cost reduction measure in several iterations. But nobody except the Rollei engineers will definitely know. 👷‍♂️👩‍💻

@@manugeee I guess my history, getting into photography when rangefinders were the thing and the Nikon F SLR was still a gleam in some engineer's eye, steeled me against the problems m,any seem to have today over zone focusing and having to judge focus distances. I just do not have that problem. I rarely shoot an aperture wider than 5.,6, as I want to stay in the best optical performance range of the lens. The depth of field is quite large then, and the actual focus range is printed out right on top of the lens, so...?

Thank you very much. 😊 When I some time whatch this movie again, I will look out for the Rollei. Also between the video and today I shot with the camera a couple of rolls and I have to say, that It works better outside and with bright lights. When stopped down Zone focus is much easier, as wide open and close focussed during my quarantine. 😉

Thank you for your comment. Really it is a great camera. 😄

Thanks for the compliment. :-) It is fun to use, I have to admit. Especially because it is so small and easy to carry around. The more I shoot it, the more I like it. ;-)

Decades ago, I got on a kick to acquire a good, separate rangefinder like yours. Up through the 1950s, it was very common that 35mm and roll film camera of the cheaper sort had no rangefinder and were zone or "guess" focused like the Rollei 35. Thus the diversity of such rangefinders in the 50s.. After my third or fourth, never getting one which still worked or could be repaired, I gave up trying. I've never had much difficulty zone focusing the Rollei using mid-range apertures and depth of field. The nicest separate rangefinder I ever found was a Kodak unit, but expensive, dim viewing and too big to use with a Rollei 35.

In the meantime when I posted this video, I shot another roll of film outside and with iso 200. that worked mich better and guessing became easier. I Only asked myself „Is it 1m, 3m or 5m?“ and in bright daylight with 1/500th the aperture gets into f/8 ranges. This both in combination makes the Rollei much more fun to use. At the moment I am working on a 120 film camera video, but I am looking forward to shot another roll in the Rollei.

Thanks for your comment, Paul. I hope you get the cranking lever fixed. I saw it in your video. It is not supposed to be like this. 😁 The second roll I Shot, was definitely much better. I had more light, was not forced to go 2.8 and made zones in my head. 1-2m, 2-3, 3-5, 5-infinity. That worked much better. When I made some more experience, I will make a second video. 🖖

@@manugeee cheers mate yeah my second roll is in now and it's worse than before needs looking at for sure. More light always helps mate I'll check out more of your work asap. thanks.

Thank you very much. Indeed it is a great camera. I already shot a second roll outside with more light and higher f-stops. That one worked much much better. I will definitely keep on practicing and make a follow up video at some point. Really like my Rollei. 😁

@@manugeee Get over Covid

@@zoltankaparthy9095 this video is from April. 😉

I found some other ones (35T/35TE) online for very cheap and tested them at home. Mechanically everything was fine with all of them. Some of them had issues with the long times, but a little isopropanol and new oil fixed it very easily. The most dangerous thing i noticed was an old battery which destroyed a contact of the battery housing. But that’s only affected the light meter. The camera war still working fine. :-)

I would now say, that the 35TE is the best choice. Cheaper than the SE and there are no real reasons for the 2.8 against the 3.5. at day it is hard to use the camera wide open because of the 1/500 fastest shutter speed. And indoors it is again very hard to use 2.8 because of the shallow DOF . I like the TE/SE on the other hand more because of the better light meter with the LEDs inside the viewfinder. So my choice today would be the 35TE :-)

@@manugeeethanks!!

You are definitely right. I also struggle for portraits or anything else wide open and close focussed. The camera is really very good outside with light and wider reportage like shots. Then it is really very fast and the images also very nice. Here the camera makes fun. But this also makes the camera special and not that universal. Definitely a cost for the size, one has to pay.

Hi there, the Rollei 35SE and TE use PX27A batteries. They are still common today and no problem to get. The Rollei 35/ 35T and 35S instead work with little button cells of 1.35V power. You cannot get these anymore, but you can buy winecells ($$$) or certain hearing aid batteries (react with air and deplete after a couple of month by themselves). Just Google for px625 alternative.

@@manugeee If you need to use the built-in meter on ay Rollei 35, getting the SE or TE models is much to be preferred. All prior models using a battery are dependent on the battery voltage to provide an accurate reading. The mercury 6625 battery specified for those models was 1.35 volts. Today, only the Wein cell comes close to that, and they are relatively expensive a very short lived. A common modern battery, 1.5 volts, can be used if the meter is internally adjusted for it, which requires a shop rip for most users. The SE/TE specify a 5.6 volts mercury battery, but the same problem does not apply. The reason is that Rollei put diodes in the viewfinder to give the exposure readout, and that required adding an internal voltage regulator, which also allows you to use almost any combination of batteries which will fit in the camera and put out more than 5.6 volts. The SE/TE meters will adjust whatever voltage they get down to what they need. I run my SE on 4 lithium watch-type cells which fit perfectly. I installed them at least 6 years ago, and they still work fine. The PX27A is, I think, an alkaline cell which will work, but it's voltage will drop as it ages to the point where it will fail after a year or two at most.