Franke & Heidecke was founded in 1920. The first camera they produced was a 3-lens stereo camera with a reflex finder named the Heidoscop which remained in production until 1941.
The Rolleiflex TLR was introduced in 1929, and this 6×6 rollfim camera proved to be a huge success. In 1931, the company produced a smaller 4×4 TLR series which used 127 film. This “baby” TLR was the first to use a crank for film advance – a major technological step – which was subsequently transferred over to all their TLRs. The Rolleiflex was the first modern reflex camera, and it remained in production through various improvements until 1996.
Changes in management occurred in 1966 and led to the introduction of a new line of cameras – this time the Rolleiflex SL66 SLR. This same year saw the company present yet another masterpiece, the Rollei 35, which was produced in various iterations until 2015. The late ’60s also saw Rollei experiment in the 126-film market with the A26, and later with the A110 which used the 110-cartridge film. These models were later dropped due to the failure of both cartridge formats.
In the early ’70s, Rollei had big plans for expansion. But wages in Germany were high, so the company moved part of their production to Singapore. Also around this time, Rollei bought all of Voigtlander’s cameras, production tools, and the Voigtlander name. But the mid-’70s saw financial problems mount, and by 1981 the company was in bankruptcy.
A smaller company, Rollei Fototechnic, emerged from bankruptcy in 1982 and manufacturing returned completely to Germany. The only exception to this were Rolleinar lenses which were made in Japan. But this version of Rollei was also short-lived. In 1987, Optische Werke Schneider-Kreuznach took over and continued the tradition of producing high-quality cameras like the Rolleiflex 2.8G, but also more ground-breaking models like the Rolleiflex 6008.
The company has gone through many re-organizations and owners over the last 30 years. And somewhere around 2015 saw the end of production of the Rolleiflex TLRs and the 6000 SLR-series.
Rollei cameras in my collection
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