Re: [Rollei] Lineage of the SL2000F

["R. J. Bender" <rjbender >]

Marc James Small wrote:
> 
> At 07:03 AM 5/30/2000 -0400, Bob Shell wrote:
> >
> >It would be interesting to know if Rollei still has the prototypes
> >and drawings of the SL2000F that they got from Z-I.  These would
> >answer
> >many questions and I can think of no reason that they would consider
> >them confidential after all this time.
> 
> Bob
> 
> I'll gander through Prochnow when I have a minute to see what he says on
> this.  I recognize that Rollei CLAIMS the shutter to have been their
> proprietary design.  The Zeiss Ikon folks say that it was their design and
> that it was the culmination of research which began at Voigtlander before
> it was merged with Zeiss Ikon in 1965.  However, I am not certain how far
> the project had gotten:  it is quite possible that Zeiss Ikon only had
> prototypes and working designs, and no real shutter, when they sold the
> package to Rollei.

  In the December 1976 issue of Modern Photography, Herbert Keppler
wrote about the SL2000 shown at Photokina:
  "The shutter is a unique, quite silent, metal, 14-bladed
Rollei-designed unit, smaller than any metal Japanese shutter..."
  "The camera will not be available until the latter part of 1977 and we
estimate the cost will be about $2,000.
  "If the Rollei SL2000 has such a great shutter, why not use it in
another camera- and no sooner said than the Voigtlander VSL 3 appears
with the same range of shutter speeds, aperture-preferred automation
only (with full manual override speeds), electronic self-timer, shutter
speed scale with red LEDs and apertures reflected from the lens
barrel...
  "Rollei was expected to show, but finally decided not to announce, the
Rollei 35 OE Dual, which would seem to be similar to the Voigtlander
VSL3 but with a choice of either shutter-speed or aperture-preferred
exposure automation. Reason for the pullback? The low price of the Canon
AE-1. The Rollei OE Dual  will be coming out but Rollei must rethink the
whole pricing structure first. Maybe in late 1977?"
- -- 
R. J. Bender (A Nikon, Mamiya and Rollei user)
mailto:rjbender  
http://homepages.go.com/~rjbender/home.htm

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