Rolleiflex SL66
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| Rolleiflex SL66 image by Titin Soriano (Image rights) |
The Rolleiflex SL66 is a 6×6 cm SLR camera made by Rollei. It was the company's first single-lens reflex. It is a modular camera, with interchangeable finders (including a prism and a metering magnifying finder) and film magazines, including one for 4.5×6 cm format; the same magazines accept 120 or 220 film. The shutter, a focal-plane shutter with cloth blinds, gives speeds 1-1/1000 second plus 'B', and is synchronised for flash via a PC socket.
The camera used interchangeable, coated Carl Zeiss lenses of very high reputation, with focal lengths between 30 mm and 1000 mm. The lenses originally offered do not couple with the metering prism; a new set was produced which do. there are also a few third-party lenses for the SL66, made by Carl Zeiss Jena, Rodenstock and Novoflex.
A unique feature of the camera is a bellows focusing mechanism which permits the lens to be tilted (up to 8 degrees up or down) for focus or perspective control. While the name "66" probably refers to the 6x6 cm image format, coincidentally the camera was introduced at the 1966 Photokina show. The original chrome & black SL66 model remained in production until 1986.
The SL66 was a very high-quality but very expensive camera, and rather few were made. By 1986, about 28,900 of the original SL66 had been made. Some more models and 'Special Editions' were produced after 1986: the SL66E with built-in TTL average metering and flash metering (about 500 made), the SL66X with only TTL flash metering (about 500), and the SL66SE with spot or average metering (about 3500 made). After 1992, only a few collector's editions were made.
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| Images by Rachel Rayns (Image rights) | |||||
Links
- SL66.com; "All you want to know about these Rollei cameras."
