Rollei
| Rollei GmbH & Co. KG
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | February 1, 1920 as a workshop for precision mechanics and optics, Franke & Heidecke ; Takeover of the Rollei brand by RCP-Technik GmbH on January 1, 2010 |
| Seat | Norderstedt , formerly Braunschweig, Germany |
| Website | www.rollei.de |
Rollei is a German company that established its global reputation with the two-lens Rolleiflex , a trend-setting roll film camera . The company is based in the Schleswig-Holstein city of Norderstedt near Hamburg .
In 1920 the workshop for precision mechanics and optics, Franke & Heidecke, was founded to manufacture a two- lens reflex camera . The company changed its name and legal form several times, for example in 1962 to Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke , 1979 to Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke GmbH & Co. KG , 1981 to Rollei Fototechnic GmbH & Co. KG and 2004 to Rollei GmbH . The company headquarters of Rollei GmbH was relocated to Berlin in 2006 and at the same time production was outsourced to Rollei Produktion GmbH , now Franke & Heidecke GmbH in Braunschweig . Another decisive restructuring of the company took place in 2007/2008.
The many name changes already indicate an eventful company history: After sales problems of the now outdated Rolleiflex , the production facilities and the range were enlarged at the end of the 1960s , which the small company Rollei could not cope with. The start of our own production in Singapore in 1970 was a pioneering act in the photo industry, but it damaged the company's reputation as a German precision manufacturer. After several unsuccessful renovation attempts , in 1982 there was a concentration on medium format cameras and a few other products. From 1986 measurement systems, from 1991 digital and modern compact cameras were added to the range.
Since 2007 the company has been split into three companies. Franke & Heidecke GmbH (Braunschweig) was responsible for the professional products sector ( medium format cameras , slide projectors ). RCP-Technik GmbH & Co KG (Hamburg) took over the non-professional area ( Rollei Consumer Products , i.e. compact digital cameras ) in Europe and Rollei Metric GmbH took over the photogrammetry business . The company Franke & Heidecke GmbH is insolvent since in 2009. A part of the bankruptcy estate was bought by DHWfotosechnik GmbH , which continued to produce digital and analogue medium format cameras, view cameras, slide projectors and small series until it also had to file for bankruptcy in 2014.
1920 to 1928
Company formation
As part of his work as production manager at Voigtländer's Braunschweig camera factory , Reinhold Heidecke had the precise idea for a new type of roll film camera around 1916, but this proposal was not heard by the company. It was feared that there would be major problems with the flatness of the film, and it was also possible to put down all the plate film cameras produced without any problems. Heidecke tried unsuccessfully to get the start-up capital for his own company and then, at the insistence of his wife, presented his plans to the photo businessman and former Voigtlander employee Paul Franke . He was enthusiastic, he made 75,000 marks available for the company and looked around for further sources of money that brought in another 200,000 marks. In November 1919 both decided to apply for a trade license for the company "Franke & Heidecke", which was entered in the commercial register with effect from February 1, 1920 .
Some rooms in the residential building Viewegstrasse 32, the company's first headquarters, were rented as a production facility. The house survived World War II and still exists today. Other rooms in this house were used by a dance school, which soon had to stop teaching because of the noise. After just one year, Franke & Heidecke was already using the entire house, and by 1922 the company was doing so well that loans were received to buy the property.
Stereo heidoscope
In order to get the company going, Franke and Heidecke had agreed on the temporary production of a stereo camera . Such cameras were very much in vogue and Reinhold Heidecke was very familiar, as they were also part of the Voigtländer program. To the appearance of a clumsy copy to avoid, you bought some models and created from the different ideas the Stereo Heidoscop with two lenses from Carl Zeiss Jena of the type Tessar (f / 4.5, 55 mm), between which the viewfinder lens, a Carl Zeiss Super Triplet with f / 3.2. The Tessar was considered to be the sharpest imaging lens at the time and was also widely used in the USA , although there were also good local products. Zeiss had a brilliant international reputation that Franke & Heidecke was able to use successfully for its product. Mainly because of this, a decision was made against cheaper alternatives. The camera exposed on glass plates in the format 45 mm × 107 mm. The camera name "Heidoscop" was to remind Voigtländer that it was a mistake not to allow Heidecke more freedom.
The Heidoscop was an unexpectedly great success. In 1923 a Heidoscope for the roll film type 117 was presented, whereby the name Rollei emerged from Rollfilm-Heidoscop , which later became the company's new name.
Inflation period
During the galloping currency devaluation in 1923, Paul Franke lived up to his reputation as a financial juggler: He used the export income in foreign currency so skillfully that the company survived the time unscathed - if Heidecke had set up his own business on his own according to his initial considerations, this would have been impossible.
At that time, a new company site was purchased: the city council of Braunschweig was not very enthusiastic about an industrial company in the residential area due to the noise pollution and pushed for a new location. As a result, on January 10, 1923, a purchase agreement was signed for a 60,000 m² property on Salzdahlumer Strasse, which was a little outside the city at the time. Because of the extreme inflation, the site cost practically nothing. With the erection of the factory building, however, one waited for the success of the new camera. Paul Franke urged that the development work be temporarily suspended due to the desperate economic situation. Heidecke believed in better times and was fine with it.
Rolleiflex
In 1927 finally the first prototype of the new camera: The Rolleiflex , as it was called, was all designed for maximum reliability now and therefore had a stable injection-molded housing made of aluminum . Heidecke avoided using a leather bellows for the lens extension, as he had had bad experiences with one: around 1916 he experimented with a Kodak camera, leaving it in his basement and later found its bellows eaten by a rat. This already showed him back then that a camera for reportage use , which also had to function perfectly in the tropics , must not have any rotable materials. For the same reason, he avoided a cloth closure and relied on the solid Compur central closure .
With the new camera, the distance setting was done by moving the carrier with the photo and viewfinder lens, which, so to speak, had a metal bellows, i.e. the plate laterally enclosed the housing. The decisive factor here was moving the plate exactly parallel, for which Heidecke developed a sophisticated design that contributed significantly to the success: around the opening for the beam path behind the taking lens was a central gear that drove four small wheels, one each on the top left and right bottom left and right. These small gears moved the toothed racks , which in turn were connected to the lens carrier. The system worked perfectly and, thanks to high-quality materials, even after many years of use. Only the viewfinder attachment and the rear wall of the camera, both aluminum parts, had to be treated more carefully, which could not be changed until the start of series production.
Another prototype was built in 1928, and then the time had finally come: production of the first series camera started on August 10th. A total of 14 copies were made this year. On Monday, December 11th, the reporters were invited to a press presentation in the festively decorated production facility at 11 a.m. Paul Franke had put together his own press packages, and a magazine even published a test report without ever having held the camera in their hands. Franke also elegantly avoided the problem that no one had thought of demonstration photos; the boxes ready for dispatch were empty and only for advertising purposes in the company.
1929 to 1950
The new plant
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The demand for the new camera far exceeded the production possibilities on Viewegstrasse. Although it wasn't a cheap product, it received 800 orders in the first month. The Rolleiflex with the f / 4.5 lens cost 198 Reichsmarks , with the f / 3.8 even 225 RM. The great success made it possible to get loans for the new factory and to be economically extremely successful in the middle of the global economic crisis . Up until 1932, 23,720 cameras were made in the old factory. At the new location, Salzdahlumer Straße, a factory building with two floors and a total area of 2,000 m² was built, which allowed an annual production of 20,000 cameras and could be moved into in 1930. Since the site was easily accessible by public transport, but far from the city center, a canteen and a shop were also built for the 309 employees.
