[rollei_list] Re: Good news from DHW Fototechnik (Rolleiflex) at Photokina 2010
- From: Emmanuel Bigler <Emmanuel.Bigler@xxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:18:38 +0200
From CarlosMFreaza:
good news..
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=46662.0
Carlos
Dear friends !
I was at the photokina last week-end, this was my first visit ever !!
The informations I got at DHW are similar to what is reported at the
luminous landscape forum, although I did not really want to try and get
more or less confidential information about what was going on behind the
scenes.
The DHW booth was located just across Linhof's and next to Rodenstock's.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/5035909850_674dc74b76_b.jpg
I had a pleasant conversation with a nice gentleman, and he told me that
the special series of decorated Rollei 35 and TLRs were already
sold-out. You ask what you wish as a special decoration, they will make
it upon request. This, obviously, means price levels out of reach for
most reasonable Rolleiphiles, but all Rolleiphiles are not reasonable
;-) Even luxury, out-of-reach Swiss watches are often made in batches of
500 ... I wish that DHW could fabricate Rollei TLRs by batches of 500 !!
The 6008 SLR and the tele rolleiflex TLR are still on the catalogue, see
here.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/5035909848_75782199a8_b.jpg
And the HY6 was also on display with the new motor-driven 6x6 magazine
dedicated to the HY6.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4104/5035909854_77b740cfc2_b.jpg
However, nobody told me "we do continue to fabricate the HY6" and my
feeling is that, for the moment, DHW is selling the existing stock.
I spoke about my visit to Salzdahlumer Straße in March 2006 with
Dirk-Roger Schmitt, I was told that DHW is still installed in one of the
historical buidings (red brick). Rollei-the-trade-mark-company is
supposed to be the owner of the building, as far as I understood.
-------now, most if off-rollei-topic----
On our way to the kina, we were confident that the market of fine black
and white silver-halide papers was stabilized, thanks to Harman(Ilford)
in Britain and new players like Foma in the Czech Republic, and other
sources ((Agfa-Maco-rebadged-Rollei) distributed in Germany, for
example, by Foto-Impex in Berlin. Foto-Impex had a booth with the new
ADOX-branded paper made in Germany by Inoviscoat.
Harman-Ilford had chosen to present only their new direct-positive B&W
paper. On a wall we could see and handle a roll of this paper that had
been re-spooled as a 120 roll and directey exposed to light in a 6x7
camera. Used directely, the contrast of the paper is (IMHO) too hard,
however we were explained that a pre-flashing technique could help
managing this contrast. Well, at least for printing.. It was a deception
not to see the full assortment of Harman-Ilford papers, whereas Foma and
Lucky(China) had a booth with, at least, all their boxes on display (may
be empty boxes ?)
Regarding FOMA, I asked a lady on duty about the possible introduction
of their reversal B&W film FOMAPAN R-100 in 120 rollfilm. Too bad, the
answer was clearly : NO, since the demand is too low. Introducing the
FOMAPAN R-100 in 120 rolls would mean to coat the emulsion on a
different support. Currentlay FOMAPAN R-100 film is availemble in
perforated 35 mm 16mm and double eight for movie cameras, plus of
course in 135/36 exp. format. So, sorry folks, but no FOMAPAN R-100 for
your rolleiflex TLR, execept of course in 135 with the Rolleikin....
So my friends and myself were a bit worried by he future of those fine
products, and we were only at guess : do the last players in the filed
of silver halide papers nolonger need the advertising support of the
Kina to rech their distributrs and customes ? Does eveything go through
the Internet ? Is the price for a boot at the Kina so high that some
companied in niche markets consider that it is not worth the expense ???
Of course this 2010 edition of the Photokina is "post-war" photokina, I
mean the "lost war" of photo-chemical photography against silicon and
digital techniques.
Sure, Kopak was there introducing a new color neg film ISO 400, with a
nice demonstration print, and Fuji had big poster-size images made with
the Fuji-Bessa 6x7 camera loaded with color slides. But somebody without
priir knowledg of what film and film camera are, would have hard times
to find film on display... and as far as film cameras are concerned, you
could count them with the fingers of one hand only, if there had noe
been several large format view camera manufacturers attending the Kina !
