Baby Rolleiflex (1957)

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The Automatic Rolleiflex 4x4, popularly known as the "Gray Baby" Rolleiflex, was introduced in 1957, at an announced list price of USD $133.65.[1] It is a knob-advance twin-lens reflex yielding 12 exposures of 4x4cm on 127 film. It has a Schneider Xenar 60/3.5 taking lens and a Heidosmat 60/2.8 viewing lens.

This model helped kick-start a brief boom for 38mm × 38mm "super slides" (whose slide mounts were the same external dimensions as 35mm slides, but offering a larger image area), and inspired several Japanese lookalikes such as the Yashica 44.

By 1959 the gray baby's advertised list price had dropped to USD $99.50, [2] perhaps a reflection of waning interest in the format. In 1963 the "gray" was abandoned in favor of "black".

Specifications

  • Rollei internal name : K5
  • Production period : 1957 to 1968, 67.180 units
  • Format : 12 exposures of 4 x 4 cm on 127 type rollfilm
  • Taking lens: Schneider Xenar 1:3.5 f=60mm
  • Viewing lens: Heidosmat 1:2.8 f=60mm
  • Bayonet Size : Both lenses, size 1
  • Shutter: Synchro-Compur MXV CR00 leafshutter. Speeds 1 to 1/500 sec. and B.
  • Flash synchronisation : Sync socket on frontpanel. M and X synchronisation
  • Color Laqcuer : Gray, from 1963 onwards Black
  • Color Leatherette : Gray, from 1963 onwards Black
  • Dimensions WxDxH: 64 x 81 x 123 mm
  • Weight: 680 grams


Bibliography

  • Claus Prochnow, Rollei Report 2, third edition, Braunschweig, Lindemanns Verlag, 2008, ISBN 3-89506-220-0.


Notes

  1. Popular Photography (USA) Volume 41 No. 1, July 1957. "IPEX; The Products" [Report on the March, 1957 International Photo Exhibition, Washington D.C.] pg.105.
  2. Modern Photography (USA) Volume 23 No. 9, September 1959. "Quality Counts" (advertisement), pg. 19.

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