[rollei_list] Re: Rollei -Singapore
- From: Emmanuel Bigler <Emmanuel.Bigler@xxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:09:33 +0100
From Rea1eye :
The Rollei 35 cameras were originally made in Germany. Why was the
production later switched to Singapore?
Thanks, Bob
The transfer of amateur cameras & projectors to Singapore was a major
decision taken by the Rollei management in the seventies. At the time
the boss was Herr Peesel, followed by Herr Peter Peperzak, then by
Heinz Wehling.
At a time when all European and German companies manufacturing amateur
cameras had to close down (the most famous example was the Zeiss-Ikon
plant in Stuttgart closed down in 1972), the Rollei decision can be
considered as adventurous but if you compare with the UK or France where
almost everything photographic was destroyed by the Japanese competiion,
the Rollei example, in a sense, is admirable.
It is always easy to criticize a corporate management afterwards. Now
this is part of the history of the European photo industry and we can
discuss it like historians.
Regarding the Rollei 35, I can say that the tranfer of manufacturing to
Singapore was a real success. I'm still using several Rollei 35-s TE and
SE made in the 1980s in Singapore, the cameras perform incredibly well
both mechanically and optically. They need the occasional
Clean-Lube-Adjust procedure like for any Compur shutter, but otherwise
those Singapore-made cameras are, IMHO, as reliable and fascinating as
classical twin-lens rolleiflex made in Braunschweig.
--
Emmanuel from France
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