[rollei_list] Re: Rolleiflex 35mm Cameras

At 05:58 PM 11/9/2009, Mark Rabiner wrote:

>Not sure if S stands for Singapore or Sonnar.
>My Rollei 35 is a Rollei 35 with 3.5 Tessar one of the very first made and
>made in sunny Germany. Its just the one which was sitting there when I went
>into a Portland repair place to pick up something and there it was for sale.
>
>People talk about the Sonnar as the beginning and ending of life but I
>remember when the camera came out and everyone was interested in shooting
>with THIS LENS.
>Its a life support system for a 35mm cartridge but also like a Hassy super
>wide that classic German chunk of glass.

Mark
I do not shoot pictures of vomiting pumpkins as you do, but I do have some magnificent shots made with a basic Rollei 35 on chrome film which I later Ilfochromed to print. The subject matte is dull: it is of the foundation stones of a tavern in Bedford, Pennsylvania, now burned to the ground. No matter: the foundations were laid by one of my fourth-great-grandfathers, and my son and I were the first of his heirs to have seen this in more than a century. The foundations were all that were left from the latest fire. I am certain that my ancestor, John Fraser, just told the boys how to do the job and then went and sat down and mopped his head: those interested may want to review their copy of UNCONQUERED to realize that Ward Bond played this fellow there, and even Richard Knoppow has mischaracterized the film, as it properly should be viewed as circling around the importance of Fraser and not of the Coop guy. <he grins>
I do have these prints available and will scan them and send them to anyone who wants them. The detail available on a chrome from a Rollei 35 Tessar is amazing. The additional detail available from the Sonnar on the 35S is icing on the cake.
But the shots are dull: they are just pictures of a stone wall. They mean much to me: it is neat to realize that an ancestor was responsible for this 250 years and more ago. But, then, Fraser did get court-martialled for desertion in the face of the enemy and beat the charge when he called two witnesses, Lt-Gov Dinwiddie and Lt-Col Washington. I was surprised to find when I was in Law School at William & Mary that the locals had forgotten the incident .... 

But the pictures are neat and complete and tell their own story.

Marc


msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!

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