Rolleiflex 3.5 M-X Synch Twin-Lens Reflex

The Timeless Rolleiflex 3.5 M-X Synch TLR

Yes, this has a waist-level viewfinder, just like the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. Yes, it accepts medium format film, but there the similarities pretty much end.

This Flea-Market find was my entry into medium-format photography.

This, is a TLR. The Kodak Brownie Hawkeye is a pseudo-TLR. The difference is that the whole point of the TLR is in the focus, and there simply is no focus on the Hawkeye. It uses an aperture small enough to create a wide depth of field that eliminates the need for focusing from about 15 feet on. So, it’s all about style.

This is one of the most common Rolleis, so it’s more functional than collectible. The first thing I did was to disassemble the mirror assembly of the viewfinder portion to clean it. Without any many, this was quite easy, and I made sure to do a “wet clean” of the mirror so as not so scratch it. The camera immediately came alive, and once you get used to the left-right reversed image, it’s quite fun to shoot with.

I was lucky to find this model without a built-in meter, since the meters almost never work anyway, as they were based on selenium cells which deteriorate over time. Besides that, I carry a more than adequate light meter wherever I go. It’s called my iPhone.

It will shoot 6x6 on 120 film, and supposedly 6x4.5 with an adapter kit of some sort, which I have not attempted to buy. It supposedly takes both 220 and 120 film, as well as accommodating 135 film with a Rolleikin adapter which I have also not explored. There are a number of bayonet accessories for it, which allow you to attach hoods and filters, which may be useful, but kind of interfere with the finder optics. Of course, with this camera, you can also use the speed finder, which makes converts it into an eye-level viewfinder without optics; simply a means of sighting your composition, which is still quite useful.

Perhaps the most useful lens accessory would be a closeup lens, tricky to use with TLRs since you would really need two of them, and they’d have to be small enough to fit on both the viewing and taking lenses at the same time. Otherwise, you could use zone focusing with a single lens, which would work but also defeat the whole purpose of the the waste-level finder. In that case, best to stick with a Holga.

The optics are spectacularly sharp, and the balance and heft of the camera make it pleasure to use. A variant of this camera is still made today…

Current Rolleiflex 2.8 FX

Owning one of these newer cameras is not unlike owning a Leica rangefinder. Very collectible, a good investment, but not likely to encourage actual photography for fear of damage in the process. And for this reason, it makes owning this older, seasoned version much more appealing.