Hello all i just recently found these two Rolleiflexes in a box in my house. My great Uncle used them while he was a still photographer in California in the 50s and 60s. I assume he used these cameras a lot because the look like the have been used well. He shot the stills for such movies as The Great Escape, Some Like it Hot, The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, West Side Story, and many other that i would to find the list with all the movies on it.
The first camera is a 1959 Telle-Rolleiflex Type 1 with a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135mm F4 lens. The second one is a 1962 Rolleiflex 2.8E3 Xenotar 80mm. I was not sure if the worked at the time ( a few weeks ago), and i didnt know a thing about them. So i found out what they were and basically everything about them. The crank, leaf shutter, and all the focusing, shutter and aperture dials seemed to work fine. So i got some film and put a roll in each of the cameras and snapped away, got the film developed and printed and i was shocked at how good of pictures they were.
First i was shocked because my Great Uncle died in '85 so that could be the last time they were used. But im thinking they were not used well before then, so i bet these cameras have not operated in about 30-35 years!
So my question is are these particular Rollei's rare? I found a site that goes over i think all Rollei models which is here, http://antiquecameras.net/rolleiflex.html
It says for the 80mm there were about 2025 made and for the 135mm there were about 6420 made. After 50 odd years i think there might not be a lot of these left.
Thanks, Andy