Rolleiflex SL35E (1978)

I enjoy using my rangefinder cameras very much but deep down I think I’m more of a SLR guy truth be told. Some of the rangefinder cameras I find clumsy to use, like the Canonette for example! I’ve yet to find an SLR that fit’s that category. Some SLR’s shine, the simplicity of the Olympus OM1 and the Nikkormat FT-2 for example. Others have the complexity of Auto-focus and the like, I wouldn’t be without my Canon EOS 30 for example. Few manage to mix the two, with ease and quality. I think the Rollei SL35E does!

Rollei is of course best known for it’s twin-lens-reflex cameras. Aparently there was a genlemans agreement between Victor Hasselblad and Reinhold Heidecke, that Rollei wouldn’t make a medium format SLR and that Hasselblad wouldn’t make a Twin lens, and indeed while they were in charge they didn’t. In fact they knew eachother and considered themselves to be “fellow engineers”, one meeting is recorded here.

By the 70’s however, Rollei in a bid to reduce cost and compete with Japan, moved a lot of it’s manufacture from Germany to Singapore. One of the cameras made there was the SL35E. As a camera it feels good in the hand. Not heavy but enough weight to imply quality.

The camera is “electronic” as in the shutter and meter require a 6v 4LR44/KS28 type battery to operate. Wind on is of course manual. It has all of the standard features you would expect. Shutter is a side travelling focal plane type with metal blades and offers speeds from 1000th down to 16 seconds, that’s un-usual, I can’t think of another mechanical camera that offers 16 seconds timed. I’m not sure if it’s just mine, but my shutter speed dial freely turns, no click stop between the speeds, somehow it feels like it’s supposed to be like that. I say that as there is a lock for B,X and A and they click lock in place. A is effectively aperture priority, and on my test seems to be pretty accurate! The actual shutter release button is a rather nice, large affair in the centre of the dial.

There is a battery check (BC), rewind crank but the rewind release is to the right of the viewfinder on the back rather than on the bottom plate. It’s marked R and M. R for rewind, M for motor drive. That brings me to another tiny “like”. There are two small coin openings on the bottom of the camera, just like most Olympus. Rollei have thought to mark them B for battery and MD for motor drive. How many times have you opened the wrong one on an Olympus??

All that said, perhaps the main attraction here is the word “Planar” written on the lens! Lets be clear this is not a Zeiss lens – however… it is of the Zeiss Planar design and was made under license from Zeiss. It has a HFT (“High Fidelity Transfer”) multi coating. This was co-developed with Zeiss. There is an interesting article about the Zeiss/Rollei “mix” here.

You know the routine by now – I loaded up a roll of film and set out….

I don’t care whether Rollie calls it HFT or Zeiss T* this 50mm has a sharpness and contrast that I like! These photo’s are “as scanned” and haven’t been photoshopped. To my eye there is certainly a “glow” going on.