Rollei lenses?

[Victor Nguyen]

I found this when I was looking for wide angle lenses. http://www.ebay.com/itm/230865114454?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Can anybody tell me more about them?

[nemesis101]

Rollei had a line of film SLR cameras back in the day, indeed the SL66 was one of my first medium format cameras!

They also made more expensive ones, and the Zeiss optics branded by Rollei are uniformly excellent, though whether one can obtain adapters to use them on a modern digital camera only Google knows..

Doug.

[Victor Nguyen]

no adapter? then that's worthless... Aren't anybody here that can swap out the mount?

[Oreste]

[Aanything]

[Attila]

proper usage of ebay brackets

[ebay]220924370613[/ebay]

put item number first to post , select item number with one click and finally push Ebay button, don't put URL into brackets.

I did fix genuine post , now it is visible

[Attila]

Rollei used different vendors , certainly Carl Zeiss is Carl Zeiss regardless of mount. Mamiya made many Rollei or Voigtlander labelled lenses. I have good experience with them, Mamiya made lenses are mostly good as other Japanese top brands Nikon, Konica , Canon etc.

[Victor Nguyen]

I'm just scare there's not going to be mount in the future. All my lens have pretty future proof mount... canon,nikkor, m43, and contax.

[fermy]

Ok, so is the lens labelled Rollei HFT-Distagon identical to the one labelled Carl Zeiss Distagon in Rollei mount and if not, what are the differences and how the two compare? The same question concerning Rollei HFT Planar and CZ Planar.

Also are there optical differences between CZ optics for Rollei and C/Y?

[Attila]

With Rollei HFT label they are licensed lenses made by Rollei not Zeiss , optical scheme is identical , probably lens too, Orio I think who know answer exactly.

[Attila]

[Orio]

Several of the Zeiss lenses for Rollei SL cameras did actually arrive to Rollei before they were made for Contax/Yashica.
In fact, those lenses "bridged" the production for the Contarex (some of the models, like Distagon 2.8/25, passed on to Rollei almost unchanged)
with the production for Contax/Yashica, covering a gap of a couple of years during which Zeiss did produce lenses for third party only (Rollei, Hasselblad, Arriflex).
The Zeiss lenses for the Rollei SL cameras are identical optically to the first batch (AE models) of the Contax/Yashica line, with the
(rather notable) exception of the coating, which on Rollei lenses is not branded "T*" but "HFT".
According to Zeiss itself, the HFT coating process is "almost" the same as the T* process, granting great quality coating at a somehow inferior price.
Zeiss seemed to imply (my guess) that the process was basically the same but employing less expensive metal materials.
I own a few Rollei lenses, and their Contax/Yashica equivalents, and in all fairness, I have to say that I do not notice any coating performance difference in real use
between the lenses of the two systems. THere is also to say, that I did not torture-test the lenses under extreme conditions, mostly because I am a photographer
and not a tester and basically I don't give a quid about differences that are insignificant under real photographic use.

Are the Rollei SL lenses worth a buy? Totally yes. But keep in mind that if you plan to use them on Canon EF cameras, you need to have infinity recalibrated in the lenses,
because there is no adapter thin enough to guarantee infinity focus (even if sellers will claim that their adapters do allow for infinity, you should better trust me, because I tried them all).

Are Rollei SL lenses a better bargain than Contax/Yashica lenses? Usually not. This because they are more rare,
and the same lens model in Rollei SL and Contax mount usually fetches higher prices in the Rollei version.

[fermy]

Thanks Orio, that's very useful to know. I use them on mirrorless, so for me the mount makes no difference.

[Victor Nguyen]

[Aanything]

[Attila]

[Lloydy]

I picked up a Rolleiflex SL35 with a Planar 1.8 / 50 in near mint condition from a charity shop the other day for next to nothing, and I love it. The camera is basic, no frills at all. Just 1/1000 top speed, the meter is ok but difficult to see the needle in low light, and it seems to be built like a tank. My camera is a Singapore built one and the lens is West German.
The lens is a joy. I've only used it with Ilford XP2 ISO 400 so far, and the results are excellent. I know that the only other possible use for the lens is to expensively convert it to Canon EOS, but that's not going to happen. This lens seems so at home with old school black and white film, and that's fine with me.
I'd like a wide angle for it, but not at that price !

[fermy]