Roland
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| Roland II no. W799, Compur-Rapid shutter. Pictures by eBayer Yalluflex. (Image rights) |
The Roland Kleinbild-Kamera is a coupled rangefinder camera for 4.5×6 cm exposures on 120 film, made from 1931 onwards. McKeown gives its maker as Plasmat GmbH, a company belonging to Paul Rudolph.[1] It has an uncoated 70 mm f/2.7 Plasmat lens, designed by Dr Rudolph, mounted on a collapsing lens-tube. Focusing is by twisting a knurled collar at the body end of the lens; the camera focuses to about one metre. It has either a Compur or Compur-Rapid shutter, with speeds 1 to 1/250 or 1/400 second respectively, plus 'B' and 'T', and a delayed action (self-timer).
The camera is vertically-oriented; the film runs from the top to the bottom, and the coupled rangefinder, combined with the viewfinder, is at the top, across the shorter dimension of the body. There are also loops for a strap there.
Some examples have an extinction meter, with its window below and between the two viewfinder/rangefinder ones, and a calculator to interpret the reading on the right side of the body; this also incorporates a depth of field indicator, which specifies the circle of confusion on which it is based![2][3]
On some models, film advance is by a simple winding knob at the bottom, with two red windows. McKeown shows an example with an automatic frame counter on the side (and a taller winding knob).[1]; he states that there are two models of the camera, Model 1 with red-window film advance and an exticntion meter, and Model 2 with the frame counter and no meter. However, the situation is clearly not that simple; the example pictured here as Roland II has neither a meter nor a frame counter.
  
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| Roland with frame counter, Kleinbild Plasmat f2.7/7cm lens Images by yalluflex. (Image rights) |
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p786.
- ↑ Roland camera serial S1137 at Early Photography.
- ↑ Roland camera serial S1870, sold (for €5520) at the 20th Westlicht Photographica Auction, on 12 November 2011.
Links
In English and German:
- Roland among Tigin's Classic Cameras (archived at archive.org in April 2016)
In Japanese:
- Roland (archived at archive.org in March 2016), formerly shown at Hayata Camera Laboratory
