As a digital shooter and owner of a Canon 5D mark2, it was something new to me that I have not seen before. I was really impressed by the characteristics of those pictures: nicely balanced composition in square format, beautiful black and white (B&W) tones, shallow depth of focus and “mind blowing” micro-contrast details. While I was browsing Flickr and searching for some inspiration for my next portrait assignment, I came across some beautiful medium format portraits taken by excellent photographers using Hasselblad and Rolleiflex cameras. I remember it happened in a rainy afternoon. In this article, I would like to show a glimpse of what the Rolleiflex 2.8F is capable of and share my experiences with this classic old timer camera. However, in my opinion, they provide a photography experience that cannot be matched by any recent digital single-lens reflex (or mirrorless) camera. Twin-lens reflex cameras are certainly an odd species nowadays. The lens at the bottom of the camera is the one that takes the picture (often called ‘taking lens’), while the other is used in the viewfinder system. The special feature of TLR cameras is that they have two lenses of the same focal length with their focal planes aligned. For people who are unfamiliar with how a TLR camera looks, the picture below shows a studio “portrait” of the Rolleiflex 2.8F, one of the most legendary TLR cameras in the history of photography.įuji X-E1 with Fujinon XF 35 mm f/1.4R f8, 1/125 So starting to take pictures with traditional twin-lens reflex (TLR) cameras was a very interesting experience for me. In the past 10 years, I have been taking pictures exclusively with various types of digital single-lens reflex (mostly Canon) cameras. The camera possesses a hot shoe with contact for central sync together with contacts for automatic TTL flash in combination with different flash units through the special SCA 356 adaptor.įilm advance: Through the classical crank coupled to the shutter tension.īatteries: Silver oxide PX 28 or lithium PX 28.Although my first serious camera was a Russian Zenit TTL, I consider myself a photographer of the digital era. Type of flash metering: Automatic, off the film surface (OTF) during the exposure, by means of an additional silicon photocell.įlash synchronization: At all speeds between 1/500 sec + B.
Range of sensitiveness: Manual setting of film sensitiveness between ISO 25 and ISO 6400. Type of film: 120 roll for twelve expositions in 6 x 6 cm medium format.
Prism finder: Two interchangeable models, for 45º and 90º. Taking Lens: Zeiss Planar 80 mm f/2.8 HFT, equivalent to a 52 mm in 35 mm format. Range of speeds: From 1/500 sec - 1 second + B. Metering: Centre weighted average - which is actually a semi spot system-, through TTL coupled meter, made up by two silicon photodiodes located inside the camera body. Shutter: Synchro-Compur, with speeds between 1/500 seg -1 seg + B, flash sync at all speeds, with apertures and shutter speeds coupled to the exposure meter. The protruding black colour knob in intermediate size located on the lowest area, is the retainer of the 120 film roll while the identical protruding knob place on the upper zone, just on the big knurled wheel for manual focusing, is the retainer for the 120 film roll take-up spool. Just on the left of the big knurled wheel for manual focusing and attached to it, we´ve got the scales of distance and depth of field. The little knurled thin wheel placed just on the dedicated hot shoe for flash, is the scale of film sensitiveness. The little green colour gauge that can be clearly seen, has the function of checking the battery condition. The big knurled wheel in black colour located on the right of the image is used to make the manual focusing and the hole it holds on one side is the compartment for the meter battery.
Semifrontal image of the Rolleiflex 2.8 GX in which you can see the Heidosmat 80 mm f/2.8 HFT upper viewing lens and the Zeiss Planar 80 mm f/2.8 HFT lower taking lens.Īs it is seen in the image, on the left of the space between both lenses is the dial for shutter speeds, while the aperture dial is on the right of the space between both lenses and on the far left end of the low area we can see the shutter release button, while on the far right end we find the gold-plated PC Sync socket, under which there´s a little metallic silver knob that makes up the opening latch of the camera back.Īnd just on the 2.8 figure engraved on top of the Heidosmat 80 mm f/2.8 viewing lens, there is a little window in which the photographer can see at every moment the chosen aperture and shutter speed.