My Rolleiflex Journey - Part 1

Ian Howard
1 hour ago
7 min read

So after years and years of prevaricating I have taken the plunge an purchased a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Camera.

And So The Journey Begins!

The Camera

For many years I have been an admirer of the work of Lee Miller and my favourite photographer Vivian Maier both of whom used twin lens Rolleiflex cameras. In my delusion the only thing holding me back from creating comparable images was the fact that I did not own a twin Lens Rolleiflex!

Sometimes its easier to hide behind a simple reason than take a leap of faith only to confirm you are not in the same league as these two amazing photographers (which realistically I already know) . So I contacted a friend who is well known as a lover of "old" style photography and is generally a go to person for people who want to trade in old photography equipment, and asked him to give me a shout if a Rolleiflex came his way. Several months past and then a text landed to say somebody had passed a box of cameras to him and in the box was a Rolleiflex and was I interested? We met up and I had a look at the camera with no idea how to operate it! It looked fine to the naked eye but did it work?

My wife convinced me that after years of talking about it I should take the plunge. But first I had to find out how it worked and IF it worked.

Thankfully he said take it away and run some film through it and see how it performs.This I did and found that it appeared to be working OK. this was only after doing a lot of research on how to operate such a camera.

The camera cam with several other pieces

A Case and Strap

Both of these are showing their age! The stitching on the case is starting to fail and the cover especially is coming apart in several areas and is in need of significant repair! The strap is well worn and either needs to be replaced or significantly reinforced! These are easily fixed I gather from my online enquiries and my wife assures me that her leather crafting skill make this a relatively easy job ?

Lenses

Also included in the cases that can be seen on the image above, were two filters and a lens hood. The lens hood is an obvious fitting, but what the larger two piece filter and the yellow filter are for will require further investigation.

The Yellow filter is quite degraded and I am not sure that it is in working condition but can I replace the glass?

So what type of Rolliflex is it?

The plate on the back of the camera suggested it was a 2.8 rolleiflex but the lens suggests that it is a 3.5? I needed to work out what I had? -- It appears the process is quite simple.

I used the Date Your Rolleiflex TLR site using the model number on the top of the camera I quickly established that it was in fact a: Rolleiflex 3.5E made in 1956 with an exposure meter and the fitting was a bayonet II style. So that was the first hurdle overcome and I had worked out what I was dealing with.

Now how the heck do you get this thing to work?

Could I find a Manual for this?

Again the simple answer was yes. So the Camera Manuals Site came to my rescue with a full copy of a manual for the camera. This matched up to what I could see on the camera and so enabled me to understand all the working parts of the camera.

This is when the first learning points came to pass!

1956 camera manuals are no match for modern day manuals or YouTube!
It works totally differently to a modern camera
Some things on the camera that you are sure are very important are in fact not that important and other parts that appear insignificant are in fact very important!
1. The small knurled dial on the side of the light meter was very difficult to operate and I was sure this would be a major issue? In fact this is just an aid memoir so you don't forget what type of film you have in the camera. So all in all not that important.
2. The small switch on the top corner that appears to do nothing but shows red in one position and clear in the other position. This apparently controls how the light meter reads in high light and low light conditions and also dictates how you read the light meter. So fairly important.

A simple high level clean

As I didn't own the camera at this point I was very careful not to do anything that could change or damage the camera.

I gave the outside of the viewing lens and the shooting lens a clean with some standard lens cleaning solution and a lens cloth. After opening the back of the camera I used a blower to clean out the film chamber and gave the inside of the shooting lens a clean with some standard lens cleaning solution and a lens cloth. I did feel that the viewing screen was a little on the dull side so I gave the upper surface a clean. I'm not sure if its good bad or normal or if it needs replacing, it could also be dirt on the mirror and in the focussing chamber which I did not attempt to clean

I needed a film

In order to test the camera I needed a film and as I was in the area I visited the London Camera Exchange in Southampton who were most helpful as they not only sold me a film but also gave me and old out of date film free of charge so that I could test the wind mechanism of the camera before loading my test film.

Test Shoot

I loaded my test film into the camera after following a YouTube video detailing how best to load film into a Rolleiflex and the mechanism appeared to be working ok. I also used this as an opportunity to test the operation at slow and fast shutter speeds. So from this test roll I was confident that

the light-meter was doing something
the wind on mechanism was working well
the shutter appeared to be operating across its range (how well was hard to tell)

For my test shoot I had purchased Ilford HP5 Plus 120, ISO 400

My plan for the test shoot was as follows

Shoot in the garden so I had no hassle and could take my time
Place the camera on a surface so I eliminated camera movement
Set the correct exposure using the light-meter
- image at fastest speed
- image at slowest speed
Set the camera to under expose
- image at fastest speed
- image at slowest speed
Set the camera to under expose
- image at fastest speed
- image at slowest speed
Set the correct exposure using the light-meter
- image at widest aperture
- image at smallest aperture
Set the correct exposure using the light-meter but now pointing towards the sunlight
- image at fastest speed
- image at mid speed
- image at slowest speed

Film Developing

I wanted to keep this simple quick and cheap so I decided to send the film off to DS Colour Labs for developing. I used these as I had used them in the past for digital prints and they offered a service where they would develop the film and send the images through digitally, which was all I needed. So I posted of my film and eagerly awaited the email to say they were available.

The email landed and the enclosed files showed that the camera had operated well across the range of settings.

And here is an example of my results

The deal was done

I agreed to purchase the camera and so became the proud owner of a twin lens Rolleiflex!

Some early learnings with the camera

Here are some initial views on operating such a camera

Ets quite strange looking down and it gives you a slightly different to normal view
Everything you view is the wrong way round - when you move the camera
- Up is down and down is up
- Left is right and right is left
The view on the screen is not like a modern SLR
The pop up magnifier helps with focusing
Its much slower than I expected to operate
- Focus the camera
- Take a light-meter reading
- Uncouple the two front dials
- Set the dial on the front dial to the correct number given by the light-meter
- Couple the two front dials
- Set the aperture or shutter speed you want to use
- Wind the film on to cock the shutter release
- Refocus the camera
- Take the shot
Its slow and complicated!
The Rolleiflex 3.5e appears to be highly rated but it does have an issue in that it is one of the rarer model and as such lenses etc are harder to find and more expensive!

That gets us to the end of part 1 and I hope this has been of interest. Keep posted for more installments!

Next Step - What will be in part 2

These are the next stages in the plan

I don't have a lens cap so need to get one
Can I replace the glass in the yellow filter as the existing glass appears degraded
Camera need a good clean
Case need a good clean and treatment of the leather
Case need to be repaired
Should I get it serviced I did have the following UK repairer recommended to me https://www.secondshotrepairs.com/
Try and take some good images