Rolleiflex 3.5F - Original Lens Cap

[osullic]

I want to buy a Rolleiflex 3.5F - a Type 3/4 - and would like it to include the original lens cap.
I notice there are original chrome lens caps as well as black plastic ones.
Could anyone help me to understand which lens caps were originally matched to which models, or was there an element of randomness to it?

Thanks for your help.

[DPurdy]

With the 2.8s the hinged black plastic caps are the newer ones. I believe the Chrome (mirror) caps are the older and the brushed metal caps came before the hinged black plastic. I read in one Rollei history book that the mirror cap is supposed to be used when taking self portraits. You can put the cap on the viewing lens and turn it so the taking lens isn't covered and then see yourself in the cap. I think with the 3.5 models the hinged black plastic cap is always a replacement from the original.

[osullic]

Thanks very much for your reply.

I have a reference book on classic Rollei cameras which I've found excellent (The Classic Rollei by John Phillips). In its listing of Rollei accessories, it says that the following lens caps were "supplied for" the 3.5F - "Metal, black with chrome or (later) satin-chrome centres" and "Plastic, black". It doesn't give any further details. Of course, it's not impossible that the book's data is incorrect.

I did also come across this similar question posted on Photo.net, with some not very helpful replies:
http://photo.net/medium-format-photography-forum/00Nz1o

I'm just curious about what was supplied with these cameras when they were originally available, and, if some came with metal and some with plastic lens caps, if there was some pattern to it.

Thanks again.

[DPurdy]

If you watch cameras on ebay a lot you will occasionally see one that is from a collector that is all original and still has the box and all. I have never seen the black plastic hinged cap on any of those. There is yet another black plastic cap that is not hinged and it is a very old type. Maybe that is what your reference is talking about. I think probably for the most part if you get a lens cap with a camera it is original. I would think a high percentage is so. It is not so difficult to keep a lens cap and not lose it. Might be that some are lost when a seller sells them aside from the camera hoping to get just a few extra bucks. It is merely my personal guess that F&H changed from the mirror chrome cap to the brushed metal cap because the brushed ones didn't start to look scratched up as easy.

Dennis

[osullic]

(I intended to reply sooner, and indeed have had this reply prepared for some days now, but the system would not accept my reply before now, which I have only just been made aware was because I am apparently not allowed to link directly to eBay listings.)

Dennis, thanks again for your reply, I appreciate your insight.

I keep my eye on 3.5F listings on eBay waiting for "my" one to come along.
Here are a few current listings just in relation to lens caps. I'm not sure if there is a pattern here:

eBay item 370778403075
3.5F pre 220 film option, S/N: 2282454, metal cap

eBay item 111004238361
3.5F post removal of film plane glass feature, S/N: 2831693, plastic cap

eBay item 190758790760
3.5F post removal of film plane glass feature, S/N: 2831751, plastic cap

eBay item 350660141543
3.5F white face, S/N: 2852354, metal cap

The thing is, ideally I'd like to get a later 3.5F after the film plane glass feature was removed, but I don't want to get a white face model - I prefer the look of the older face. As I mentioned above, I was hoping to get one that included the original lens cap, and I'm really just wondering if models that fit my requirements possibly only came with plastic lens caps. I prefer the look of the chrome cap, but I'd like to keep my kit authentic and not use a mismatched cap (even if of course it makes no difference practically and fitwise!)

As for my reference book, I'm attaching a scan here of its listing of relevant lens caps. You can see that the plastic cap that is listed as having been "supplied for" the 3.5F was indeed a hinged one, and that there was also a plastic slip-on cap with the same bayonet/lens separation measurements, but which is listed as having been supplied for the Rollei Magic I and II. (The book uses its own numbering system to match accessories to cameras - #15 is the 2.8A, #29 is the 3.5F with factory designation K.4D/K.4E, #35 is the 3.5F with factory designation K.4F, #37 is the 3.5E3, and #34 and #39 are the Rollei Magic I and II respectively.)

[DPurdy]

Re: your waiting for "My" 3.5F to come along.

I have gone through several Rolleis trying to find the best one for me and it is interesting that a few Rolleis have felt uncomfortable to me... not "mine"

The last one I got was late at night after I had been out for dinner and drinks with my wife. I had been watching ebay for a 2.8F Xenotar for months and never finding one in my price range in good condition. I checked ebay before I went to bed that night still tipsy with 4 pints of beer in me and saw that someone in New Jersey at what would have been 2:30AM there had just posted a beautiful seemingly mint condition very late 295 series white face 2.8F for $860.00 "buy it now". I jumped up from my chair and exclaimed "oh my god!" and started going round in circles.. should I do it? should I do it? am I just too drunk? Then I realized at that price the camera was going to last only a few minutes so quick as I could I hit the "buy it now" button and then I started worrying oh my god did I hit it in time? did someone beat me? But it went through and a few days later arrived at my door and the moment I opened the box and looked at it I knew it was "my" camera. It was beautiful inside and out and had absolutely pristine lenses. However it had a rattle that wasn't right inside. Rather than return it though I liked the camera so much I sent it to Harry fleenor instead for repair. The rattle turned out to be a loose screw and he charged me 40 dollars to fix it. 7 years later I still love the camera more than any Rollei I ever owned.

[DPurdy]

You do realize that the optical flat glass is merely an option that can be taken out? My 2.8E2 had the flat glass but I never put it in and kept the pressure plate set correctly for use without the glass and using it was just the same as using any non flat glass camera. Unless you are opposed to the small hump in the flat glass back.
Dennis

[osullic]

This might be bordering on paranoia, but is it the case that there is a chance, albeit a very slim one, that the shiny rails inside the camera that hold the film plane glass, which are presumably not there on cameras produced after the removal of this feature, can under certain circumstances produce reflections? I'm basing this on a post I saw on Photo.net (http://photo.net/medium-format-photography-forum/00aPDo); I could be entirely mistaken.

[DPurdy]

I remember that thread on photo.net and those dark areas on the side of his film were not caused by the camera.
There is a problem in Rolleis with the roller just outside the film gate on the bottom of the camera. It does reflect light in certain situations, and that reflection will show up as a plus density on the negative running across the film on the bottom of the next frame. It usually causes no problem because it is so close to the edge of the frame you crop it out anyway. Rollei attempted to remedy the problem in the FX by putting in black rollers instead of chrome rollers and it does help a lot in that the roller reflections in an FX are about half the density of the older cameras. I have both an FX and an F and the rollers are interchangeable camera to camera and top to bottom... they are all the same. So I took one of the Black rollers out of my FX and put it in place of the chrome roller on the bottom so now both my cameras have a chrome roller on top and a black roller on bottom.
This problem isn't generally anything to lose sleep over. In fact in one Rollei user group an angry debate raged on quite a long time about whether the roller reflection really existed at all... because certain members had never noticed it and so thought it didn't exist.

[Eddie Vaughan]

I have bought a few eBay items late at night after a few drinks, but have usually not been very satisfied with my purchases afterwards. I now try to stay reasonably sober. This is difficult, but it seems to work better for me.

Hinged black plastic lens caps look just as good as the original chrome types, in my opinion, and can be bought at much lower cost than the old originals. I do not worry that they are not as 'authentic', though I accept that this matters a lot to many collectors.

Eddie Vaughan