Babyflex
Wilhelmine Heidecke, Reinhold's wife, suggested the construction of a "ladies' camera", a Rolleiflex for the so-called " 35mm format ". It was the first Rolleiflex to hit the market with the famous crank for film transport, which was also found on the 6 × 6 model shortly afterwards. The Rolleiflex 4 × 4 , called Babyflex on the export markets , used film type 127 and had an f / 2.8 lens with a 60 mm focal length . However, it only sold in unexpectedly small numbers, which is why it was initially not reissued after the war. The company management suspected that many Rollei photographers only made contact prints of their negatives due to a lack of enlargers , which in the case of the Babyflex led to indisputably small pictures. That is why there was only a new edition for 355 DM in 1957 , which was available until 1968, initially in gray, from 1963 in black. But only about 67,000 copies were made of her, although in the meantime hardly any amateur photographer was satisfied with contact prints and slides made with this camera could be shown in a small image projector.
Studio camera
In 1932 the owner of the well-known Kardas photo studio in Berlin, Salomon Kahn, asked Rollei whether he could have a large Rolleiflex for the 9 cm × 9 cm format. As a pretext, he stated that his customers would like to take the negatives with them because they doubted the durability of the prints, and that roll films are easier to archive than glass plates.
In fact, he did not want to give the real reason, since Franke & Heidecke supported the NSDAP in order to get enough workers. The owner of his studio had turned off the water because he feared problems with renting it to Jews. So Kahn had to develop his records at home, whereby roll films were easier to transport. A roll film camera also made house calls possible.
In Braunschweig the idea of offering a larger Rolleiflex for the film type 222 after a smaller one was obvious, and they already had the slogan: You see what you get . Such a camera would have made work in the studio much easier for the photographer, since at that time he had to bend over the camera under a black cloth and speak to his subject in this position. However, after the failure with the Babyflex, they became cautious and first built test cameras. Salomon Kahn got one, and others were sent abroad in pairs, the importer was supposed to keep one as a demonstration device and the other to give it to a major studio. But after Salomon Kahn was arrested and no one else pushed for a studio camera, the project was discontinued. A total of 14 studio cameras were created, one of which has been preserved and today belongs to the Braunschweig Municipal Museum.
Rolleicord
In 1933, the Rolleicord , an inexpensive equivalent of the Rolleiflex, appeared with a simpler lens, sheet steel rear panel, film transport button instead of crank and, on the first model, even without a counter - then the numbers printed on the film indicated the number of exposed images (see roll film ). The Rolleicord I cost 105 RM; all Rolleicord together had a production figure of 2,699,505 copies by the end of 1976.
Rolleiflex machine
With the Rolleiflex Automat presented in June 1937 , Franke & Heidecke achieved another significant step forward. Previously, you had to re-tension the shutter and transport the film after taking a picture, but now the shutter is automatically tightened when the transport crank is turned. This not only made the camera ready for use again more quickly, it was also no longer possible to forget to transport it and thus unintentionally generate double exposures.
This Rolleiflex won the Grand Prix of the 1937 World's Fair , which earned it a lot of attention. The two company founders were so convinced of their new development that they immediately signed the contracts for a new plant. Plant 2 with 3,000 m² on three floors offered space for a further 700 employees. It was finished in 1938. In that year the 300,000 were already being produced. Camera. In retrospect, Reinhold Heidecke described the Rolleiflex Automat as his favorite camera .
Second World War
Due to the Second World War and the associated war economy pushed by the National Socialists , no new camera models came onto the market from 1940, and the stereo camera was finally discontinued. Rollei suffered considerable asset losses because the outstanding debts were lost in the "enemy states". Controls and formalities made exports to neutral countries much more difficult. Since the overseas markets also collapsed, Paul Franke reduced the workforce to 600 employees.
Production of armaments
In addition to the well-known cameras, similar to the local competition Voigtländer , Rollei now also produced military equipment such as military equipment. B. Precision optics for binoculars , periscopes , riflescopes (including snipers ) and aiming circles for artillery . Substantial amounts of money had to be spent on these products, but it was still possible to carry out regular development on a small scale and work on coated lenses and flash synchronization. The cameras found u. a. Use in enemy reconnaissance .
As one of the centers of the German armaments industry , Braunschweig was exposed to numerous, sometimes very heavy, bomb attacks, which severely destroyed the city. On January 1 and 15, 1944, and then again on August 13, the Rollei production facilities were also affected. At the end of the war in Braunschweig on April 12, 1945, 65% of the production facilities were destroyed.
post war period
Braunschweig belonged to the British zone of occupation . The occupation forces supported the continued existence of the company; some Zeiss lenses were even procured from the Soviet zone. Franke & Heidecke started again with 72 employees, by Christmas 1945 there were already 172, with the entire annual production in 1945 being delivered to the British Ministry of Defense. In view of the supply situation, lenses from the West German manufacturer Schneider were also used, which was not a problem, as the latter had as good quality control as Zeiss.
However, the death of Paul Franke in the spring of 1950 had devastating consequences for the company: Not only did one era in the company's history come to an end, a lack of commercial skills led the company to the brink of ruin several times.
1950 to 1963
The golden era
Horst Franke, son of the late Paul Franke, succeeded him. Overall, the company management under his leadership was less successful than under Paul Franke. In particular, she lacked the necessary flexibility to adapt to changed situations; For example, they failed to reduce the workforce in times of crisis, while Paul Franke reacted in this direction immediately at the beginning of the war (see also: Paul Franke ).
At first, however, Rollei was unrivaled and could therefore be sold in ever larger quantities. In the 1950s, practically every press photographer used a Rolleiflex , and this camera was also found extremely frequently among photo amateurs. The camera was so popular that there were over 500 replicas, more than half of them from Japan . The plant grew rapidly, in 1956 it already had 1,600 employees and already sold the millionth camera, in 1957 it was even 2,000 employees.
Rolleiflex developments
Underwater housing
The diving pioneer Hans Hass asked Franke & Heidecke whether he could get a special housing for underwater photography . Then the ingenious Rolleimarin underwater housing, suitable for a depth of 100 m, was built . It consisted of two cast parts. The upper part contained a prism which was attached to the camera focusing screen. It also had rotary knobs on its upper side, which transmitted the time and aperture settings. On the lower part, the distance setting was found on the left and the transport crank with image counter on the right. There was also a filter turret. A special light could be connected for flash photography, for this a battery housing had to be inserted into the housing. Of course, you could also screw a frame viewfinder onto the housing.
Telephoto and wide angle lenses
Among all the replicas, there was no camera that was superior to the original Rolleiflex until the Mamiya C appeared in 1956 . The Japanese introduced this model with three double lenses (normal, telephoto and wide angle). Later, further double lenses with a focal length of 55 mm to 250 mm were added, including one with a dimmable viewfinder lens in order to be able to control the depth of field in the viewfinder. The Rolleiflex always included the built-in standard lens, only the Magnar telescopic attachment with four times magnification was available from Rollei itself . It was only placed in front of the taking lens, for the viewfinder image only a mask was placed on the focusing screen, so the image was not enlarged. Zeiss also offered two double- lens attachments that were hooked into the filter bayonet of the viewfinder lens and pressed into the bayonet of the taking lens. The five-lens Mutar telescopic attachment magnified 1.5 times, weighed 327 g and showed a correct viewfinder image up to a distance of 4 m. The four-lens Mutar wide - angle attachment magnified 0.7 times and weighed 437 g, its viewfinder image matched up to a distance of 1 m. For all attachments, however, it is advisable to stop down two levels for maximum image quality, which is why they only appeared as a makeshift compared to interchangeable lenses.
