Rolleiflex Baby 4x4cm Twin Lens Reflex Camera
Photo thanks to Jack Strelioff
[email protected]
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BABY ROLLEI, Case & Lens Cap in MINT(read below) Condition. This is a Classic Collectible made in 1958 for 127 Film(still available). Not easy to find in this Great Condition!
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998
From: todd [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Rollei] Baby 4x4
Jimi wrote:
This means there are a few (at least two of my knowledge) websites
with
wrong information about the gray baby 4x4s. Which is a lesson to
never
trust info from a website... And that again shattered my hope of
getting
a Rollei with a 2.8 taking lens without having to fork out way-out
prices
for a Rolleiflex 2.8. (sigh. Back to bankrobbing plan A
again.)
You might find a Rolleiflex 2.8 A around for a good price. Ipaid $350 US for mine in very nice shape, with case and cap. The lens is a 2.8/80 Zeiss Opton, although it could be had with the earlier Jena Tessar. According to Marc and contrary to popular opinion, many of these lenses are top notch Tessars, only some were faulty and many of the faulty ones had the lenses changed when they were brought in for repairs. The presence of an MX shutter is a sign that the camera probably has a "good" lens as this was added along with the replacement lens. Later the camera was issued with the Opton Tessar and MX synch.
Todd
From: [email protected] Newsgroups: rec.photo.equipment.medium-format Subject: Re: Baby Rollei !! Just Ebayed one Tell me about em!! Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 The Baby Rollei has a very good reputation. When you receive the camera be sure to check the shutter speeds as slow shutters are common on older cameras (not just the Baby Rollei). The 127 Rolleiflexes came out in the 1930s but their "killer ap" so to speak was invented in the late 1950s, and that would be the superslide. Basically you can fit a nearly full 4x4 127 exposure into a 2"x2" mount which is standard for a 35mm projector. This was (and still is) done by cropping 6x6 or 645 exposures (and in my case the occasional 6x9 -sorry). The advantage of the 127 film is that you don't need to crop the image much to fit it into the mount. Both Gepe and Wess make glass superslide mounts. Gepe makes a cutter that will cut your film to fit the mount perfectly (www.gepe.com). There was also a cutter made some time ago by Mamiya which will cut the film to fit into the Wess mounts, although this has been discontinued. "Vest Pocket" (127) film is very compact. Some of the folding cameras using 127 film are more compact when folded than many 35mm cameras. This inherent "compactness" is not lost on the Baby Rollei. The camera's real easy to tote around and for that reason it was very popular with amateurs. The only real negative to 127 film today is that there are only 2 emulsions that are manufactured: Efke for Black and White (sold also under the Macophot brand name) and Macochrome, which is an E6 film. Portra 160 and I believe one of the Fuji C41 emulsions are sold in bulk 100' rolls. Using bulk film rolls would mean that you'd have to roll your own 127 film using salvaged reels. If you go to B&H Photo, you'll find the manufactured as well as the hand rolled variants for sale (www.bhphotovideo.com). The Frugal Photographer has cardboard superslide mounts and other 127 stuff (www.frugalphotographer.com). B&H also carries the Gepe superslide mounts. There is also an importer, J&C Photo (don't know the url, something like "jandcphoto.com"), who can sell you Efke and Macochrome fairly cheap. I'd very much like to hear what others have to say about the Baby Rollei as I don't own one (I use a Komaflex) but I have a hunch it's an excellent camera. [email protected] wrote: > Just blew $150 bucks for a stated "mint" condition Baby Rollei. We'll have > to see about that condition but it sure is cute. Yes-I'm aware it takes 127 > film but just sooooo cute. Are they worth a darn though!! I'm a Hasselblad > user but as I said the Baby Rollei is so cute I had to have it!!!!!!! > Forgive me, > J BurkeEnd of Page