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New soontobe Rolleicord Vb owner

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alexz

Member
Just posted a message here, it didn't appear for soem weird reason...trying again.

Hi.
I'm soon-to-be new Rolleicord Vb owner (won and auction on Ebay, shoudl be expecting the camera withint two weeks). I'm a new to Rollei cameras and compolete novice to Medium format at all, so once will get the camera most certainly a quesiotns will be raised here... :).

So far, have following issue I would be happy to be clarified by more experienced users here:

Flash utilization (few assumptions of mine, please correct me if I'm wrong):
The camera has X-sync terminal for electronic flash sunchronization. Since theer is a leaf shutter, synchronization is possible at all speeds up to 1/500, however obviously we do not talk about any modern automations such as TTL and its breeds. The flash can only be used in manual mode, i.e. apparently by setting effective aperture on the unit per each particular shoot, am I wrong ?

I have little concern about studio lighting setting, but rather interested in a portable flash unit for fill-in for environmental potraiture (perhaps kind of my current Canon 550EX or probably a legacy Vivitar 253 hummer type ?).
The question: which flash and cable do I need ?

Thanks in advance, Alex
 
R

Ruben_blaedel

Alex
I got a KAISER hot shoe with a cable to attach on the cameras flash socket . The only active part in the hot shoe is the center making my canon 540 EZ or 430 EZ flash go of - the flash has full manual mode from1/1 to 1/128 burst - this and your guidenumber and you should be up and running . It works on both hasselblad and rollei

this link takes you to a rollei manual but it is not for the rolleicord
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, this is about rollei flash
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If you do not have a manual there will probably soon be one available here on rolleiinfo.com

Ruben
 
A

alexz

Member
Thanks Ruben a lot.
Where did you get these hot shoe and cable from ?
B&H or something like that ?

I indeed do not have the manual, searched the web for one -unsuccessfully. I'll be happy to figure it here on rolleiinfo.com

Best regards, Alex
 
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Ruben_blaedel

The kaiser hot shoe I got from my local photo dealer in Copenhagen/Denmark - I think Kaiser a German company that markets products made in the far east mostly for the amateur market - it was about 10 usd - I think this list is run from Germany so there will probably be someone that knows more on Kaiser products and were to find them
 
A

alexz

Member
Thanks.
Any chances you know any other suitable hot-shoe adapters with cable to fit the setup ? (Perhaps of more common manufacturer ?)
 
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Ruben_blaedel

A

alexz

Member
Thanks Ruben, appreciate your help.
BTW, wasn't you afraid of connecting your Canon flashes to that Rollei at the beginning ?
Somehow I would be suspecting it may fry the flash out.
I wonder how the camera triggers the flash - it cannot be done electrically, the camera has no any electrical provision for that), so how its X-sync terminal triggers modern electronic flash ?

Regards, Alex
 
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Ruben_blaedel

canon does not provide a warranty if you break your flash by connecting it to non canon equipment (so if you do, dont tell canon) well anyway I think what happens is that the rollei as well as other manual cameras makes a short circuit in the PC jack and that triggeres the flash - only using the center contact and souruonding area like on the "HAMA PC to Hot Shoe Permits a flash unit with a hot shoe contact to be mounted on a camera without a hot shoe contact." from the above link.- All the other contacts on the canon flash are used for electronic communication between eos camera and dedicated flash functions
If you ar afraid of ruining you canon flash any other cheap flash will work just as good since it only opperates in manual mode with the rollei not using any of the advanced features on the canon flash - I look foreward to see some images from you in the gallery - btw are you keeping your canon and do you post canon shots on canoninfo.com? I see you are from Israel - Love to se images from there - most coverage now a days are of the fence and barb wire - one tends to forget that its about a lot of ordinary people on both sides trying to live their lifes and a few that is trying to f... things up

By the way for canon flash photography look at this:
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regards
Ruben
 
S

solland

New Member
Alex, the camera does trigger the flash electrically.

In a camera without batteries, all the power is in the flash unit. The camera just acts as a switch.

The flash loads up a capacitor with electricity from its batteries (or other power source), and then provides a current to the camera which will fire the capacitor, when the camera lets it through.

The camera's synch switch is in the shutter, and is wired to the hot-shoe or plug flash contact. When the shutter fires, the switch closes, and the trigger electricity can get through to dump the capacitor's load into the flash bulb or tube.

With x-synch (electronic flash), everything happens essentially "at once", with no delays. With m-synch (bulb flash), the flash actually fires before the shutter opens, so that the flash bulb has time to get up to full burn before the exposure takes place.

