Anyone use a Rolleikin?

[Kyle]

Ordinarily I'd laugh at the Rolleikin, it seems like a such a dumb accessory. If I wanted 35mm, I'd just pop a roll into a different camera. However, I found out after the fact that the Rolleiflex I just acquired is coming with a Rolleikin. I figure I'll at least try out it. So those out there that have this accessory, what do you think of it?

[bob cole]

Essex Camera of New Jersey installed a Rolleikin permanently for me about 25 years ago and I haven't used it in years...

It's like having a 75mm Zeiss Tessar [Planar or other] lens on your Leica and instead of getting 12 pix of 2¼ x 2¼ on 120 film, you get 24 or 36 pix on 35mm film...plus the Rollei's ground glass image...


You will be able to use your Rollei with or without the Rolleikin -- if you have all the parts, so whichever you use, be careful to save all the parts... If you have the instructions, you can install it yourself in a few minutes. Essex installed mine because my Rolleikin was for a different model Rollei and it had to be adapted to fit my Rollei but now it can't be removed...which is fine...I have a 35mm Rolleiflex...

[Ash]

I was missing a vital part to make mine usable on my Rolleicord, so I never used it. I used some of the parts once for a test roll. not too impressed. More fun to use the Rollei as it was intended.

[Wayno]

I've put a few rolls through using a Rolleikin - mainly for the novelty value. However, it is a nice set-up for portraits giving you a 75 or 80mm lens on 135 film as Bob said. I've taken some nice shots of my sons using the 35mm adapter. This guy has done some really nice stuff using a Rolleikin. One disadvantage of using the set-up is that it's VERY difficult to do any pictures in a landscape orientation without using the sportsfinder or a prism.

Here are a couple of my examples. Don't have any portraits scanned at present.


Some of these are Rolleikin + Rolleinar - making the most of those Rollei accessories...

[easyrider]

I bought one at a camera fair a few years ago. I installed it and as, pointed out above, it is great for portraits. I have Rollei MX auto with a 3.5 Tessar.

However, the film advancing is a bit cumbersome.

I have some old Rollei brochures that advertised the Rolleikin for use with Kodachrome. That certainly made sense.

I don't use the Rolley often but when I do, I like the 6x6cm for composition.

The Tessar is as sharp as ever but I should invest in a new screen.

Unfortunately, most of my work is digital these days.

I did pull out my Leica IIIa a few weeks ago for a jazz shoot. I posted some in another thread.


This old stuff is great to play with.