Rolleiflex 2.8F

Overview

Rolleiflex 2.8F

Braunschweig, Germany

The Rolleiflex 2.8F is a twin-lens reflex camera. The top lens is for viewing and focusing. The bottom lens is for taking the photograph. They're both Zeiss Planars, 80mm f/2.8. The taking lens is the one that matters.

I've had this one for five years. It came from a photographer in St. Petersburg, Florida who had used it professionally in the 1970s and 1980s. The taking lens had a slight haze on the rear element. I cleaned it and the sharpness came back completely.

The waist-level finder changes how you work. You look down into the camera rather than holding it to your eye. The image in the finder is laterally reversed -- left and right are swapped. It takes a few rolls to get used to. After that, it becomes natural.

History

The Rolleiflex 2.8F was the last and most refined version of the 2.8 series. It introduced a built-in selenium exposure meter -- uncoupled, meaning you read the meter and set the exposure manually. The meter is still accurate on most examples if the selenium cell hasn't degraded.

The 2.8F used Zeiss Planar lenses in both the viewing and taking positions. Earlier 2.8 models used Xenotar lenses from Schneider. Both are excellent. The Planar has a slightly different rendering character -- some people prefer it, some prefer the Xenotar.

Rollei produced the 2.8F until 1981. By then, the TLR format had been largely replaced by 35mm SLRs for professional work. But the Rolleiflex never really went away. It remained in use by photographers who valued its quiet operation, its square format, and its optical quality.

Worth owning?

The Rolleiflex 2.8F is worth owning if you want to shoot medium format and you're interested in the TLR experience. The waist-level finder is genuinely different from any other camera. The square format is compositionally demanding in a useful way.

The Zeiss Planar taking lens is one of the best lenses ever made for medium format. The rendering at f/2.8 is distinctive -- sharp in the center, with a smooth falloff toward the edges. At f/5.6 and smaller, it's sharp across the entire 6x6 frame.

The camera is quiet. The leaf shutter makes a soft click. In Florida, where I sometimes photograph wildlife or people who don't want to be disturbed by a loud camera, that matters.

CLA notes

The Rolleiflex 2.8F CLA is one of the more involved jobs I do regularly. The taking lens shutter requires removing the lens from the camera and disassembling the shutter. The blades are cleaned with naphtha and the shutter is re-lubricated.

The taking lens elements are cleaned with lens cleaning solution and optical tissue. The rear element is the most important -- any haze here affects image quality directly. The front element is less critical but should be clean.

The film advance mechanism is lubricated with a light machine oil. The focusing helicoid gets a thin coat of grease.

After a CLA, I verify shutter speeds, check the meter against a known-accurate meter, and run a test roll. The Rolleiflex is a precision instrument and needs to be verified after service.