help with a Rollei

panocho · May 18, 2005

So this is the story: for quite a long time now I've been after a TLR to enter the wonderful world of medium format. My main target were Yashicas, but the other day I bumped into this Rollei at ebay: the price was ridiculous and the seller claimd it was intact... Intact! Ha! I should have suspected, but since I do had found unbelieveable bargains at ebay, I thought this was one of those. To make the story short, it wasn't. Now I'm trying to get my money back, but the seller seems to have dissapeared :soapbox:

Well, my intention was just to start shoting medium format, not to do any restoration. But it seems I've been forced to restoration. And, of course, I need some help.

First, I would appreciate if you helped me to find out how much this is worth. This is a Rolleiflex, 3.5. The taking lens is a Zeiss Tessar f3.5 75mm. The viewing lens is a Heidosmat f2.8 75mm. I've been trying to do some research and I suspect it could be a Rolleiflex Automat (Model K4B???). The serial number is 1708280. The serial number of the taking lens is 1507959

Now for the INTACT camera...
Cosmetically it is just awful (I could post a picture but... I don't know how to post pictures!

) The leather is peeling off, it has rust, mold,... Hopefully, the lenses "just" look dirty, so they might be not so bad, after all. The shutter won't shot, so the lever is stuck (waiting for the shutter to shot). No response at all. The "buttons" to wind the film don't seem to engange.

This is, more or less, the situation with this "intact" camera (by the way, this is my first deception at ebay, with a seller who seemed to be most reliable!). The cosmetic part of it is not a problem: I would be very much willing to restore it, buying a new leather kit and giving it a good clean. But the mechanical part of it is another story. I don't have any idea how to put my fingers on this (I do have fixed other cameras, but don't have any experience with TLRs, so I don't know where to start from)

I would appreciate to have your opinions: is this something I could try myself? is it worth trying? should I simply sell it to someone who knows how to handle it? In that case, how much wo you think I could get for it?

ksmattfish · May 19, 2005

This list says it's a model B or MX-EVS.

http://home.worldonline.dk/rongsted/Rolleisn.htm

I don't know the specific value, but I'd estimate that clean models go for around $250, maybe more. A CLA and repair will cost $150 to $200. I sent my Rollei to www.camerarepair.com

If it can be repaired so that it's in good operating condition, it'll be a great camera. You can even get a fancy new leatherette from cameraleather.com

It's tricky to find a great deal on a Rollei on Ebay, because they are always in demand. But keep your eyes open in the real world. I found my Rolleiflex 3.5E Planar (with a bunch of accessories) for $150 at a charity garage sale. Later I found out it's worth at least twice that, maybe three times.

panocho · May 19, 2005

Thanks for the help.

My "honest seller" has completely dissapeared. "Take the money and run", you know...

This means that now I have to decide between selling the Rollei at ebay (with a gooood, thorough cleaning, which I could easily do myself, the shutter and the need of new leatherette would be their "only" issues, I believe, so maybe I could get back a few dollars after all) or making it my new project. Do you think that having the shutter back to life could be something I myself could do? With a lot of patience, of course. But I've read here at TPF that some of you do this kind of work yourselves (I remember reading Mitica, for example, who has commented a few restore projects here). As I said, I do have some experience in getting the screws off, blowing here and there, etc Little work, in fact, but I've been able to get some things back to life with such little work. Normally they just need some cleaning. Would this be likely the case of the Rollei shutter?
I would appreciate comments from all of you who had done this kind of work yourselves

Mitica100 · May 20, 2005

panocho said:
Thanks for the help.

My "honest seller" has completely dissapeared. "Take the money and run", you know...

This means that now I have to decide between selling the Rollei at ebay (with a gooood, thorough cleaning, which I could easily do myself, the shutter and the need of new leatherette would be their "only" issues, I believe, so maybe I could get back a few dollars after all) or making it my new project. Do you think that having the shutter back to life could be something I myself could do? With a lot of patience, of course. But I've read here at TPF that some of you do this kind of work yourselves (I remember reading Mitica, for example, who has commented a few restore projects here). As I said, I do have some experience in getting the screws off, blowing here and there, etc Little work, in fact, but I've been able to get some things back to life with such little work. Normally they just need some cleaning. Would this be likely the case of the Rollei shutter?
I would appreciate comments from all of you who had done this kind of work yourselves

Rolleis are a bit of an annoyance to fix, if you ask me. You'll have to have the right tools, the camera's exploded view (if possible) or repair manual, lots of patience and luck. I have done work on a Yashica TLR before and I was able to bring back to life from the 'frozen' status. I never worked on a Rollei but I hear they are more difficult to fix than Yashicas. Here are a few useful links:

http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/index.html

http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/repairs.html

Let me know how it goes with this project.

terri · May 20, 2005

And don't forget to let ebay know about this seller. That's very important. Sorry you've had such a bad experience here, but make sure you alert ebay to this loser.

panocho · May 20, 2005

thanks!

I still don't know whether I'm going to try or sell it to someone more experienced. Anyway, I'll let you know.

I appreciate your comments. They help very much with the decision

panocho · May 23, 2005

RECTIFICATION!

After more than a week waiting, and almost loosing every hope, finally my seller contacted me. An honest seller, he was. It seems that he just was out of town for a few days. I didn't want to leave any feedback or contact ebay until a reasonable time had passed, since it was possible, as it finally was the case, that he just couldn't read my emails.
Well, to make the story short, I'm just returning the Rollei. Now I will continue going after the Yashicas. I hope I can get one soon