In response to the Mamiya , a comparable Rollei was constructed and given to reporters to test. Although they were enthusiastic, in the end they did not see themselves in a position to make the lenses removable with the usual precision, which, however, astonished the professional world. As a compromise, there was the Tele-Rolleiflex presented in 1959 with a Zeiss Sonnar f / 4, 135 mm. This camera was especially useful for portraits . A planned version with a focal length of 150 mm was no longer part of the program. A wide-angle Rolleiflex followed in 1961 with an f / 4.55 mm lens. It was only built until 1967 and today - with the exception of special models - it is one of the rarest Rolleiflex cameras. Their advantage was above all in the case of heavily attended events, when the reporter had to stand in front of the crowd.
Rolleikin
Rolleikin was an accessory and conversion kit that made it possible to convert the Rolleiflex or the Rolleicord into a camera that could use 35 mm cinema film (hence the name "Kin") instead of the 6x6 cm roll film. Rolleikin was available in different versions for different camera models. In all cases the camera had to be rebuilt and supplemented. Among other things, a new film holder for 135 film cassettes as well as a new take-up spool, counter for 36 pictures, a mask for shaft seekers and a different film guide had to be installed. In older Rollei models, the camera back also had to be replaced.
Rollei Magic
Reinhold Heidecke continued to design new cameras until his death in 1960, but no one reminded him of the costs. This is how he came up with the Magic , for which some expensive tools had to be manufactured, which did not justify the small number of pieces. This was in complete contrast to Agfa , for example , where they always tried to use one housing for as many models as possible.
At 435 DM, it was a relatively expensive camera for the photographic layman. She had a coupled selenium - light meter , steered a program automatic, which worked with shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/300 sec and aperture values from 3.5 to 22. There were only two dials, one for sharpness and another for shutter speeds 1/30 s for flashing and B for night shots . The Magic II for 498 DM then also allowed manual exposure adjustment.
The situation around 1960
Towards the end of the 1950s, the market for two-lens medium format cameras was gradually saturated, amateurs and reportage photographers increasingly turned to the small format and studio photographers to the single-lens medium format camera. These one-eyed models were very expensive, but they offered interchangeable lenses and film magazines. The latter enabled a quick film change, with an assistant usually refilling the magazines.
The Swedish company Hasselblad was the market leader in this field . It began in 1948 with the technically inadequate model 1600 F , the lock of which did not work properly. The 1000 F followed in 1952 with a limited time range to remedy the problem, but the focal plane shutter was still very prone to failure. At first it did not compete with the fully developed Rolleiflex . In 1957, however, the situation changed with the legendary Hasselblad 500 C with Compur central locking . The management under Horst Franke slept through this development and failed to oppose Hasselblad with a competitive model. Franke & Heidecke then had sales problems and ran into economic difficulties. Horst Franke finally gave up the management.
Completely new products
Projectors
The first Rollei slide projector came out in 1960 : the P 11 could accommodate both small-format frames (5 cm × 5 cm) and medium-format frames (7 cm × 7 cm). There were two holding devices for this, on the right for small-format slide magazines and on the left for medium-format slide magazines. This universal projector cost 398.60 DM plus 97.50 DM for the standard lens. The P 11 remained in the range until 1978, after which numerous other projectors appeared, which contributed significantly to the company's sales.
Rollei 16
The first completely new design after the war was the Rollei 16 , a miniature camera with the format 12 mm × 17 mm, a Tessar f / 2.8, 25 mm for 425 DM. Today, the unusual format seems surprising, to Rollei again To bring profitability; But at that time the German camera industry was convinced that this was the future. Also Leica and Wirgin (brand name Edixa ) constructed such cameras.
Rollei used special cartridges called Super 16 for 18 exposures, which no film manufacturer agreed to produce, so you had to assemble the films yourself. A black and white film cost 5 DM, the color slide film with development 12.50 DM - the films were in the program until 1981. The beginning of the film only had to be inserted into the corresponding guide of the camera, there was no take-up reel, the film formed a self-supporting spiral. The limited selection and availability of films was naturally not conducive to sales, so that just about 25,000 copies were produced. Since Rollei also spent a lot of money on numerous advertisements, this camera could not even free the company a little from the dubious financial situation. It was negligent to bet on a type of film that the market leader Kodak did not support. The technology of the Rollei 16 corresponded to the selling price, the viewfinder had automatic parallax compensation up to 40 cm from the subject, the film was transported by operating the viewfinder slide and there were attachments called Mutar for wide-angle (0.5 ×) and telephoto photos (1.7 × ) in the accessories program. The improved Rollei 16 S followed in 1965 .
1964 to 1974
Realignment
Heinrich Peesel
In order to bring Rollei back into the profit zone, the management obtained several reports. The Hamburg physicist Heinrich Peesel delivered a particularly short five-page document, whereupon they were impressed, asked him to manage the company and even accepted far-reaching demands.
The 38-year-old Peesel followed Horst Franke as managing director on January 1, 1964 and promptly embarked on a very risky course, which after initial success ended in a fiasco. His basic idea was to be active in as many areas of photography as possible and no longer concentrate on one product line as before. This was in complete contrast to previous corporate policy. For example, when asked about the secret of the company's success, the answer to the British occupying power was that there was none, that it was only due to 25 years of experience and the concentration on a single type of camera.
New Products
Peesel had all the plans for new products shown to him in order to analyze them. Should be built:
- the Rollei 35 , a pocket camera for the 35mm film of the 135 type, which is widespread worldwide
- the SL 66 , a counterpart to the Hasselblad 500 C.
- the Rolleiscop drawer projector
The drawer projector was a compact device in portrait format that could record slides lying close together and show them on a conveyor belt. The capacity was from 32 slides in glass to 72 slides in cardboard frames, whereby frames of different thickness could be mixed as desired. The only requirement was a uniform frame thickness, so the frames could not be curved.
Organization and marketing
In addition, Peesel increased the advertising budget immensely and made production more efficient, for which he dismissed 110 of 120 employees with management functions and pushed the company suggestion system extremely. The new products were very well received by customers, which enabled the company to achieve annual growth of 30% after the losses in 1963 in the middle of the first economic crisis of the post-war period. Sales rose from DM 24 million in 1964 to DM 85 million in 1970. In the further course of the year, there were less successful products and new factories that did not fit the size of the company.
Rolleiflex SL 66
For some time now, the trade press has been mentioning a future Super-Rolleiflex again and again , but it wasn't until 1966 that the associated SL 66 appeared , with SL standing for single lens , ie "one-eyed". This product was a sophisticated system camera . The SL 66 had a built-in bellows and a lens standard that could be swiveled 8 ° upwards and downwards, so that sharpness extensions according to Scheimpflug could be generated. In addition, the lenses could be attached in a retro position, together with the 50 mm bellows extension, you could take macro photos on a scale of 1: 2.5 without any further aids . The SL 66 cost DM 2,778 with a normal lens (f / 2.8, 80 mm), and of course it was presented with a range of interchangeable lenses:
- Distagon (HFT) f / 3.5, 30 mm (3,300 DM, price 1976)
- Distagon (HFT) f / 4, 40 mm (1,810 DM, price 1969)
- Distagon (HFT) f / 4, 40 mm, (Floating Elements), (7,998 DM, price 1994)
- Distagon (HFT) f / 4, 50 mm (1,075 DM)
- Distagon (HFT) f / 3.5, 60 mm (3,100 DM, price 1986)
- PCS-Rolleigon (HFT) (Shift) f / 4.5, 75 mm (4,800 DM, price 1986)
- Distagon (central shutter) f / 4, 80 mm, up to 1/500 s flash synchronization (1,050 DM, price 1970)
- Planar (HFT) f / 2.8, 80 mm (860 DM, price 1969)
- S-Planar (Macro) f / 5.6, 120 mm (1,250 DM)
- Macro-Planar (HFT) f / 4, 120 mm (6,078 DM, price 1994)
- Sonnar (HFT) f / 4, 150 mm (1,075 DM)
- Sonnar (central shutter) f / 4, 150 mm, up to 1/500 s flash synchronization (1,230 DM, price 1970)
- Sonnar (HFT) f / 5.6, 250 mm (1,075 DM)
- Sonnar (HFT) Superachromat f / 5.6, 250 mm
- Tele Tessar (HFT) f / 5.6, 500 mm (2,263 DM)
- Tele Tessar (HFT) f / 8, 1000 mm (46,392 DM, price 1994)
- Mirotar (mirror lens) f / 5.6, 1000 mm (4,537 DM)
Lenses marked “made by Rollei” are manufactured by Rollei under license from Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, West Germany. Later lenses have the addition of HFT because they have a coating.
