Rollei B 35

For a few years around 1970 the Rollei 35 family held the title of smallest full-frame 35mm camera in the world, and holding one still explains why people got obsessive about them — a dense little brick of metal that hides a collapsing lens inside the body and fits in a coat pocket without a bulge. This is the B 35, the version with a built-in selenium light meter, carrying the three-element Carl Zeiss Triotar 40mm f/3.5. Zone focus, no rangefinder, controls scattered across the body in an arrangement that makes no sense for about a week and then becomes second nature.

Specifications

• Format: 35mm film, full frame
• Lens: Carl Zeiss Triotar 40mm f/3.5, three elements in three groups, collapsing mount
• Shutter: Leaf shutter, 1/30 to 1/500 + Bulb
• Focus: Zone/scale focus from 0.9m to infinity — no rangefinder
• Metering: Built-in selenium cell meter, match-needle on the top plate
• Flash: Hot shoe on the base plate
• Made in: Singapore
• Weight: Approx. 330g

Condition

• Cosmetic: Excellent overall with minimal signs of age. The glass has a history of fungus which has been cleaned; the cleaning has left etched scratches in the middle element. These are permanent and will show as slightly reduced contrast, most noticeably in strong backlight. The rear element is clean and the camera still produces a good image.
• Functional: Working mechanically — shutter fires at all speeds, the lens collapses and locks correctly, film advance and rewind are smooth. The selenium meter is not working; meter with a phone app or handheld meter.

Included

• Rollei B 35 body with Triotar 40mm f/3.5
• Original Rollei pouch

Two things to know before buying. The selenium meter is dead, which is the normal fate of a selenium cell after fifty years and no reflection on the rest of the camera — everything mechanical works as it should. And the fungus cleaning has etched the middle element, so the marks are in the glass rather than on it and cannot be polished out; expect flatter contrast in backlit scenes, and very little difference in ordinary front or side light. What you get for accepting both is a genuine Rollei 35 in excellent cosmetic shape with its original pouch, at well under what clean-glass examples fetch.