page_title: Heinz Waaske
section_title: Career with Rollei
hierarchical_section_title: Heinz Waaske / Career with Rollei
caption_attribution_description: English: Rollei 35 S camera, front Deutsch: Frontansicht einer Rollei 35 S Kamera
context_page_description: Heinz Waaske was a German camera designer, notably father of the Rollei 35.
context_section_description: Waaske joined Rollei in January 1965, and at first did not mention his attempts for a compact 135 camera.  The chief of development, Richard Weiß, had him work on the Rolleiflex SL 26.
  When Waaske showed his pocket camera prototype to Heinrich Peesel, the head of Rollei, he was so enthusiastic about it that he decided the camera should immediately be developed further by Waaske for mass production, but using parts only from Rollei's suppliers.
  The Rollei 35 was introduced at photokina 1966 and became instantly an international success.
  Later, Waaske introduced improvements in the loading system of small format reflex cameras which were mass-produced with the Rollei Rolleiflex SL2000F.
  Waaske's last contribution to Rollei was the Rolleimatic, which was designed to be as easy to use as the Instamatic camera, but use the 135 format, allowing for a better image quality.  Waaske resigned his position at Rollei in 1978, before the introduction of the Rolleimatic on the market, in 1980.
caption: Rollei 35S
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