Foreign lenses
- Rodenstock Imagon Achcromat with screen aperture f / 4.5, 120 mm (600–1400 DM depending on the version, price 1980)
- Rodenstock Imagon Achcromat with sieve screens f / 4.5, 200 mm
- Novoflex quick-shot lens f / 4, 200 mm (800 DM, price 1974)
- Novoflex quick-shot lens triplet Noflexar f / 5.6, 400 mm (2,400 DM, price 1984)
Magnifying lenses can be attached and focused using a simple adapter ring due to the built-in bellows and focal plane shutter .
- Zeiss Luminar f / 2.5, 16 mm ( RMS thread 0.8 inch × 1/30 inch), up to 7 times the magnification factor without spacer rings
- Zeiss Luminar f / 3.5, 25 mm (RMS thread 0.8 inch × 1/30 inch), up to 6 times the magnification factor without intermediate rings
- Zeiss Luminar f / 4, 40 mm (RMS thread 0.8 inch × 1/30 inch), up to 4 times the magnification factor without spacer rings
- Zeiss Luminarr f / 4.5, 63 mm (RMS thread 0.8 inch × 1/30 inch), up to 3 times the magnification factor without spacer rings
- Zeiss Luminar f / 6.3, 100 mm (M44 × 0.75 thread), up to 1.5 times the magnification factor without intermediate rings
The magnifying lenses with the same or similar focal lengths from the manufacturers Leitz (Leitz Photare), Canon, etc. can also be used via the RMS thread. Magnifying lenses with a Leica thread, e.g. B. Leitz focars with focal lengths of 50 and 60 mm can be easily adapted. Due to its almost unique combination of properties (built-in bellows, tilt capability, focal plane lock, bayonet connection for retro position), the camera can be used particularly well for scientific (macro or detailed) recordings in the studio.
Now Rollei finally had something to counter the successful Hasselblad 500 C , which, however, should have happened as early as 1960 for an overwhelming success. To make matters worse, Rollei concentrated on marketing the new amateur products, regardless of lower profit margins and the stiff Japanese competition, while Leitz and Hasselblad understood perfectly how to accommodate their expensive devices in both the advertising and editorial pages of photo magazines. The SL 66 was not as widely used as it would have been desirable and possible from a company perspective. Nevertheless, this system is solely responsible for the fact that Rollei still exists today and maintains its unchanged good reputation. With the SL 66, exposure measurement through the lens was only possible with a special TTL viewfinder prism (with built-in exposure meter). With the SL 66 E , a camera appeared in 1984 that had hardly changed from the outside but was equipped with a built-in TTL integral exposure meter. Other lenses were also released, such as the fisheye Distagon f / 3.5, 30 mm, Distagon f / 4, 40 mm, and a Sonnar f / 4, 150 mm with central shutter , as well as extensive accessories, close-up rings, bellows , magnifying lenses , Polaroid magazine, sheet film cassette , underwater housing and ring flash . The successor model SL 66 X from 1986 offered only a TTL flash exposure metering, the second model SL 66 SE additionally a TTL spot exposure metering. A model SL 66 Exclusive Professional with gold-plated housing parts, manufactured from 1992 onwards, rounded off this camera system.
Rollei 35
The Rollei 35 was the smallest camera for 35mm film cartridges at the time, and an ideal second camera for 35mm amateurs. It initially came onto the market with a Zeiss Tessar with a speed of f / 3.5 and a focal length of 40 mm. In contrast to the 16 mm cameras, especially the later pocket cameras, there was no need to work with two different film formats, which was particularly useful for slide shows. It was also important that the picture did not show its origin from a pocket camera in any way. In the course of time different versions of the Rollei 35 appeared , especially the 35 S with the five-lens Zeiss Sonnar f / 2.8, 40 mm.
Rolleiflex SL 26
With the Rolleiflex SL 26 , there was even an Instamatic camera with interchangeable lenses. Although it was considered to be the best camera for type 126 film cassettes, these cassettes only appealed to beginners. Kodak also had an Instamatic SLR camera in its range, but the main aim was to draw attention to the self-made type of film and not necessarily make money. The SL 26 devoured high tool costs , but could only be produced around 28,000 times. The SL 26 was in the price list for DM 628.23, its two additional lenses at DM 232.43 for the wide-angle Pro-Tessar f / 3.2, 28 mm and DM 282.88 for the Pro-Tessar f / 4.80 mm.
Rolleiflex SL 35
After single-lens single-lens reflex cameras became increasingly popular, Rollei began developing one in 1966 just as late as it was with the SL 66 . The only difference was that the competition was not the small Hasselblad company, but much more financially strong Japanese companies that were able to place considerably more advertisements in magazines and specialist magazines. They were also happy to invite specialist photo salespeople to visit the factory in Japan.
The Rolleiflex SL 35 appeared in 1970, it turned out to be quite compact and could keep up with the Asian competition both technically and with its 675 DM sales price - apparently based on the model of the best-selling 35mm SLR Pentax Spotmatic - but it was not superior either .
Rollei put it on its own lens connection and called it the QBM bayonet. The first lens program consisted of the following types:
- Distagon f / 2.8, 25 mm
- Distagon f / 2.8, 35 mm
- Zeiss Planar f / 1.8, 50 mm
- Schneider Xenon f / 1.8, 50 mm
- Sonnar f / 2.8, 85 mm
- Tele Tessar f / 4, 135 mm
- Tele Tessar f / 4, 200 mm
At this point the Rollei was inferior for a long time, as the big Japanese brands already had fisheye wide-angle, super telephoto lenses and zooms in their range. It is true that very few amateurs bought these at the beginning of the 1970s, but a statement in the market overview such as “lens range from 7.5 to 800 mm focal length” sounded more future-proof than “from 25 to 200 mm”. The range was soon expanded: in 1973 there were 16 lenses for the Rolleiflex SL35; 13 of them from Carl Zeiss (Oberkochen) and 3 from Schneider-Kreuznach, although these were exclusively fixed focal lengths.
The SL 35 was followed in 1974 by the SL 350 with contemporary open aperture measurement, but with the slogan “Concentration on the essentials” it sold comparatively poorly. In 1976, Rollei unexpectedly withdrew its attractively designed in-house development, the SL 350 (the last 35mm camera “Made in Germany” up to the Rollei bankruptcy), in favor of the bulky SL 35 M model , a development from the Zeiss-Ikon works acquired from Rollei out of date and not very reliable, and developed from this (four years after the Japanese) at the same time their first SLR with automatic timer SL 35 ME . Although these models could be offered inexpensively thanks to large-scale production in Singapore, sales remained well below expectations. In their own development department, the fundamentally trend-setting idea was followed to incorporate more electronics in accordance with the medium format. The reliability of the electronically controlled SL 35 E , a completely new design released in 1978, fell short of the expectations of a branded product. The mirror box, for example, was a weak point.
