s
News, Tech Tips, Updates
Adapter to fit Rollei MF lenses to your DSLR

I've been experimenting with an adapter made by Fotodiox to fit my Rollei lenses onto my DSLR.  This is not an active adapter - meaning it won't adjust the aperture, nor will it operate the shutter or give you focus confirmation.  However it does feel solid and has its own behind the lens aperture.   If there is interest, I will add these adapters for Canon and Nikon  DSLR's to my store - cost would be approx. $150.   I hope that I don't have to write how great the Rollei glass is - you all already knew that right!  Sorry for the lousy cell phone pics… 

 

    

Tilt Table for 55mm PCS lens

For those of you out there with the Rollei Schneider 55mm PCS tilt shift lens, this is a useful chart of required tilt values for distance of the lens to the plane of focus.  Thanks to David Summer Hayes for making this available.    He has several useful articles on his website here - http://www.davidsummerhayes.com/techniques.html  including one on focusing the tilt shift lens. 

Edit - sorry the table isn't showing correctly on the blog - click here for the table

Three 150mm Lenses Compared

Rollei 150mm Tele-Xenar, Rollei 150mm APO f/4.6 Macro, and 150mm APO Sironar LF lens compared.

Test done by Geoff comparing two of the 150mm Schneider lenses for the Rolleiflex Hy6 with a Rodenstock APO Sironar LF lens  on a view camera, using a Leaf AFi-ii 7 digital back for both.

He writes, "Notice the Schneider 150 Telexenar for the Hy6 is good, but their 150 f 4.6 (special bellows mount) is better yet. Both are as good as, if not  better, than the  Apo Sironar Digital lens on a view camera. To be fair, the Rodie isn't the most recent or best of that type and may also suffer from diffraction at f16, although all three were shot at that aperture. Still the Schneider lenses for the Hy6 are notably relevant, if not superior."

You can see which is which in the full size image....

Link to full size image: 100% crops

Pictures of a real life Rollei 1000mm PQ lens!!!!

Last week after writing that I had never seen a 1000mm Rollei PQ lens, I was happily surprised to get an e-mail from Jim in Canada who had one - and he was willing to share a few snap shots of the lens so we could see what they look like.   Woah! Now that is a lens!    Thanks Jim!



List of available lenses for the Hy6, AFi, Hy6 Mod2 cameras

My friend Geoff just sent me a screen shot of an old Open Photography Forum post by Thierry Hagenaur that lists out all the available lenses for the system.  This was a really useful list and definitely deserves to be repeated here on my blog and I've pasted in the list and added a few (see below).   Here's a link to the original OPF forum post by Thierry however. 

Besides this big 'shopping list' there are a couple more resources for you all to check out.

1) FotoNode has a pretty close match to to this list but with some specs and diagrams.  I haven't checked them for accuracy, but still useful. Click here:

2) I will be uploading several Rollei documents that give a lot more detail on each lens to the Manuals section.  Look for the Rollei lens catalog and the Hy6 brochures. 

I have owned or shot with ( I am almost embarrassed to say ) almost all of the list here except the 500's, and the 250 and 350 zeiss lenses. Oh yes, perhaps because its so rare, I forgot the 1000mm which I've never seen in person and until recently had never even seen a picture of.   Those 1000's are pretty rare!  

Anyone reading this blog have or shot with one?

 

Zeiss F-Distagon (Fisheye) PQ 3.5/30 mm (X)
Schneider Super-Angulon PQ 3.5/40 mm (X)
Zeiss Distagon PQ 4.0/40 mm (O)
Zeiss Distagon FLE PQ 4.0/40 mm (O)
Schneider Super-Angulon PQS 2.8/50 mm (O)
Schneider AF-Super-Angulon PQS 2.8/50 mm (X)
Schneider AFD-Super-Angulon PQS 2.8/50 mm (P)
Zeiss Distagon PQ 4.0/50 mm (O)
Zeiss Distagon EL PQ 4.0/50 mm (O)
Zeiss Distagon FLE PQ 4.0/50 mm (O)
Schneider PCS-Super-Angulon (Shift) PQ 4.5/55 mm (O)
Schneider Curtagon 3.5/60mm (O)
Zeiss Distagon PQ 3.5/60 mm (O)
Schneider Xenotar PQ 2.0/80 mm (O)
Zeiss Planar PQ 2.8/80 mm (O)
Zeiss Planar EL PQ 2.8/80 mm (O)
Zeiss Planar PQS 2.8/80 mm (O)
Schneider Xenotar PQS 2.8/80 mm (X)
Schneider AF-Xenotar PQS 2.8/80 mm (X)
Schneider AFD-Xenotar PQS 2.8/80 mm (X)
Schneider Apo Symmar Macro PQS 4.0/90 mm (X)
Zeiss Planar PQ 2.0/110 mm (X)
Zeiss Makro-Planar PQ 4.0/120 mm (O)
Zeiss Makro-Planar PQS 4.0/120 mm (X)
Zeiss Sonnar PQ 4.0/150 mm (O)
Zeiss Sonnar EL PQ 4.0/150 mm (O)
Zeiss Sonar PQS 4.0/150 mm (X)
Schneider AF-Tele Xenar PQS 4.0/150 mm (X)
Schneider Tele Xenar PQS 4.0/150 mm (P)
Schneider AFD-Tele Xenar PQ 4.0/150 mm (O)
Schneider AFD-Tele Xenar PQS 4.0/150 mm (P)
Schneider Apo-Symmar Macro PQ 4.6/150 mm (O)
Schneider Tele-Xenar PQ 2.8/180 mm (O)
Schneider AF-Tele-Xenar PQ 2.8/180 mm (X)
Schneider AFD-Tele-Xenar PQ 2.8/180 mm (X)
Zeiss Sonnar PQ 5.6/250 mm (O)
Zeiss Sonnar EL PQ 5.6/250 mm (O)
Zeiss Sonnar PQS 5.6/250 mm (X)
Schneider Apo-Tele-Xenar PQ 4.0/300 mm (X) incl. lens hood
Zeiss Tele-Tessar PQ 5.6/350 mm (O) incl. lens hood
Zeiss Tele-Tessar PQS 5.6/350 mm (O) incl. lens hood
Zeiss Tele-Tessar EL PQ 8.0/500 mm (O) incl. lens hood
Zeiss Tele-Tessar PQ 8.0/500 mm (O) incl. lens hood
Zeiss Tele-Apo-Tessar PQS 8.0/500 mm (O) incl. lens hood
Zeiss Tele-Tessar PQ 8.0/1000 mm (O) incl. lens hood
Schneider AF-Variogon PQS 4.6/60-140 mm (X) incl. lens hood
Schneider AFD-Variogon PQS 4.6/60-140 mm (P) incl. lens hood
Schneider Variogon PQ 4.5/75-150 mm (O) incl. lens hood
Schneider Variogon PQ 5.6/140-280 mm (X) incl. lens hood