Rollei B35 – the German Cousin from Singapore

Back in the early 90s, when I became acquainted to Minox 8×11 cameras, I also started to get an interest in 16mm / 110 film photography. To this day, I still believe they belong to the same general niche, the subminiature photography, with Minox 8×11 being the “ultraminiature format”, for the sake of the argument. Lots of 16mm and 110 cameras around, lots of film too, and life was grand. Got to experiment with quite a good number of both formats, and even started to reload my own 110 cartridges, although if I kept shooting colour, there was no real need for that. But shooting black & white film in a 110 camera was fun, and to some extent, rewarding.

Of course, when I first held the Rollei E110, the magpie that I was at the time had to have one of those; sleek, metal, shiny, what’s not to like. I was sold when I noticed the cocking and film winding was of the push-pull action, which was one of the main attractions with Minox cameras. So, bought one, used for some time with “meh” results. I still do not know why the images were not what I wanted from 110 format with this particular camera, and I do not care anymore really, as the 110 format is so behind me, for various reasons. I am fond of those memories though.

Fast forward to 2023, when a friend of mine gifted me a beautiful Rollei B35, black, with its PU leather pouch and wrist strap intact. The camera even had its original lens cap, which usually gets lost. I took it, thanked for it, briefly checked its meter and put it on one of my cabinet shelves for future (if at all) probing and use. And there it stayed until recently, when I took it out and had a closer look at it and its capabilities.

I was of course aware of the 35mm Rollei compact cameras line, though never owned one. I simply thought they are too finnicky, what with all those front dials, top plate/bottom plate filled with features. To be honest, it seemed to me they are somewhat too crowded to be operated easy and reliable. Where it ticked my box was the size, which seemed pretty wearable around my neck or wrist. I learned very early to have a backup to my cameras I travel with, and usually it was either a Olympus XA or XA2 (I still do travel with my XA2 as a backup). At times, I also had (I still do) a half frame Fujica (the non-motorized version), which was great.

So, the Rollei B35, eh? Still small, still square-ish in the already classic Rollei 35 line of cameras. The B comes from “belichtungmesser”, meaning to show this camera has an internal light meter, because there is a version of it which hasn’t got one. This one does, and it’s accurate within a 1/2 stop, which is great for an old selenium cell.

First, let me say this is not a camera to take very fast snaps, unless you’re all set and distance/light does not change (much). This is a camera which serves you well, but you will have to take your time, and be fully aware of its shortcomings. As with any classic film camera: read the light, set your aperture and shutter, set your distance and then frame and finally, release. But first you’ll have to open the lens in the Leica style 🙂 . The lens itself is a Triotar 3.5/40, which can deliver decent results; it is not a Tessar, but it does the job.

I am not going to go through all the functions and such, because all has been said on this model. I am only going to tell you about how I see this camera myself, and about the few quirks this camera has. As with all things in life, one has to overcome and get used to, or simply make do. So, first quirk is that the lens won’t retract if you do not have the shutter cocked, which in turn means you’ll have to advance the film. Reason? As Rollei put it: to have the camera ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Which is true, but only partially true. You’re cocked, right, but you’ll have to extend the lens, read the meter, set speed and aperture, figure the distance. So not exactly ready to shoot, is it…

Another weird-ish thing is the film winding lever. It’s on the left side of the camera, and I never had or used a camera with the lever elsewhere bit on the right side. granted, my Retinette 1B has its winder on the bottom, but still on the right side of it. And this can be a less exciting feature, until you get used to it.

The bottom plate has a flash shoe, back release switch with its tripod bush, film winding disengaging button, and the rewinder. Pretty crammed, but not hard to get these to function. One thing I really like is the back plate being removable, in the style of Nikon S2. Pretty neat, and also neat is the existence of the pressure plate which comes to press the film onto its rails. Really good feature.

So, yeah, while is not the fastest camera to shoot with, is still a Rollei (albeit the German cousin from Singapore). That said, I am afraid that Rollei B35 may not be for me really; too fiddly, lens a bit on the soft side, and so forth. I mean I do not mind a bit of extra work to get that nice image, but when all is considered with this camera, it may subtract a bit too much from my pleasure to take photographs. Here, a few examples of what this camera can do (and what it can’t, but I will not discuss this here). The film is Agfa APX 100, processed 8 mins in Rodinal.

A decent camera, is what I would call it. Pocketable, kind of a solid feeling to it, ok-ish lens, a decent selection of apertures (although shutter speeds slower than 1/30 would need to be addressed by using the B setting, I guess). But its quirkiness is a bit annoying, to be fair. Anyways, there you have it…just my honest 2 cents on the Rollei B35.

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