Since Canon had already brought the first 35mm SLR with a microprocessor onto the market with the AE 1 and shortly afterwards the first multiple machine appeared with the Minolta XD 7 , Rollei no longer caused a stir with its products - which, on the other hand , meant that the defects were practically unnoticed stayed. So the system remained an outsider brand and did not spread like the brands Minolta, Pentax, Canon, Nikon or Contax-Yashica.
Since it became increasingly popular from the mid-1970s to buy third-party lenses for cameras, Rollei found it increasingly difficult to maintain its small market share. Because of the low distribution of Rollei cameras, third-party providers offered little more than Tamron's "Rollei connection" for their lenses.
The customer base therefore consisted less of committed amateurs than of casual photographers who support the German brand and did not want to buy any additional system accessories. This led to more than 330,000 copies of the SL 35 and its descendants as well as around 120,000 SL 35 E - each including the largely identical Voigtländer models (see “Voigtländer”).
Rollei 35RF
It is a compact camera with a built-in 38 mm f / 2.8 lens. Despite having the same name, the camera must not be confused with the modern rangefinder camera with M-bayonet Rollei 35 RF from 2002.
Flash units
The Rollei flash units introduced in 1967 remained largely unknown as a large number of models were offered on the market. Such devices not only produced various photo sets, but also numerous radio sets, in particular Metz .
Rollei offered the first “ computer flash” with the Strobomatic E 66 for 548 DM , but was not alone for long. The Strobofix counterpart without brightness control cost 357 DM, and numerous other models followed over the years. From 1968 Rollei studio flash units were also built. There were the series E250, E1250 and E5000 with various lamp heads. A special feature of the Rollei devices was the so-called modeling light, a halogen lamp within the flash filament. This enabled the photographer to control the illumination and also measure the necessary aperture.
Super 8
The small film market, which was booming with the advent of Super 8, did not go unnoticed by Peesel, so that, in his opinion, Rollei also had to offer something. Since there was no free capacity in Braunschweig for the design or production of such devices, products from Bauer (Bosch Group) / Silma (Italy) with the Rollei logo were added to the range.
Uelzen
Since the Rollei plant on Salzdahlumer Strasse had become much too small for the immense variety of products and, moreover, no additional workers could be recruited in the Braunschweig area, especially since around half of the employees in the Braunschweig area were employed by Volkswagen AG , Peesel looked for it looking for a new location for a branch. It should be in a structurally weak area near Braunschweig. This led to Uelzen , 80 km away , which could be reached within an hour by car from Hamburg, Hanover, Braunschweig and Salzgitter and which was also recommended due to its location on the Elbe Lateral Canal and the zone border promotion .
Halls with a total of 6,000 m² of usable space were built on a 30,000 m² site, with two further construction phases planned. In the factory completed in 1970, the slide projectors, the studio flash unit and later the Rolleimat Universal enlarger were created . With the outsourcing of the production of many devices to Singapore, the Uelzen location became redundant again. The halls were closed again on October 1, 1977 and were still empty until 1981, as there was no buyer for a long time.
Viewfinder cameras
In addition to Rollei 16 and 35 , there were other viewfinder cameras, the most famous of which were the A 26 and A 110 / E 110 . The A 26 was the smallest camera for Instamatic film . It was cleverly designed as it could be pushed together to protect the lens and viewfinder. The A 110 was a particularly small, strikingly elegant and widely acclaimed camera for pocket films , it followed the Rollei 16 . The silver-colored E 110 later appeared as an inexpensive counterpart . Both models sold excellently, the A 26 almost 140,000 times, the pocket models even over 240,000 times.
Between 1977 and 1979 Rollei had a series of three very simple pocket cameras produced by an unknown Japanese manufacturer . These were sold under the name "PocketLine by Rollei", but were not very successful. The number of items sold is unknown.
From 1974 onwards, various conventionally designed cameras for 35mm film type 135 appeared, including the Rolleimat and Rollei 35 XF types . Some were also available from Voigtländer with a different name, some of them were built in Japan.
Singapore
Since the originally low wage costs in Germany rose steadily, Peesel negotiated the sole right to manufacture photographic equipment with the Singapore government in 1970 . In return, he guaranteed an immense 10,000 jobs that were to be created by 1980.
Of course, Rollei was not able to finance the enormous expansion itself; this was done with the support of the Norddeutsche Landesbank and the Hessische Landesbank , which thus became shareholders in the company. Such careless lending was not uncommon in those days, one was so impressed by Peesel's dictatorial demeanor in one's own company that one believed in its success. Only with the collapse of the Herstatt Bank did the finance houses become more cautious.
The plant amazed even abroad, after all, not even Japanese companies had managed to set up a precision manufacturing facility on the Asian continent. Rollei Singapore was legally independent, but did not have its own development department.
In 1974 Rollei employees were distributed as follows: There were 1,648 in Braunschweig, 314 in Uelzen and 5,696 in Singapore. Although the amateur products had been outsourced and the Rollei 35 sold excellently, there were not enough products to manufacture for the gigantic number of employees in Asia, so that after an apparently eternal start-up phase from 1979 onwards, external orders were also accepted.
When Rollei Germany had to file for bankruptcy in 1981 , Rollei products still accounted for 97% of production, after which the plant had to be closed. USH (see "New Owners") founded Rolloptik Ltd. to acquire and store the machinery. This would have enabled Asian production to start again if necessary.
Voigtländer
The Voigtländer Camerawork in Braunschweig closed on August 23, 1971, whereupon takeover negotiations with the Quelle group (Photo-Quelle) came about , but ended without an agreement. Finally, on Peesel's suggestion, they agreed that Carl Zeiss , the State of Lower Saxony and Rollei would each take over a third of Voigtländer and that all of the naming rights would go to Rollei. On March 1st, a rescue company, Optische Werke Voigtländer, was founded with 320 employees to manufacture lenses for both Rollei and the Zeiss-Ikon camera factory. Another 300 former Voigtländer employees went to Rollei.
After camera production at Zeiss-Ikon had ended in 1972, Voigtländer Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH was founded in 1974 , which started selling cameras again. However, there was no clear separation between Voigtlander and Rollei cameras. The models and accessories were only sold with small differences (often only in the name) under the two brands. Even the 35mm SLR cameras were available from both brands; their lens connection was now referred to as the Rollei Voigtländer bayonet . Although the press presented the takeover as a long overdue merger of the camera industry in Braunschweig, the process did not make economic sense: Rollei acquired new products with the Zeiss Ikon SL 706, previously Icarex 35, and various lens designs and developed them into the Rolleiflex SL 35 M / ME with Rollei bayonet instead of the widespread M42 connection (badge engineering), but these cameras were bulky and mechanically vulnerable. No additional production capacity or employees were required due to the underutilized plant in Singapore, where the Rolleiflex SL 35 M / ME was also produced.
1975 to 1981
Business downsizing
On August 26, 1974, Peesel left the company "by mutual agreement" after the company had made a loss of DM 37 million with a turnover of just DM 137 million per year. The total debts amounted to around 500 million DM, whereupon the banks now owned 97% of the company. They even considered dissolving Rollei, but then considered a refurbishment to be cheaper and made the following demands:
- Halving the number of employees in Singapore
- Dismissal of 500 employees in Braunschweig
- Sale of the Uelzen plant
- Dissolution of the Voigtländer Optical Works
In the first half of 1975 the workforce was reduced from 2,400 to 1,800 employees (Rollei and Voigtländer together). On April 1st, Peter Canisius Josef Peperzak, the previous head of the German Canon agency, took over the company. He wanted to fundamentally change the pricing and sales policy.
