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. 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.
It is a fully mechanical, modular system camera that does not require battery power for operation. It uses interchangeable finders (including a prism and a metering magnifying finder) and film magazines. A 4.5×6 cm format magazine is also available. The film magazines can accept 120 or 220 film. The shutter, a focal-plane shutter with cloth blinds, gives speeds 1-1/1000 second plus 'B', and is synchronized for flash at 1/30 sec via a PC socket. 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) to increase depth of field in close-up work.
The camera uses 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 a couple of lenses with leaf shutters built in. This allows more flexibility in higher flash sync speeds and are capable from 1/30 to 1/500 of a sec. To use the faster flash sync speeds, the shutter speed on camera body must be set to 1/30 or below. Cock the lens shutter and attach the sync cord to the lens. There are also a few third-party lenses for the SL66, made by Carl Zeiss Jena, Rodenstock and Novoflex. There are some later lenses that are branded Rollei, licensed from Carl Zeiss they tend to be identical to the Zeiss version, but sometimes minor build difference.
The SL66 is a very high-quality camera but was very expensive, 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) | |||||
System
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Lens Carl Zeiss
Rollei
Novoflex
Rodenstock
Lens accessories
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Finder
Screens
Film
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Links
- SL66.com; "All you want to know about these Rollei cameras."
- User's manual as PDF or in HTML, at Mike Butkus' Orphan Cameras.
