Rolleiflex SL35

The Rolleiflex SL35 was the first 35mm SLR produced by Rollei, in 1970. The SL35 is in fact a whole range of 35mm SLR cameras, that were developed and built from the 1970s until the 1990s.

The first camera in the range, was the SL35, and compared to its competitors at that time, it was relatively small and light. The Rolleiflex SL35 was the second Rollei SLR camera to be equipped with Carl Zeiss lenses, after the SL66 of 1966.

Four years later, in 1974, Rollei produced the Rolleiflex SL350. The Rolleiflex SL350 had open-aperture metering, an improvement over the Rolleiflex SL35 which was built with a stop down light meter.

In 1976, Rollei produced a new variant, the SL35M. The SL35M was built on a visibly different body based on an earlier Icarex design but with plastic top and baseplates and offered nothing technologically radical.

At the same time, a variant of the SL35M, the SL35ME was also released. Built on the same body, the SL35ME had electronic shutter control inside and could set shutter speeds automatically. The viewfinder also came with a whole range of indicators including aperture and shutter speed amongst others.

Two years later, in 1978, the SL35 E was introduced. It had all the functions of the SL35ME but came in a lighter package. Near-identical bodies (with most components from the same production lines) were sold by Voigtlander as the VSL 3E, and their shared QBM bayonet mount meant that lenses and bodies from both ranges could be used interchangeably.[1]

A whole range of lens were made for the SL35 series and the lens were interchangeable between the camera bodies in the series. Most of the lenses were German made Carl Zeiss lenses but apart from the Carl Zeiss lenses, the SL35 range also used the Schneider lens, the Rollei lens and the Rolleinar lens.