Rolleiflex SLX
Rollei had already presented the Rolleiflex SLX to selected journalists in 1973 at the Singapore plant and then at photokina 1974, but was only able to produce this trend-setting camera from September 1976. It was the first electronically controlled medium format camera, it electrically transmitted the aperture and exposure time to the lens, in which linear motors were installed for these functions . This technology, which was elaborate at the time, was not yet completely reliable at the beginning; a revised version with new electronics did not appear until 1978, but the advantages outweighed the advantages from the start. In particular, you could distinguish yourself from Hasselblad with these innovations: The Swedes advertised with enormous reliability and pointed out the use of Hasselblad cameras on the moon missions, which could not be outdone, while Rollei relied on the greatest possible ease of use through electronic support. The SLX did not have an interchangeable magazine, but you could attach a Polaroid back. It cost DM 5,998 when it was launched.
Dissolve projectors
With the P 3800 , Rollei presented the world's first 35mm fade projector at photokina 1976. A product that once again attracted a lot of attention to the company: Previously, you had to set up two projectors and a control unit in order to be able to cross-fade, the effort now no longer differed from a normal demonstration. Above all, you no longer have to split your slides between two magazines. The P 3800 cost around 1000 DM and was manufactured in Singapore from 1980. Several successors followed, the current Rolleivision twin generation is also available in a professional version with 250 W lamps.
Rolleimatic
The Rolleimatic was the last new camera design that went into production before bankruptcy. As a 35mm viewfinder camera with a new design and operating concept, it should be almost as easy to use as cameras for Instamatic film cassettes, and at the same time deliver better image quality. The planning ran from 1977, it was produced from June 1980 to September 1981. The camera was brought onto the market without the usual extensive testing. B. the SL35E - suffered from a lack of reliability. Rollei's bankruptcy put an early end to production.
Under Nord / LB management
Peperzak increasingly acted without a concept: In order to save the Uelzen plant, he had an enlarger developed by the company Kaiser Fotogechnik (in Buchen), which was sold as Rolleimat Universal . The home photo laboratory was hugely popular right now, but the market was still far too small to be successful with this device. Furthermore, for inexplicable reasons, tripods and 35mm lenses were bought from Japanese companies, fixed focal lengths from Mamiya and zoom lenses from Tokina , although there was enough unused production capacity in Singapore to manufacture everything itself. The new Rolleinar lenses should finally bring the focal length range of the 35mm system to the level that has long been the norm with the competition. To make matters worse, Peperzak also canceled his participation in photokina 1978 . On February 28, he finally left Rollei.
The Nord / LB then sent Heinz Wehling as the new managing director on March 1st. Rollei took part in photokina after all, but not at the traditional location that had already been awarded. A contract with the IEC, Industria De Equipamentos Cinematograficos SA in São Leopoldo, Brazil, led to the license production of Rollei slide projectors and the enlarger. Wehling was also unlucky, in particular he stuck to the 35mm SLR program, for which a new camera was developed, and did not part with the Singapore plant. So they finally looked for a new owner for the company, which was about to go bankrupt.
Hannsheinz Porst
The new owner shouldn't be a Japanese company. Agfa -Gevaert, Kodak and Zeiss showed no interest, so on April 1, 1981 , Deutsche Fotoholding GmbH, founded by Hannsheinz Porst , took over 97% of the capital of Rollei Germany and received an option for 1982 on the 75% stake in Norddeutsche Landesbank Rollei Singapore. The CEO of Nord / LB commented on this process with the words: Finally, I'm rid of Rollei .
Hannsheinz Porst's entry was met with amazement everywhere, as his own company Photo Porst was in a crisis that he had brought about himself. One also puzzled who was hiding behind the photo holding. The assumptions ranged as far as a secret involvement by Agfa-Gevaert in order to circumvent the requirements of the cartel office. The management of Rollei was shared by the two private individuals Otto Stemmer, a former Agfa employee who was now responsible for technology, and Hannsheinz Porst, the chairman of the management board.
Porst announced the following plans:
- Withdrawal from the (meanwhile sharply declining) pocket camera market
- no entry into the cheap sector
- 35mm viewfinder cameras
- 35mm and medium format systems in the upper price segment
- Slide projectors
- sophisticated flash units
- no Super 8 cameras of their own (but they were rarely bought)
There was no interest in these plans; confidence in Porst, Rollei and Nord / LB had been lost. Hannsheinz Porst was particularly disappointed that the photo trade did not support him. From March 1981 sales fell by 20%. In addition, the exchange rate of the yen and Singapore dollar rose sharply, which weighed heavily on Rollei due to the Japanese imports introduced by Peperzak. Finally, on July 3, 1981, Porst applied to the Braunschweig local court for settlement proceedings . The settlement administrator announced that the professional area and service should be retained, production would run until the end of September, layoffs would take place in October and the value of the finished parts in the warehouse would be 100 million DM. These parts were sold with an advertising campaign, advertisements appeared in photo magazines indicating the last chance to buy accessories for old Rollei cameras. The naming rights to Voigtländer went to the Plusfoto Group for DM 100,000. In 1981 the company still had 700 employees.
1982 to 2003
New owners
On January 1, 1982, Rollei was divided into three companies: Rollei Deutschland GmbH operated the sale of stocks and the service of previous products until June 30, 1983 . The Rollei GmbH building with its main creditor Nord / LB took over the real estate and property management of existing production facilities. The Rollei Technic GmbH for operation with initially 380 employees manufacture, sale and 1 July 1983, the service of the new "product-adjusted" camera, lens and projector range. It was a start-up that had nothing to do with the previous company except for the takeover of the "leader models" and in which USH ( United Scientific Holding ) held 100% of the shares. It was a manufacturer of optoelectronic devices founded after the war with headquarters in London . The contact was made in Singapore, where USH and Avimo Ltd. also had a subsidiary.
With the commitment one wanted to enter the German military market. It so happened that Rollei included 7 × 42 binoculars in its range, but otherwise the USH had no influence on the range of photo equipment. Rollei only produced military technology and in return received measuring and testing devices from USH, which they would otherwise have had to build themselves. As a result, the USH had an extremely positive effect on Rollei. Fototechnic GmbH concentrated on the system cameras, which were still made in Braunschweig, and on slide projectors, which initially came from Singapore, but whose production was relocated to Germany in 1983 in order to be able to advertise with Made in Germany . Only the production of the P801 fade projector was awarded to Silma in Italy, but of course his successors also came from Braunschweig. There they produced in rented rooms of the former factory, using around a quarter of the space and moving the rest to companies outside the industry.
After USH's plans for the military market were not fulfilled, Rollei was given to the photo industrialist Heinrich Mandermann , who had owned Schneider Kreuznach since 1982, for a symbolic price of DM 1, including 14 million debts .
At the beginning of 1995, the Korean company Samsung followed as owner, which Rollei soon gave up due to the Asian crisis . The buyer in 1999 was Paul Dume and six other managers. In November 2002 the company passed into the hands of the Danish investment company Capitellum (Copenhagen).
