A Miniature Masterpiece
Most of us are quite familiar with the name Rollei. There’s probably not a more famous series of twin lens reflex cameras than the Rolleiflex. The heritage of those cameras goes all the way back to the late 1920s. And by the 1960s, Rolleiflex TLRs could be found in nearly every newspaper office – supplanting the 4×5 press camera as the standard tool of photojournalists. Those are great cameras and definitely worth the fame and upscale prices that they still command in the marketplace.
But Rollei was sorta late getting into the 35mm game. It wasn’t until the early 60s that they decided to take a stab at designing a 35mm camera. And if they were going to do it, I guess they decided to do it in full Rollei style and make it different from everything else on the market.
One of the photographic “fads” of the time was half-frame cameras. Maybe “fad” isn’t the right word for it, but it was a popular format and half-frame cameras were selling well. These cameras would shoot only half of the standard 35mm frame, and could therefore be smaller in size than full-frame 35s. But what Rollei wanted to do was build a full-frame camera that would rival the size of a half-frame. Something you could easily slip into your pocket. And in 1966 they released the Rollei 35.
This camera was claimed to be the smallest full-frame 35mm “precision” camera at the time. Rollei used that word “precision” in its advertising because it meant that this was no cheapo, plastic, toy. This was a “real” camera. Made out of metal. With a fantastic Zeiss Tessar lens. Capable of achieving results that you’d expect from a camera with Rollei on the nameplate. And if I’m not mistaken, it did indeed hold the title of smallest full-frame 35 until the Minox hit the market in 1974. And how did they manage to builds something so grand in such a small package? I think it boils down to one thing: unconventional design.
The lens is retractable, the shutter and aperture control dials are mounted on the front side, and the rewind crank and hot shoe are on the bottom. And Rollei made the interesting decision of not making it an SLR that would need a pentaprism. They didn’t even make it a rangefinder. They made it a viewfinder camera that uses zone focusing. This viewfinder only helps you frame the shot. That’s it.
For all the details, check out the video below for the in-depth review and to see this camera in action on an actual photo shoot!
Vintage Camera Digest 