the International Rollei Club

Welcome to the all New Rollei Club

Many visitors may have seen the old Rollei Club pages before. Unfortunately that website 'died' with the disappearance of the owner/webmaster of those pages Dr. Mark Meijer. Now more than a year ago. If you can provide serious and reliable information about his faith and or whereabouts please let me know.
You are not encouraged though to start new discussions about his ceased business activities. Given the extremely high positive feedback on his Ebay pages untill his activities stopped so suddenly we have to assume something tragic happened to him.

The NEW Rollei Club is a voluntary continuation of dr. Mark Meijer's work. It will be again the most comprehensive Rollei Camera & History website on the web. Over time the site will grow and many new features will be added .
This forum may be the first example of the high quality I intend to present.

Since I am a sole operator and have to make a humble living out of photography and web design I ask you for patience and occasionally some support.

For now : Let me know your whishes for the NEW Rollei Club Pages and bookmark the site, come back often !
Best Regards;
Jaap Roskam

Thanks for bringing this back to life Jaap. I hope it thrives!

Regards,

Richard

Hi Jaap.
It's great to see some new Rollei content on the web! A lot other Rollei sites have either now vanished or not been updated in years. Given the huge worldwide interest that there is out there in Rollei's (list a Mint, boxed Rolleifix on ebay to see what I mean) I am surprised that a forum like this doesn't already exist.
A forum like this is a great way for Rollei owners from all over the world to meet, share experience, tips, photo's or just to discuss those strange looking old cameras that we love so much!

Theres a lot of Rolleiflex sites out there which have neat aspects to them, but as I mentioned before have often not been maintained or updated for quite a while. It would be really great if all of these enthusiasts with their little gems of information and site content could be incorporated into this site, to truly make this the one-stop-shop site for the Rollei fan.

If I can be of any help then count me in! I have a modest collection of Rolleiflex literature (manuals and brochures) from the '30's through to the 70's that I'd be willing to scan should you wish to incorporate a literature section at any time. I'm sure there are other hoarders of paperwork out there that would be willing to add what they have to the database, but I'm not sure about copyright issues though?

Anyway good luck with the site, it deserves to do well!

James

Thanks James,
Your words encourage me and certainly many others to make this a REAL INTERNATIONAL Rollei Club. I hope my 30 years of professional experiences with the Rollei system , my reasonable webdesign capablities and my love for the Rollei Cameras in general may all accumulate into that one stop for Rollei on the web.
Knowledgable support into Rollei history with regards to all aspects, from brochures to manuals and from factory and dealer collections to that singe privately owned gem, any relevant information is welcome ! It may very well be that it becomes to big for one man , so your offer is greatly appreciated. Who follows?
Jaap

Hi Jaap,

Glad to see it back.
What happened with the original product sheet and database for Rollei. We always use those infor for reference. Could it be found back?

B.rgds./nifeng

I am still in the process of simultanuously reorganizing all data AND redisigning the website. It will be an entirely new design with many more features as the old site. The data from the old site how-ever should return as it was : very comprehensive. Please be patient: Recollection of all the data from the old site is like putting a book together that was ripped apart in a storm where many pagenumbers got lost in the rain. A bit of a huge puzzle;-)

Hi Jaap,

If you need the old site I have bought the cd some years ago and I have also downloaded the site on my pc just let me know if you want I can send you a copy by mail or e-mail.
Good luck

Marco

Hello Marco
Thanks so much for the offer. I was able to download probably all the contents of the old site(s) from a "historic" webarchive, but it iss a very scattered archive and I am still in the process of putting it all together. So your offer is more than welcome. On the other hand: I will give the site a complete re-design and only use the 'old' site structure as a basis to start from. Besides of that I bought a set of 3 CD's from Mike Kovacs in Canada they will be in my mail any day now I hope. Possibly your offfer is a duplicate of those but just as well an addittion So yes by all means if you do not mind ....?

jaap

I Jaap,

When I buy the cd set was only made of 2 cd
BTW if you are interested if you drop in my email your address I will put the 2 cd set on a dvd and ship it.

Marco

Good to see that someone finally took up the task of returning this great and detailed information to the internet again. The old site was a very good source of reference for identifying the different Rolleis.

I look forward to the day when it is up and running again.

Hi, Jaap!
Thank you for awaking the interesting site, I'm very appreciate for your efforts and looking forward for Rollei related info :)

Goog luck

Nikolay

:grin: Hi all, I'm very happy to find this " clubhouse " , and this enthusiasts.
Regards.