At the Kodak booth, a corner was reserved for Keith Canham and son. I
stopped and had a chat with Keith's son. There wer 3 models on display,
the 4x5", the 5x7" and the 8x10". I asked which one was the best-seller,
and the answer was : the 8x10" !!!
The new wide-angle fuji-bessa was on display but there was no indication
of the possible date for introduction on the market. At least it means
that there was some return on investment with this bellows camera, so
the r&D department went on developping a wide-angle model, no bellows.
During the visit, I took a roll of 36 exposures with my faithful
Rollei-35-SE camera. When we visited Shen Hao, a Chinese supplier (or
manufacturer, or both ??) of large format wooden field cameras and
accessories, including a range of 120 rollfilm backs from various
faormats, from the classical 6x9 cm to an improbable 6x24cm
"ultra-panoramic" format.
A lady from the Shen Hao staff asked about my camera, she probably
though about a kind of a new digital gimmick of unknow origin. ;-);-) I
had to explain !!
Not kidding, the camera was made in 1980 or 1981. I challenge users of
current digital camera of the same size AND image quality as the rollei
35 to come back to the 2040 edition of the Photokina and take pictures
with it ;-)
Otherwise besides DHW-Rollei, most of my time was dedicated to visit
European companies manufacturing high precision view cameras for digital
imaging with medium format silicon sensors : Alpa, Arca Swiss, Linhof,
Cambo, Silvestri, Seitz (high-end panoramic cameras, including a crazy
6x17 digital ultra-fast scanning camera), Sinar. And of course, German
lens manufacturers : Carl Zeiss, Schneider-Kreuznach and Rodenstock.
Arca Swiss is introducing a new tripod head, the d4 / d4m, in-betwen a
ballhead and a 3-way head.
Schneider and Rodenstock are competing to offer the best wide-angle view
camera lenses for medium format silicon sensors. At the Alpa booth,
there were examples of images taken with the Digaron 23 mm Rodenstock
lens. The results either for landscape, urban landscape, industrial
shots, probably outperform the best prints of similar subjects that
were done with 4x5" or even 8x10" view cameras, at least in single-shot
mode. And at least for color images. However, at Arca Swiss we could
admire architecture shots made by stiching either 4x5" images or 6x9
frames taken with a monorail camera, reaching a level of quality
impossible to describe here. Arca Swiss has also developed 3 models of
"flat-digital-view cameras", the Rm2d, the Rm3d (those cameras like the
Alpa cover the 6x9 format) and the RL3d (this one covers the 4x5" format).
For the moment, Japanese manufacturers seem to have abandoned this niche
market of "digital view cameras" to the Europeans : Alpa / Arca Swiss /
Cambo / linhof / Silvestri / Sinar for cameras, and Schneider-Rodenstock
for lenses. Just across Arca Swiss was located the Phase One booth, with
many of those digital view cameras on display, to show an open-system
approach.
On this issue, Sinar who changed owners recently and is relocated in
Zurich area seems to be more open-oriented than in the past. They had on
display a new electronic leaf shutter, the same product was displayed at
the Rodenstok booth under the Rodenstock brand. So at least there is a
market for view camera lenses, since a new shutter is introduced. I have
no idea about who actually makes this shutter, and I did not ask at DHW
if they continued to fabricate the Rollei electronic leaf shutters for
view cameras in sizes #0 and #1 ; there was a Rodenstock lens on display
at Rodenstock's, equipped with a #1 electronic Rollei shutter, the
person on duty told my that the electronic Rollei shutter was made by DHW.
The new Sinar/Rodenstock shutter is size #0 only.
You can see all the images here on my rollei-flickr page, the last
uploads are the Kina's
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43175600@N00/page1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43175600@N00/page2/
Sorry, the legends are in French, I hope than others than Carlos can
understand them (Carlos, I wish I could read Spanish like you can easily
read German and French ....)
All the best !
--
Emmanuel
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