Rolleiflex 4x4 steal

[gedjames]

Hi there,

I have just picked up what appears to be a rolleiflex 4x4 original at a local second hand shop for 25 euros in the Czech Republic. The owner of the shop has another 3 of them with cases for around the same price (30-50 euros). The one I have seems to have all the parts including the small magnifier but unfortunately the paint has started to flake off the top cover.

Serial No # 134579 According to Rolleiclub #'s this is 1931-1933 ?
Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:3.5 f=6cm
Heidoskop-Anastigmat 1:2.8

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54780198@N06/?saved=1

I am new to these and have managed to download a full operators manual. Any tips or things to watch for when operating greatly appreciated, also best film to use and where to buy.

Cheers

Gerard

[JanBoettcher]

Go and get the other babies too! Yes, it is a steal.

One source for 127 film in Gemany:
http://www.macodirect.de/advanced_searc ... a0b00dd5b1
(disregard the Ilford MG stuff in the search result!)

By the way: That yellow filter on your camera is very interesting!

[babyblue964]

HI Gerard,

Am new to the Rollei Club, and I joined as I had purchased a baby in October.

Yours looks like a pre-war version, whilst I have the 'common' grey baby.

127 film is not easily available (but is still available, as mentioned by Jan). An alternative is to cut down 120 film to 127 film (very close to 46mm wide).

Not too sure about the pre-war babies but the post-war ones have a safety feature that prevents the shutter from firing unless the hood is in the open position.

As to what to watch out for, cannot really say. Have run about 10rolls of film through mine, and no issues as yet. Some of the babies do not take too well to the plastic efke spools (when used as a take-up spool), as the efke spools are a bit thicker than the older metal spools.

This is because the holder in the Rollei (for the take-up spool) is engineered with quite a close tolerance for the width of the spools. The approximately 1mm difference in width causes the plastic spool to jam (or make the winding action harder).

The efke film is incredibly curly, and may not feed that easily into the developing spools. This can be negated partially by gently reverse rolling the film a bit. I do cut the corners off the film before feeding it into the developing spools (I use the Patterson adjustable ones), as this helps the film clear the spokes of the spools.

The EV table on the rear cover is quite accurate, and with a bit of guesstimation, it can be adapted for other films.

My favourite film at the moment is Kodak 400TX which I cut down to size (in terms of width and length), and re-roll onto used metal spools with the backing paper (can be bought on-line).

Andrew

[Esprit S4]