Topic: Know Your Gear aka The Dumbass Chronicles vol. I

[Adam Doe]

A few years ago I purchased a Rollei 35. I shot a couple of rolls in it and it performed fine, though I needed to get used to focusing by estimating distance, something at which I'm getting better, albeit slowly. Then I shot part of a roll and moved on to other cameras. And the Rollei sat. And sat. And sat. A couple of weeks ago I was taking a trip to Asheville, NC and thought I'd take it as it would make a pretty handy street camera. It fits in a pocket, is quiet and fairly unobtrusive. I finished the roll that was in there and shot two more. When I developed the rolls I saw that there were a ton of overlapping shots on all three rolls. Many multi-exposures, though some shots were fine and had no overlap. I figured there was something slipping in the winding, perhaps the take-up spool. I decided to sacrifice an old expired roll of Kentmere to the cause and test the camera to see if I could spot the problem and perhaps fix it. I loaded the roll but did not place the back on the camera. I cranked the winding lever and the roll did not advance. I tried again. Same deal. I tried repeatedly and the film didn't budge, the spool did not spin, nothing. This seemed odd. I had shots on my rolls and some were fine, the film should have advanced correctly at least some of the time, but nothing moved other that the advance lever. Then I noticed that the film rewind lever was set to rewind.  Once I reset the lever, the film advanced all the way through the roll without fail.

The rewind lever is right on the back of the camera and is easy to accidentally set, which is what must have happened when I was using the camera. Shoving the camera in and pulling it out of my pocket probably contributed to the rewind lever being moved. But now I know to what to look for and I'm relieved that there's nothing wrong with the Rollei other than the operator as it's a nice little street camera and I'm looking forward to using it again.

[Indofunk]

The Rollei 35 is such a quirky camera. I borrowed LA's 35 for a week and shot a couple of rolls on it, and despite all the instruction that both Peter and LA gave me, I nearly managed to break the damn thing  Yes, it's a really small, pocketable, convenient street shooter, but damn if it aint worth the effort 

[Late Developer]

I'm lucky, in some ways, to have a renowned, retired Rollei tech-guy, with 40 years experience servicing and repairing them, living about a mile from me.  He's done great work for me and he told me his favourite Rollei is the 35. This confused me as I'd have thought that he'd have preferred one of the more esoteric TLR models.

Anyway, he gave me a brief, but thorough, review of the various 35 models (most of which I've forgotten) but the one thing that stuck with me is how much they managed to condense into such a small unit. This seems like a great idea, on one level, but having to remember not to collapse the lens when the shutter is cocked (or some such) and not nudging the rewind button by accident seems like a recipe for disaster - particularly if you're as clumsy and forgetful as I am.  I have an Oly XA which produces great negs but is so tiny and fiddly in my hands that I barely use it.

I like to travel light and I like to be familiar with my cameras - but there comes a point when a marginal reduction in size tips the balance and I reach for something that is usable. There's a lot to be said for cameras that can be used whilst wearing gloves...even if they weigh a bit more and need a bag in which to carry them.

[hookstrapped]

The Rollei 35 is such a quirky camera. I borrowed LA's 35 for a week and shot a couple of rolls on it, and despite all the instruction that both Peter and LA gave me, I nearly managed to break the damn thing  Yes, it's a really small, pocketable, convenient street shooter, but damn if it aint worth the effort 

I use one hand and it works fine for me. Zone focus, keep hidden in palm of hand, pull it up and press the shutter, advance on the way back into your palm.

The XA (on the other hand) feels quite a bit less substantial and I think that contributes to my difficulty handling it.  Though I like small cameras, I like them to have some heft. Gravity helps me handle the Rollei 35 and Minolta TC-1, whereas the XA might as well be floating off in space. It might also be the square edges and metal that I like.

[02Pilot]

The Rollei 35 seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it sort of camera. I'm in the love-it camp; I don't find the ergonomics problematic at all, and I like the weight of the thing. For street, as Peter said, it's just zone focus, raise, and shoot. The fact that it produces very nice negatives doesn't hurt either.

[Indofunk]

having to remember not to collapse the lens when the shutter is cocked (or some such) and not nudging the rewind button by accident seems like a recipe for disaster - particularly if you're as clumsy and forgetful as I am.

I am in the clumsy and forgetful camp. Add to that the fact that you have to collapse (or not collapse) the lens before rewinding. I ripped a film because of that

Yeah, I guess the reason I don't like it is that I'm an idiot and can't remember things. This is a bad camera for idiots like me

On the XA I just have to remember that the shutter button is super-sensitive. Although I "fixed" that problem by dropping it onto concrete; now it's the opposite and I sometimes can't even get it to fire 

[John Robison]

Had a 35S for a few years, didn't use it much but it was darn cute and with a killer lens. Finally sold it. My favorite walkabout camera is split between an original Olympus Pen, all manual control or for full frame another Olympus product, the 35RC. True, it is not quite as compact as the Rollei, but dead easy to operate while still being reasonably compact.

[Adam Doe]

I borrowed LA's 35 ...

LA was the guy who gave me hope that I'd be able to get the zone focusing down. He gave me a couple of tips as you, he and I were walking west through the Village. I love the results he gets from his 35.

[Indofunk]

I borrowed LA's 35 ...

LA was the guy who gave me hope that I'd be able to get the zone focusing down. He gave me a couple of tips as you, he and I were walking west through the Village. I love the results he gets from his 35.

Zone focusing isn't difficult; I zone focus on my XA all the time because the rangefinder patch is impossible to see. It's everything ELSE about the 35 that I hate Everything except the 40mm focal length 

[Francois]

It's funny because distance estimating is one of the things I'm actually good at!
A thing I do for fun is walk around the basement with my Fed and guestimate the distance of various objects before checking with the rangefinder. I'm usually close enough for the depth of field of most lenses.