page_title: Rollei
section_title: Rolleiflex SL35
hierarchical_section_title: Rollei / Historical development / 1964 to 1974 - Peesel era / Rolleiflex SL35
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Rolleiflex SL 35 E, Kleinbildkamera, ab 1978 für Rollei in Singapur produziert English: The Rolleiflex SL 35 E is a camera to use 35 mm film by german manufacturer en:Rollei produced from 1978 in Singapore. Français&#160;: Un appareil photo Rolleiflex SL 35 E produit depuis 1978 à Singapour pour la compagnie allemande Rollei.
context_page_description: Rollei was a German manufacturer of optical instruments founded in 1920 by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras. Later products included specialty and nostalgic type films for the photo hobbyist market.
  Originally named Werkstatt für Feinmechanik und Optik, Franke & Heidecke, the company renamed into Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke GmbH in 1972, Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke GmbH & Co. KG, in 1979, and Rollei Fototechnic GmbH & Co. KG in 1981.
  After being purchased in 1995 by Samsung Techwin, part of the South Korean Samsung Group, it was sold back to its internal management in 1999. In 2002, it was bought by a Danish investment group, and renamed Rollei GmbH in 2004.
  In 2005/2006, the company headquarters moved to Berlin and the company was split into two different companies: Rollei GmbH in Berlin, owner of the Rollei brand and selling various OEM equipment, and Rollei Produktion GmbH in Braunschweig, an equipment factory which became Franke & Heidecke GmbH, Feinmechanik und Optik.
  Following another restructuring in 2007, Rollei was split into three companies.
context_section_description: After 35 mm SLR cameras became popular, Rollei began to develop its own 35 mm product line in 1966; but it was already too late – just as the SL66 project had been. Rollei now faced competition – not from a small company like Hasselblad, but from large, well-financed Japanese companies who could afford to advertise heavily in glossy magazines and trade journals. What is more, they invited photographic dealers to Japan to view their factories.
  The Rolleiflex SL35 was introduced in 1970; it was quite compact and comparable in price (675 DM) and quality with Japanese cameras. Rollei had modelled its design on the top-selling 35 mm SLR camera of the time, the Pentax Spotmatic, although it did not surpass it in quality.
  Rollei introduced a new bayonet lens mount for the SL35, the QBM (Quick Bayonet Mount). Besides a choice of two standard f/1.8, 50 mm lenses (either a Zeiss Planar or a Schneider SL-Xenon), the initial lens range included: 
  Distagon f/2.8, 25 mm
  Distagon f/2.8, 35 mm
  Sonnar f/2.8, 85 mm
  Tele Tessar f/4, 135 mm
  Tele Tessar f/4, 200 mm
  At this point Rollei still lagged behind the large Japanese companies who already offered fish-eye lenses, super-telephoto lenses and zoom lenses. Although few amateur photographers purchased lenses such as these in the early 1970s, from a marketing perspective, statements published in camera reviews like "lenses available with focal lengths from 7.5 mm to 800 mm" sounded more impressive than "... from 25 to 200 mm". Consequently, Rollei soon expanded their range; by 1973 a total of 16 lenses (all with fixed focal-lengths) were available for the Rolleiflex SL35: 13 from Carl Zeiss (Oberkochen), and 3 from Schneider-Kreuznach.
  In 1974 Rollei introduced the SL350, the successor to the SL35. Despite state-of-the-art open-aperture metering, which was promoted with the catch-phrase "concentration on the essentials", sales of the camera were rather poor. In 1976 Rollei unexpectedly withdrew the SL350 (the last 35 mm camera "Made in Germany" until Rollei went bankrupt) from sale in favour of the SL35 M – a camera derived from obsolete technology acquired through Rollei's purchase of Zeiss Ikon. In comparison to the elegant design of the SL35, the SL35 M was clumsy and unreliable. Next, Rollei went on to develop the SL35 ME, its first SLR with aperture priority metering –  some four years after the Japanese. Low-cost mass production in Singapore allowed Rollei to offer the SL35 ME at a very attractive price. In spite of this, sales were well below expectations. Rollei's research and development department continued to follow the basic philosophy it had established for its medium format cameras: adding more electronics. In 1978, Rollei introduced a new, electronically controlled camera, the SL35 E. However, it lacked the reliability that was now expected of consumer products. One weak point, for example, was the mirror mechanism.
  After Canon introduced the AE-1 (the first 35 mm SLR to include a micro-processor), and Minolta introduced the XD-7 (the first SLR to feature multiple automatic exposure modes – shutter priority and aperture priority), camera buyers lost interest in Rollei and its products; on the other hand, very few noticed the flaws either. As a result, Rollei was relegated to the fringe, its sales lagging well behind Minolta, Pentax, Canon, Nikon and Contax-Yashica.
  In the mid-1970s, third-party lenses increased in popularity. This trend made it difficult for Rollei to maintain its declining market share because third-party lens makers were reluctant to produce Rollei-compatible lenses; low sales of Rollei cameras made it uneconomic for them to do so.
  As a result, Rollei's customer base, which formerly consisted of enthusiastic amateurs, was now dominated by casual photographers. Although they generally preferred German-made products, they were much less inclined to buy expensive camera accessories. Nevertheless, Rollei sold 333,000 units of the SL35 and 120,000 units of its successor, the SL35 E, including sales of virtually identical models from Voigtländer.
caption: Rolleiflex SL35E
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