Excellent overview of the Rollei 35 family. You have obviously put a great deal of work into this video and much appreciated. It’s not a camera I would have considered, but you have wetted my appetite. Lets hope I don’t fall down an expensive rabbit hole.
The so called Sweet Spot for each lens is different. But the most common is F8.0 The next best is F11. I would not go higher unless the sun is extremely bright and you do not have the faster shutter speeds on the camera. It is true that with smaller aperture, the depth of field increases and everything will be in focus. But very narrow aperture causes fringing, which is the light waves creating interference patters around the edges of the aperture blades. This will show up as multi-coloured ghosts around sharp objects against a plain background. So, by default I use F8. Here is another tip from my experience: In low light such as Dusk, it is more beneficial to open up the aperture a little more rather than keep a narrow aperture and expose longer. So, I change to F5.6 of F4.0 after 5 PM. This way the colour rendition seems to be richer. The science of this escapes me. Perhaps it has something to do with the film emulsion rather than the lens.
Thanks for doing this! I always wonder when I look on ebay what the differences are. I think I assumed the ones without the two front dials had less control and so were inferior. I do think the original with the two side by side dials still looks cooler though. Really shows how much features is packed into such a tiny environment. I wish they made a half frame version so I could combine such a great camera with my modern money-saving needs. If you know of a similarly small half frame camera that is as cool I’d love to hear it.
Excellent, really appreciate the time you spent on this. I'm amazed at the condition of all your cameras, they really are works of art. I've just dipped in by buying a 35TE at a good price, condition wise looks good with no dents. Only the leather look wrap has faded, I'm thinking of sending it in for a restoration at FilmFurbish here in the UK. I can see where this is leading in getting different models. Have you experience of a 35 with the Schneider Kreuznach lens?
I am glad you found this video useful. 35 TE should serve you very well. as for Schneider Kreuznach, you should not have any concerns. They were a well-known and well regarded brand used by many camera manufacturers to produce their lenses.
I enjoyed your video very much, thank you for all your efforts, and for sharing it all. Watching "the family", I couldn't help but wonder whether your explanation of the naming "35 S" was correct. If the "S" in the name stands for "Singapore", that naming could have been used with earlier models produced in Singapore also. Then I noticed, the change of the metal housing to the black plastic. "Black" In German, is the word "Schwarz". That made me wonder if that would be the meaning of the "S" in "35 S": Rollei 35 Black Version. What I remember from news items in the 70's, is that Rollei tried to lower production cost because of the fierce competition of Japanes manufacturers. And that that was the reason of moving the production to Singapore, and perhaps that is the reason to for changing the housing from metal to plastic.
Thank you for the positive comment and your observations. I hope you have one of these Rollei 35's and are enjoying the nostalgic experience. Actually "S" stands for Sonnar, which was the new lens introduced in the later Singapore top of the line models, a change from the Tessar lens. Most fussy photographers regard the Sonnar lens as superior but the collectors seem to prefer the original German made version which had the Tessar lens. In an earlier version of this video, I made a mistake by saying perhaps S meant Singapore. Someone in the comments pointed this out and in a later version I removed that reference. It is true that Rollei was trying to save money by shifting production to Singapore and also sourcing some parts such as light meter and shutter from cheaper sources than Germany. But the housing of both Singapore models that I demonstrated is metal, not plastic. Also it is almost universally agreed by the reviewers that the quality of the Singapore versions is equal to the German versions.
@@TechHeritage I got hooked, and bought me a second hand Rollei XF35. I intend to have it serviced. I am looking for a second Rollei 35 which will have the lens extracted to be operational. Just for fun, because the Fuji X-F1 I have uses a retractrable lens too.
Stay away from the inferior Rollei 35B, and subtle updated 35 LED. It's just the cheapest build quality, and 3 lens design Triotar Zeiss lens, much worse than the ordinary Zeiss Tessar, or better Sonnar lens design.
That may be just a little unkind to 35 LED despite the little annoyances which I pointed out in the video. I found it to be a competent, good looking, light and compact camera. Easily superior to some of its contemporary plastic junk. It is not as good as the original 35, 35T, 35S, 35 SE or 35 TE etc. But I would not trash it.
