Rollei XF 35

[melek]

Went to use my little Rollei XF 35, and the film advance mechanism broke.

For a while, these were cult cameras, but I don't know why. The first one I bought was around 1979, and it broke 15 feet from the camera store.

The next one that I bought a few years back had a rangefinder that sometimes was aligned and sometimes wasn't.

This is the third one, and now the take-up spool doesn't rotate.

A pretty camera. But pretty useless, too.

[PFMcFarland]

Plastic gears and such just don't last as long as metal ones. Seems the older models have dried lubrication issues.

PF

[Philip]

Yep. It was nothing like the rest of the Rollei 35 family (which was made of metal). And the much-vaunted Sonnar lens (in other Rollei cameras) never seemed to be much above "Optical lenses" in my XF35.

I still use mine from time to time but only because it's there.