Rollei 35 S - Photo Gear (11)

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Not much bigger than a packet of cigarettes, the Rollei 35 is one of the smallest full-frame 35mm cameras, ever built.

Compactness was mandatory for its innovative design, the HFT Sonnar lens and the Rollei Compur shutter (on this version) being the guarantee for high- quality performance.

Coupled to aperture, shutter and film speed, the CdS exposure meter was of the match needle type. Like all classic cameras (the 35 S was built 1974 - 80), mercury batteries can be a problem to substitute, generally forbidden because of environmental issues.

I simply overcome the nuisance by using no batteries at all in such cameras.

I bring an external light meter instead!

You will notice that some dials and levers work differently, and are placed differently, than on most 35mm cameras:

Shutter speeds (1/2 s – 1/500 s, B) and aperture values (f / 2.8 – 22) are set by the two dials on the front of the camera;

Film transport lever is on the left side and winds to the left;

The film cartridge goes in the right side of the camera and the film travels to the left;

The rewinding crank, the exposure counter, and the acessory hot-shoe for flash are located on the underside of the camera;

Removable camera back to facilitate loading and unloading film;

You can release the lens by pressing a button, and turn and push it back into the body. It is then small enough to fit into a pocket (filter size 30,5mm)…

The Rollei 35 S is the smallest camera I use. Not much, I must confess…

Although the viewfinder is very satisfactory, and the shutter very silent, I miss the possibility of using a rangefinder (of course, it would make the camera bigger!) for exact focusing.

I can live with it, but 40mm focal distance is not really my dream for estimating the distance of my subjects…

For a little bit more size and weight, I definitely prefer to carry the robustness of a Leica M…

Nevertheless, the Rollei 35 might be an option in case you are looking for a small film camera with a price tag that can be better accepted by an average / not insane human being.

Long live the Rollei!




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Mies van der Rohe - Seagram Building, New York

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I don’t remember that much about New York!

I recall crowds of multicolored people dressed up in multicolored cloths in front of multicolored snacks, I remember a flood of Yellow Cabs claxoning their way through the lights.

We stood and stared at The Flatiron, we gazed at The Empire State, we marveled at the magnificence of The Twin Towers…
If we were already impressed by the Chicagoan skyscrapers, then New York really blew our minds!

Maybe I forgot a lot about New York, but Mies’s Seagram Building!

I don’t remember that much being in New York!

I know of cheap motels before and cheap motels after, I know about driving all the way from Chicago, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, I know about heading all the way up to Montreal and Toronto - and Detroit, and Chicago again, and Houston, Washington D.C., and, and... New York again… “Bye, bye, so long! See you soon!”

I still feel the miles running on empty under my seat, I can’t forget beautiful Connecticut and astonishing Vermont, I can’t forget the immenseness of America…

We were on a diet of fast food, so don’t ask me about New York tables, we were on a diet of everything, so poor Jorge and me we had tomatoes and milk for lunch, we pretended not to see elegant people sitting on hip restaurants, we faked city slickers in search of the Midnight Cowboy…

We have seen the rich and we have seen the beggars!

Who cares if I have memories of New York?

We drove by Central Park and MoMa, we wandered up and down Broadway, we figured out how to get cheaply closed to the Statue of Liberty, we knew nothing about New York, there was nothing to know about New York, but cheap thrills!

I had never before seen a photographic shop where the films and equipment boxes travell by cable car to the customer, now I know I have seen it all, “Do you have a credit card? Yes? Allright, now we can talk!” (and I will be hopefully nice and kind to you, that’s me reading his mind…).

There were a whole lot of things that I had never seen before! There are a whole lot of things that I have never seen after!

New York, I am tired, let me take a rest. The journey ahead is a long one, we must be ready!

I mainly associate New York with the sounds of “The Heart of Saturday Night” by Tom Waits, though I suspect that we didn't meet there…

“Depot, depot, what am I doing here?
Depot, depot, what am I doing here?
I ain't coming, I ain't going
My confusion is showing
Outside the midnight wind is blowing Sixth Avenue
I'm gonna paint myself blue
At the depot”

All photographs made on Kodak Ektachrome film with a Horseman SW 612 Pro and Rodenstock lenses (Apo-Grandagon 35mm + Grandagon-N 75mm), except for the first view made with a Gandolfi Variant III and Schneider lens.



“(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night”

Well you gassed her up
Behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one
In your Oldsmobile
Barrelin' down the boulevard
You're looking for the heart of Saturday night

And you got paid on Friday
And your pockets are jinglin'
And you see the lights
You get all tinglin' cause you're cruisin' with a 6
And you're looking for the heart of Saturday night

Then you comb your hair
Shave your face
Tryin' to wipe out ev'ry trace
All the other days
In the week you know that this'll be the Saturday
You're reachin' your peak

Stoppin' on the red
You're goin' on the green
'Cause tonight'll be like nothin'
You've ever seen
And you're barrelin' down the boulevard
Lookin' for the heart of Saturday night

Tell me is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin?
Telephone's ringin'; it's your second cousin
Is it the barmaid that's smilin' from the corner of her eye?
Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye.

Makes it kind of quiver down in the core
'Cause you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
And now you're stumblin'
You're stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night

Well you gassed her up
And you're behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one
In your Oldsmobile
Barrellin' down the boulevard,
You're lookin' for the heart of Saturday night

Is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin?
Telephone's ringin'; it's your second cousin
And the barmaid is smilin' from the corner of her eye
Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye.

Makes it kind of special down in the core
And you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
It's found you stumblin'
Stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night
And you're stumblin'
Stumblin onto the heart of Saturday night

From the record “The Heart of Saturday Night” – Tom Waits (1974)



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... and in the end...

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The End (Lennon/McCartney)

Oh yeah, all right
Are you going to be in my dreams
Tonight?

...And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make.

From the record "Abbey Road" - The Beatles (1969)



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