Rolleiflex SL 2000 F
In the summer of 1981, the Rolleiflex SL 2000 F was released, a sophisticated SLR camera. It was the only 35mm camera with interchangeable magazines and the only one with double viewfinder systems. The development of this camera began as early as 1975, a prototype was presented at photokina 1978, but a year later the project was discontinued due to lack of money, but was finally completed. The features adopted from the medium format were certainly useful, but the high price and the limited system accessories put off most interested parties, even though the lens range covered a focal length of 14 mm to 1000 mm. This resulted in the improved successor Rolleiflex 3003 , which appeared at photokina 1984, but in 1994 Rollei withdrew from the 35mm SLR system. In the meantime, autofocus has become standard on a 35mm SLR camera, and Rollei was finally no longer able to keep up. With its high price, the SL 2000 F / 3003 series was aimed exclusively at committed amateurs, and as a result did not even sell 15,000 copies.
Rollei Metric
In 1986 Rollei added the Metric measurement system to its program. The starting point was a request from the later professor Wilfried Wester-Ebbinghaus , who, while still a research assistant at Rollei, asked for a camera to be converted for photogrammetry . As a result, specially calibrated cameras and computer programs were created to evaluate the photos taken: The 35 metric , 3003 metric and 6006 metric cameras had a grid cross plate in front of the film plane, so that - as known from the moon images of the Apollo mission - crosses for measurement on the image published. With its program, Rollei made such previously immensely expensive systems considerably cheaper. They worked closely with the Technical University of Braunschweig .
Classic program
The two-eyed Rolleis met with so little interest in the course of the 1970s that the Rolleicord was discontinued in 1976 and the Rolleiflex in 1977 was only available on special request. Shortly afterwards, interest increased slightly again , but production ended with the comparison process. In 1982 they built 1,250 gold-plated Rolleiflex again from the parts that were still available and sold them as 2.8 F Aurum for 4,000 DM. In 1987, a much-noticed new edition was presented, which of course was equipped with a modern TTL exposure and flash exposure measurement: Naturally, the Rolleiflex 2.8 GX could not be sold as a small series, but at a reasonable price at around DM 2,800.
The modernized 2.8 FX followed in 2001 with the Rolleiflex lettering of the 1930s. A wide-angle version of this camera is even available again. The production number of over 3.2 million Rolleiflex cameras continued to increase, albeit only very slowly. There was also a “Classic” version of the Rollei 35 for some time, the Rollei 35 classic , which was presented at photokina 1990 for 2,200 DM including a flash unit (see Rollei 35 ).
Rollei 35 RF
In 2002, following a new trend towards rangefinder cameras , Rollei marketed the 35 RF , which, however, was neither developed by Rollei nor based in any way on the earlier Rollei 35 models. Rather, it was a variant of Cosina's rangefinder cameras ( Bessa Rx ) built by Cosina , which was sold as the Voigtlander Bessa R2 . It has, similar to the Voigtlander Bessa Rx and the Zeiss Ikon cameras Cosina, a bayonet in accordance with the Leica M . Rollei offered three of its own lenses, developed and built by Zeiss . The production has meanwhile been stopped, the spread of the camera appears to be low.
Prego models
Although the principle applied that the Rollei should no longer deal with mass-produced goods, for the amateur market one used viewfinder cameras made in Asia, e.g. B. from Skanhex, Premier, Kyocera or Ricoh under the name Rollei Prego into the program, initially for 35mm film, followed by digital cameras - the latter was initially even developed in-house.
One-eye medium format system
The single-eyed medium format program represented the company's decisive market segment. The SLX was further developed into the 6006 and presented in 1984. Its main innovations were the film magazine and the TTL flash control - the superior camera technology made it possible to become the market leader in medium format cameras. In 1986 the entry-level version 6002 followed without a film magazine together with three inexpensive lenses (f / 4, 50 mm; f / 2.8, 80 mm; f / 4, 150 mm). This was the first time that Rollei was offering medium-format lenses from the Far East, but the rest came unchanged from Schneider and Zeiss. In 1988 the 6008 appeared with an extended electronic control system, including a previously unknown automatic exposure series in medium format, the great demand for which led to a delivery time of five months. In 1992, the 6008 SRC 1000 enabled exposure times of 1/1000 s. This was particularly unique in combination with flash units (1/1000 s flash synchronization time). The 6008 Integral followed in 1995 and finally the 6008 AF with autofocus and the 6008i2 (stripped-down AF). With a scan back, i.e. an approach that digitally captures the image line by line, Rollei entered professional digital image processing as early as 1991 and was also very successful with it.
The latest camera model from the camera forge (since 2006 Franke and Heidecke) is the joint production Hy6 together with Sinar and Leaf. The camera has been completely redeveloped and is digitally compatible. The camera was originally available in three versions from Franke & Heidecke, Sinar and Leaf ( Afi ). The lenses of the 6000 series can still be used without restriction, while the viewfinder and magazine connection have been newly developed. The available film magazine has a built-in transport motor, so that no mechanical power transmission is necessary between the camera and the film magazine. After clarifying the legal questions that had been open for a long time, DHW Photo Technology was able to re-issue the Rolleiflex Hy6 as an improved Model 2. This model was presented at photokina 2012.
| model | Production period | description |
|---|---|---|
| SLX | 1976-1979 | Forerunner of the 6000 system |
| SLX 2 | 1978-1985 | improved electronics |
| 6006 | 1984-1989 | Change magazine, TTL measurement |
| 6002 | 1986-1990 | without change magazines, TTL measurement |
| 6008 Professional | 1988-1992 | Open aperture measurement, spot measurement, handle |
| 6006 II | 1989-1993 | Multiple exposure |
| 6008 Professional SRC 1000 | 1992-1995 | with PQS lenses up to 1/1000 s |
| 6003 SRC 1000 | 1994-1996 | like 6008 without changing magazines |
| 6008 integral | 1995-2002 | Integral and spot measurement, master control device |
| 6003 Professional | 1996-2003 | improved electronics, faster transportation |
| 6001 professional | since 1998 | no exposure metering, studio model |
| 6008AF | since 2002 | with auto focus |
| 6008 Integral2 | since 2003 | Electronics of the 6008AF without autofocus |
| Rolleiflex Hy6 | since 2007 | "Hybrid" optimized for digital and analog, with autofocus |
| X-Act 1 | since 1999 | View camera with wide angle bellows, fixed image standard |
| X-Act 2 | since 1998 | View camera |
| Rolleiflex Hy6 Mod2 | since 2012 | improved hardware and new firmware version |
Since 2004
Splitting up
Franke & Heidecke GmbH
In 2004 Rollei Fototechnic GmbH spun off device production into Rollei Produktion GmbH . Rollei Produktion GmbH renamed Franke & Heidecke GmbH in September 2005 , with Kai Franke and Rainer Heidecke, two grandchildren of the company's founders, being shareholders . Franke & Heidecke again produced medium format cameras, projectors, photo-technical accessories and lenses at the old company location in Salzdahlumer Straße in Braunschweig. On February 27, 2009 Franke & Heidecke filed for insolvency, and on June 30, 2009 all 131 employees were given notice. The DHW Fototechnik GmbH bought parts of the insolvency of Franke & Heidecke GmbH and took parts of the production again. DHWfotosechnik GmbH has also been insolvent since 2014 and was wound up in April 2015.
Rollei GmbH
Rollei Fototechnic GmbH has since been renamed Rollei GmbH and initially sold Far Eastern digital cameras and entertainment electronics , including MP3 players and digital video recorders , for example . In 2006 Rollei GmbH ceased operations with consumer products.
Photogrammetry and custom-made products
The remaining business areas of photogrammetry and custom-made products from Rollei GmbH were brought into a joint venture with the Danish company Phase One in 2007/08 ( RolleiMetric ). The company continues to produce at its headquarters in Braunschweig, but has now been incorporated into Trimble Holdings GmbH (Raunheim) as the Metric Imaging Department.
