Looking at buying a Rolliflex and need some info

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Peter Charles - 31 Oct 2003 02:40 GMT

There's a Rollieflex for sale (Tessar f3.5, no light meter) in very
good shape. I've determined so far that the low shutter speeds are
accurate and that the aperture appears fine except for a bit of oil on
the blades. The lens looks good and fungus free but there's some dirt
so a CLA may be in order.

However, the film counter has a problem. It doesn't work with film in
the camera (so there's no way to accurately advance the film) yet it
will work if the camera back is open.

So... Are Rolleiflexs known for film counter problems and if
repaired, will this likely come back to haunt me?

Peter

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Lassi =?iso-8859-1?Q?Hippel=E4inen?= - 31 Oct 2003 10:10 GMT

> There's a Rollieflex for sale (Tessar f3.5, no light meter) in very
> good shape. I've determined so far that the low shutter speeds are
> accurate and that the aperture appears fine except for a bit of oil on
> the blades. The lens looks good and fungus free but there's some dirt
> so a CLA may be in order.

A 'flex with 3.5 Tessar must be from the sixties (if it is a T) or even
older. I'd send it to a CLA anyway.

> However, the film counter has a problem. It doesn't work with film in
> the camera (so there's no way to accurately advance the film) yet it
> will work if the camera back is open.
>
> So... Are Rolleiflexs known for film counter problems and if
> repaired, will this likely come back to haunt me?

They are known to have a special kind of a problem: wrong use :-)

Did you mount the film correctly? The pair or rollers in the bottom
sense the beginning of the film and trigger the frame counter. The film
has to pass *between* the rollers, or the crank never stops.

-- Lassi

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Peter Charles - 31 Oct 2003 13:22 GMT

On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 09:10:45 GMT, Lassi Hippeläinen
<lahippel@ieee.orgasm-research.invalid> wrote:

>> So... Are Rolleiflexs known for film counter problems and if
>> repaired, will this likely come back to haunt me?
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
>-- Lassi

Not only did the counter not work, but the auto-focus didn't work
either! <G>

Ya, operator error -- I put it over the rollers, not between them.

Thanks.

Peter

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Lassi =?iso-8859-1?Q?Hippel=E4inen?= - 31 Oct 2003 13:46 GMT

> Not only did the counter not work, but the auto-focus didn't work
> either! <G>

Even though it is a Rolleiflex Automat? You'll just have to walk back
and forth...

> Ya, operator error -- I put it over the rollers, not between them.

Check if these manuals happen to fit the camera:
http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/rollei/rollei_manuals.htm

-- Lassi

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Peter Charles - 31 Oct 2003 23:26 GMT

On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 12:46:07 GMT, Lassi Hippeläinen
<lahippel@ieee.orgasm-research.invalid> wrote:

>> Not only did the counter not work, but the auto-focus didn't work
>> either! <G>
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
>-- Lassi

Thanks, found one close enough - and I certainly did load it wrong.

Thanks for the assist.

Peter

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