Regards,
Leigh
 
A

alexz

Member
Thanks Ruben, Leigh, your help is greatly appreciated.
Ruben, since you mentioned willing to see my stuff, would be my pleasure to invote all you guys to my personal site:
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You'll find there the galleries and some stuff about me.
Ruben, of course I'll be keeping my Canon :), just recently has been biten by MF bug, so ventured into TLRs to keep costs low at the beginning, but certainly not to replace my 35mm gear: EOS-3, 28-70L, 70-200L 550EX and lots of accessories.
I do not participate canoninfo.com, instead I do in Fred Miranda (
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- wonderfully informative site hosting lots of very helpful forums, including Canon EOS of course), EOS Mailing list and ocassionally apear in Rob Galbraith bords.
Given the camera will arrive in good order, I'll have to learn to sue it and my main concern is what to do with the originals (I used to scan everythign I shoot - have Nikon LS-40 for that, but no provision for MF), neither I have MF projector. I guess I'll have to see whether I'll be triggered by MF, and if that will happen - will probably have to figure a solution for scanning (either a good flatbed or probably even something like Nikon LS-8000/9000, but apparently in far future).

Yeah Ruben, things can be quite hot over here in my country, but mostly greatly overdone by TV.
The regular life is going on...as you correcty assumed.

As for Canon falsh photography - thanks for the link, though I'm aware about it and learnt the ETTL through it a while ago :). This link also appears in my selected links list on my site among some others...

BTW, I'll be happy to correspond with any of you guy to my email:
alex@zabrovsky.com

Regards, Alex
 
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Ruben_blaedel

You have a very nice homepage - nice layout and most of all some very fine photos - it looks like you really know your way around your canon and have a great eye for composition,light and saturated colours

By the way I think that you will find the rollei invites you to be playfull and happy shooting - i do not know why but I am always in a better mood when I have been using my rolleiflex (3,5 tessar, 1951-1954) strange perhaps it is the simplicity and the groundglas composing that makes it more fun to use then my other - far more expensive -equipment
 
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alexz

Member
Thank you Rubin for your kind words, appreciate your attention. In fact, I made my way into photography since 1997, almost immediately becoming addicted to this wondeful hobby, spend countless hours on internet learning from other people, corresoding on various forums (I used to be Minolta shooter to 5 years prior to switching to Canon about two years ago) and mailing lists.

I really hope my Rollei will gave me a real joy of shooting ... :)

BTW, you're welcomed to visit my site often, it's being updated on frequent basis with new stuff.
(hopefully in some not so far future with a 6x6 stuff :)), though I suspect internet will not allow to apperciate the real MF advatage over 35mm... :-(
 
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butlp

Active Member
Alexz, very nice gallery. The layout is great, and usability is excellent (fast load times). Very interesting photos too, as well!

I think you will really enjoy composing on the ground glass screen. You will have excellent definition of fine detail. Perhaps you will find that the color saturation is not as good with the rollei as the new Canon lenses. In this case, you can use a film with greater color saturation, to compensate.

The rolleicord will be good for portraits and pictures of kids, too, because it is always at the correct height. Kids don't realize that when you are looking down into this box with knobs on the side, that you are taking a picture, and you can get candid shots of them.
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butlp

Active Member
Alexz, you should also know that we all started out as "casual" Rollei users! All it takes is a few great images, and you're hooked . . .
 
A

alexz

Member
Thank you guys a lot for yuo kind an dwarm words on my site and your welcome to a Rollei community.
I'm really touched.

I certanily hope my upc-ming Rollei will not dissapoint me quality-wise, and the new experience of
ground glass and all manual operaiton sounds to be a joyfull experience.

Paul, I count on portraiture as well, and the waist level focusing may indeed come handy...
 
C

carlzeiss

Member
Congratulations on embarking onto a 'new dimension', i.e. 6X6 format. I started on 35mm photography with a Rollei SL35 about 30 years ago, and MF about 2+ years ago. All I can say is that once you start on MF, get your first roll back and then make an 8X10 enlargement, the rest is history! At least that's what happened to me when I first used a Rolleiflex 2.8e with uncoupled metering and a Schneider Xenotar lens. I then 'collected' a relatively rare Rolleiflex 2.8f/Planar "White Face" camera with coupled metering and a 12/24 exp. capability, and seem to get more saturated colors with the Zeiss lens. I like the Xenotar lens a lot too. Ex&les of my results from both TLR cameras are at
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One good recommendation I can confidently give you is to install a Maxwell Brightscreen which really helps increase your pleasure when focussing and composing. "Don't leave home without it!".

With the 2.8e I had to send it to Harry Fleenor of Oceanside Camera Repair (see
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) to install the screen. I am not sure about your Rolleicord. With the removable hood of the 2.8f, it was a simple thing to do by oneself after ordering the screen directly from Bill Maxwell. Read about his contact info at
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alexz

Member
Thank you Eric. yuo have some great pictures in the rollei gallery, I enjoyed. Too bad internet "eats up" the great benefits of MF over 35mm :-(

Once i'll get the camera in good order and get accustomized with one, chances I'll consider your advise about the screen.

BTW, just yesterday I did certain corporate photo job (rigth now scanning all the stuff), and few hours ago got an email requesting the front-facing group shoot of all our team which conts over 150 workers !!
blush.gif

I suspect even my Canon 28-70L may not be up to such task just due to 35mm format limitations (resolving details), so should I hope for my upcoming Rolleicord Vb with Xenar 75/3.5 ?
Also, do you think it will be possible to frame such group of people within 75mm lens view from a reasonable distance ?
 
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