Rollei | cameracollection

The Square idea that changed photographic History Without any doubt was the introduction in 1929, of the first Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex ( TLR ), a sensation: an as ingenious as simple principle that quickly made the Rolleiflex THE must have professional camera all over the world. Producing high quality 6x6 cm square negatives in a compact very easy to operate camera, with the best lens available. Ther was no photographer who would not master one, no apprentice who would not wish to own one. For the professional, the Rolleiflex was like a gift from heaven, it meant a radical change in his/her creative work. Being able to work fast with a large size negative, light weight and superior quality made the choice as simple as important. There was no newspaper, no magazine, no photographic book that would not have some Rolleiflex photos in their publications. For decades, Rolleiflex cameras would have a decisive effect on photographic history. Many world-famous images originated from that small piece of fine mechanical art made by the factory from Franke and Heidecke in Braunschweig, Germany. It was the beginning of a technical evolution that would be imitated by many other manufacturers around the Globe with sometimes successful but often poor copies of the bench-mark Rolleiflex. Franke & Heidecke are proof of being the master in that field , with the nowadays massive switch-over to digital, the traditional Rolleiflex TLR is still in production AND development. Very few companies in the world can boast such a long record with one basic design which has been improved on a regular basis yet still so closely resembles the original invention.

Baby Rolleiflex

By far the most famous 127 camera's are the baby rolleiflex's. The original baby rolleiflex was introduced in 1931 and discontinued in 39, following the launch of the rolleiflex "sport" (1938-41). The Sport features a 2.8 lens - allowing it to capture fast moving action more easily. However the easiest way to tell these apart is that the Sport saw the introduction of the bay 1 filter mount.

Baby Rollei's were reintroduced "post-war" in the form of the baby grey (1957-63) and the much rarer baby black (1963-68). While 62,250 greys were made only 4930 blacks were manufactured, making them highly collectable. Again these can be distinguished from earlier models by their filter mounts - the post war models have mounts on both taking and viewing lenses, while the Sport only has the mount on its taking lens.

Even more rare than the black baby rollei's is the stereo Baby Rolleidoscop - one of the companies first products. These can sell for thousands of dollars, being sought after by Rollei collectors and Stereo collectors (and users) in addition to us less afluent 127 fans.

This camera was owned by the famous JLB Smith

The Rollei B35 is a 35mm miniature viewfinder camera built by Rollei.Built in 1966, was the smallest existing 135 film camera. Still today, the Rollei 35 series remain the second smallest 35 mm camera after the Minox 35. In 30 years, about 2 million Rollei 35 series cameras were manufactured.

When the Rollei A 110 (or A110) appeared on the market it was advertised as the world's smallest pocket camera. Utilizing the new pocket film standard of the 1970s, the 110 film cartridge it was the smallest serious camera yet introduced to the market. In 1974 the prototype of the A 110 was a sensation at the camera fair "Photokina" since it was smaller than the cardboard boxes in which the single pocket films were sold. But mass production was delayed until late 1975. The efforts needed to make that miniature camera consisting of 260 parts with consistent high quality were time consuming. The camera entered the market high-priced. 1978, before its production was moved from Braunschweig to Singapore, it had already reached a lower price level, 348 DM.