First Impressions: The Rolleiflex 3.5F
In the many years that I have been building my camera collection, there is one camera that I have coveted and admired above any other. The Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera was my grail camera, the one that I knew I simply had to have one day. Rolleiflex TLRs are some of the most beautiful and iconic cameras that were ever produced. Rolleiflex TLRs have been used by numerous famous photographers throughout the decades from Richard Avedon to Lee Miller.
Rolleiflex Advertisement
Recently, after years of longing, I finally added a Rolleiflex to my collection. I won’t go into detail on the history or technical aspects of the camera as that can be easily found across the internet. The model I acquired is a beautiful 3.5F with Planar lens and coupled light meter. From research online I believe my Rolleiflex dates to approximately 1961 and has a removable focusing hood. The moment I unpacked it from the box and opened up the ever ready case, it was love. It is a simply stunning camera and you can instantly see and feel the difference in build quality compared to other TLRs, it feels like a substantial precision machine. My camera is also in beautiful condition and a clean and clear lens, which is something to look out for when purchasing any camera. A good guide to choosing a Rolleiflex can be found here.
Rolleiflex 3.5F
My favourite aspect of using a TLR is looking down into the ground glass focusing screen to compose the photograph. Using a waist level viewfinder is a vastly different experience to shooting a camera at eye level and you also have to contend with the image being reversed on the focusing screen. For me, there is something very magical about shooting with a TLR. It is like disappearing down the viewfinder into another world and my focus is solely on the task of capturing the image.
Disappearing into another world.
There was very little learning curve in using the Rolleiflex as many of the controls are consistent with my Yashica TLRs. Everything from loading the camera to focusing and using the winding mechanism were easy and intuitive if you have prior experience in using a TLR. The shutter button lock is a useful feature for preventing an accidental exposure and the shutter itself is extremely quiet. Your aperture and shutter speed are set using the two dials on the front of the camera and you can set your ASA/ISO using a dial on the left of the camera. Having the coupled selenium light meter is useful but I also found myself forgetting to utilise it as I’m not accustomed to using a coupled light meter on my TLR. There is also a useful depth of field scale built into the focusing knob.
Meter on the Rolleiflex 3.5F
My first TLR, the Yashica 635 will always remain one of my all time favourites as it was my first TLR and introduced me to medium format photography, which I fell in love with. However, seeing the initial scans from my Rolleiflex test roll was an excitement that I have not felt in a long while. There is always a risk in acquiring a grail camera, that it will not live up to expectation. In this case I need not have worried, the images are every bit as beautiful as I could have imagined.
I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful model than my gorgeous niece whom I shot on Fomapan 400. It was a joy to capture her on film and I extend a huge thanks to her parents for allowing me to create and share some of these beautiful memories. I foresee many a photoshoot in our future! Despite my own amateur skills, I am so pleased with the results which are all the more meaningful to me because they are of someone so special. The planar lens produces stunning photographs that are sharp but also have a timeless character to them. As someone who rarely ever photographs people, I can now appreciate why the Rolleiflex was and remains a camera of choice for portrait work. This camera may even inspire to try more portraits as it feels like it was made to capture people and moments. The quiet shutter also makes this an ideal camera for street photography as evidenced in the work of Vivian Maier. I look forward to challenging myself to shoot as much as possible with the Rolleiflex and hopefully improving my own photography skills along the way. This is a machine that was made be to be used and enjoyed and my first impressions are that it was most certainly worth the wait.