I get my old Rolleiflex T out of its case for a dusting-down and exercise, and make a decision to get back into medium format b&w, after some years of courting 'digital'. Don't get me wrong, digital is fine for purpose and along with my 35mm OM's will continue to have a place in my photographic life, but then, there's the experience of handling and using a piece of kit as old as I am (but in much better condition!), where I can ponder and walk back and forward instead of zooming and think about filters and tones, and developing, and, and. Well, many of you will know what I mean. Then I do a Google search for the old Rollei site and come across this forum.
Jaap, I wish you and your venture success and trust that it will serve to give the Rollei enthusiast a new dimension to his or her hobby or profession. I hope that I will be able to contribute in some small way.

Michael.

Hi Bengt
What a great story you shared with this RolleiClub. It is this and so many more that inspire me to make this website simply the very best Rollei site on the web.
What really struck me are the many paralels in your life and mine. Age, Pentax Spotmatic, Interrail early 70's ( in 1974 I even went to ... Stockholm), RolleCord, work for a photographer, own studio, passing away of a parent ... most likely to young .
Al I can say from far away yet so close Australia : Welcome Mate !!
Jaap Roskam

Jaap thank you a great deal for reinstituting this site. The original site was so helpful and I am sure this will be as well or better. Elsewhere in this site I have noted my early connection with Rollei cameras. My father started me in photography, I still have one of his cameras a treasure I will always keep. Work and business travel disrupted my photography, but now being retired I have plunged into it again and have gathered a few Rolleis which I use frequently. As long as I am able I will work in the traditional form of photography and this forum will be a great help in my continued efforts. Thank you again for your efforts and if I can provide useful information please let me know.

Cheers, mate,

Thanks for the hearty welcome - I feel at home already.

Thanks also for that new Rollei historical chart - I just found out that the Rolleicord that I inherited from my father isn´t a IV model from 1953 at all as I have always believed ( I feel like a complete 'drongo'), it´s a V model from 1954 or later. The bigger focusing knob, double exposure lever and self timer determined this.
I´d like to have the Vb model as well, with the detachable focusing hood and the possibilty to use the 4,5 x 6 cm format with 16 exposures.

How are things down under?
I used to know a very nice guy from Sydney - we once met in the Swiss alps (back in 1989) at the foot of the Matterhorn, which we decided to climb the next day. After that, we kept in touch with letters for a while. I had always wanted to climb this mountain because the beauty of it. I went to Switzerland on my own to do this, and slept in the back of the car on the way down in Germany. When we had succeeded (after quite an 'epic' descent, rapelling down in complete darkness in an electrical thunderstorm), I wrote my 'Sheila' a postcard and told her the good news.
The day after the climb was a happy, sunny day - we celebrated with a couple of good pints in the small town of Zermatt and became really good friends. I took some colour photographs of the climb and the mountain, which hangs on the wall to this very day.

Travelling is very nice - its a wonderful way to get to know new and interesting people, if you have an open mind.
I would really like to visit Australia and New Zealand some day.

Take care,
Bengt :-)

Nice story, Bengt!

I bought my first Rollei some eight years ago, (actually my first real camera) a Rolleicord Vb in mint condition. Unfortunately, less than a year later, due to empty pockets and no job, I was forced to sell it. I regretted it sorely, but what to do?

Years have passed, but about two months ago, I found another Rolleicord Vb. When I got it, it looked a bit different, having a feet instead of meter DoF scale. I got curious and asked the seller about it, and he replied: "Aah, well, I found this one in a shop in Melbourne and it seemed to call out to me, so I bought it." :)

So now it sits on my desk, having travelled over land and sea to Sweden. It's a small world sometimes. It needs a CLA but my Rolleicord IV does the duties at the moment instead.

Hello jerevan,

That´s a really nice story, too, about the wandering ways of the Rolleicords.
Whreabouts in Sweden do you live? I live in Sundbyberg, a town just north of Stockholm.

All the best,
Bengt :-)

Hi jerevan,

Link??ping - what a coincidence. I went there this summer for a couple of days, to be able to vist the Swedish Air Force museum at Malmsl?§tt - my aim was to take a lot of documentary, detail photographs (digital) of the only surviving Swedish ?ñ1 'Tummelisa' trainer biplane for a flying scale model that I am about to start building (any year now . . .). Here¬¥s a photo of it (not mine, though - they are a lot sharper):



I also visited the beautiful open air museum of Old Link??ping, where I visited the historical camera exhibition, where they had these camera beauties:
An early Rolleicord from the 1930s, with the Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar f=4,5/75mm lens:


A Rolleiflex from the 1950s, with the Schneider Xenotar f=3,5/75mm lens:


This camera collection was very interesting with hundreds of different cameras, ranging from the late 19th century to fairly recent 'point-and-shot' ones from the 60s and 70s, for example a Canon DIAL 35. Including also a Leica M3 and a Hasselblad 1000F equipment, with three rare Zeiss lenses.
It´s well worth a visit if you are in the vicinty - I stayed at the modern Youth hostel and hotel in the city centre.

Best,
Bengt :)