Since 2007
Name rights management
Until the beginning of 2010, Rollei GmbH, headquartered in Berlin, continued to manage Rollei rights and licenses.
Another branch of the name sells by Hans O. Mahn & CO. KG (Maco) produced films under the brand name Rollei. These are remnants of former Agfa and Ilford / Kentmere film types as well as relabeled aerial photographs and repro films.
New owner
The RCP-Technik GmbH & Co KG , based in Hamburg, since 2007 licensee of Europe Rollei trademark rights and Rollei consumer products markets, has acquired the brand Rollei as of January 1 of 2010. The trademark acquisition includes the worldwide trademark rights.
In 2015 RCP-Technik GmbH became Rollei GmbH & Co. KG. The company's headquarters are in Norderstedt.
The current product portfolio of Rollei GmbH & Co. KG includes tripods, photo filters, studio flashes, compact digital cameras (model lines: Compactline, Flexline, Powerflex, Sportsline), camcorders (Movieline), digital picture frames as well as slide / film and photo scanners. The new Rollei products are currently on the market in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France, Portugal, Great Britain, Greece, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Rolleiflex
DHW Photo Technology in Braunschweig was represented at photokina 2012 and presented the much further developed Rolleiflex Hy6 with the name Hy6 Mod2. With the Hy6 it was possible to take photos either with film (6 × 6 or 4.5 × 6) or with various digital backs. In addition, there was a new edition of the twin-lens 6 × 6 medium format camera Rolleiflex as FX-N, a further development of the earlier Rollei Electronic Shutter as DHW Electronic Shutter No. Enter 0 HS1000. The X-Act 2 view camera, the Rollei 35 35mm camera and the Rolleivision projectors continued to be manufactured for the time being. The Rolleiflex 6008 was still available as the 6008 AF (with autofocus) or as the Rolleiflex 6008 Integral II (without autofocus).
Picture gallery
Headquarters, east side
Headquarters, memorial
Headquarters, west side
Advertising with the Rolleiflex
Workshop building I (left) and II (right), Salzdahlumer Straße
Test wall for the Rollei Metric system on workshop building II, Salzdahlumer Straße
Workshop building I, Salzdahlumer Straße, memorial
Workshop building II (right), IV (in the middle), V (left), Salzdahlumer Straße
Workshop building VIII, Salzdahlumer Straße (architect Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer )
Workshop building IX, Salzdahlumer Straße (architect Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer )
Workshop building IX, Salzdahlumer Straße, back side
See also
literature
- Udo Afalter: Rollei from 1920 to 1993 . Self-published by Udo Afalter, Gifhorn 1993; 204 p. (With contemporary articles about Rollei and their products).
- Udo Afalter: Rolleiflex, Rolleicord - Die Zweiäugigen 1928–1991 . Self-published by Udo Afalter, Gifhorn 1991, 192 p .; Cameras, lenses and accessories,
- Udo Afalter: Rolleiflex, Rolleicord - Die Zweiäugigen 1928–1993 . 192 pages; Cameras, lenses and accessories, Lindemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1993.
- Udo Afalter: The Rollei Chronicle. Volumes 1-3 . Self-published by Udo Afalter, Gifhorn 1990, ISBN 3-920890-02-7 .
- Udo Afalter: Rollei 35 - A camera conquers the world market . 144 pp., 1st edition. Self-published by Udo Afalter, Gifhorn 1990; 2nd / 3rd Edition Lindemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1991/1994 (cameras, lenses and accessories, advertisements and newspaper articles).
- Udo Afalter: From Heidoscope to Rolleiflex 6008 . Lindemanns, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-928126-51-2 (comprehensive work with a chronicle of Rollei products, e.g. Heidoscop, Rolleiflex SL 66, Rolleiflex 6008, Rolleiflex SL 35, Rolleiflex SL 26, Rolleiflex 2000 F / 3003, Rollei A110, viewfinder cameras, super-8 cameras, projectors, flash units, studio flash systems, films, slide frames, enlargers, special constructions, metrics, binoculars, tripods, lenses, accessories and Voigtländer products under Rolleiregie from 1972 to 1982).
- Walter Heering: The Rolleiflex book . Heering, Halle / Harzburg / Seebruck a. Chiemsee 1934, 1967, Lindemann, Stuttgart 1985 (repr.), ISBN 3-928126-00-8 .
- Bernd Heydemann / Müller-Karch: The golden book of commercial photography Part II - medium format - technology and application using examples of the Rollei SL66 ., Berg am Starnberger See, Laterna Magica, 1970.
- Claus Prochnow: Rollei 35 - A camera story . Appelhans, Braunschweig 1998, ISBN 3-930292-10-6 .
- Claus Prochnow: Rollei Report 2 - Rollei-Werke - roll film cameras 1946–1981 . Lindemanns, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-89506-220-0 .
- Jorgen Eikmann, Ulrich Voigt: cameras for millions, Heinz Waaske: designer . Wittig reference book, 1997, ISBN 3-930359-56-1 .
- Jürgen Lossau: The Rollei-Click . 60-minute documentary film (VHS), atollmedien.de, 1998, ISBN 3-9807235-0-X .
- Ian Parker: The Story of Rollei Two-Lens Reflex Cameras . Newpro, Faringdon 1992, ISBN 1-874657-00-9 .
Web links
- www.rollei.de - Official website of Rollei-RCP-Technik GmbH - Rollei Consumer Products (sales of compact digital cameras etc.)
- The last West German 35mm cameras / How they lost against the Japanese at www.taunusreiter.de
-
Information with images from Rollei cameras on the website of the International Rollei Club
-
History of the company and cameras on www.rolleigraphy.org
- Do it yourself, repair and modify photo equipment (including Rollei) at www.4photos.de
- Rollei pocket cameras A110 E110 Pocketline
- Overview of the Rollei films
Individual evidence
- ↑ 90 years of Rollei - 90 years of photo history. ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on rcp-technik.com (history of the company)
- ↑ a b Website of DHW Photo Technology at dhw-fototechnik.de
- ↑ Rollei 16 (model 1) . fernwehshop.de. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
- ↑ Rollei A 26 . fernwehshop.de. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
- ↑ Rollei A 110 . fernwehshop.de. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
- ↑ Rollei E 110 . fernwehshop.de. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
- ↑ Mismanagement at Rollei: Out of the ordinary on manager-magazin.de
- ↑ Rollei carved on photoscala.de, November 21 of 2007.
- ↑ Presentation of the Rollei RF 35 ( Memento from March 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Claus Prochnow: Rollei Report 5 . Lindemanns Verlag, 2000, ISBN 978-3-89506-183-7 .
- ↑ DHW Photo Technology wants to produce Rollei classics. photoscala, November 11, 2009, accessed February 22, 2010 .
- ↑ Decision to open bankruptcy. insolvenzwohlmachungen.de, October 2, 2014, accessed on January 10, 2015 .
- ↑ Rollei GmbH is shrinking ( getting healthy?) On photoscala.de, September 28, 2006.
- ↑ RolleiMetric on rollei-metric.com, Trimble Holdings GmbH, 2009.
- ↑ http://www.rollei.de/ueber-uns/
- ↑ The Hy6 is alive! Experience the Hy6 Mod2! on dhw-fototechnik.de
- ↑ photokina 2012: Rolleiflex Hy6 Mod2, Rolleiflex FX-N, Electronic Shutter on photoscala.de
- ↑ DHW Photo Technology website for the 6000 series on dhw-fototechnik.de
Coordinates: 53 ° 39 ′ 56.1 ″ N , 9 ° 58 ′ 46.6 ″ E