Catalogue information
In their heyday, the Rollei 35 cameras were ideal travel companions to take with you everywhere. Now they have become highly sought-after gadgets for collectors with which to return home after a visit to a photography fair. In 1962 Heinz Waaske drew the first design of the compact Rollei 35 camera in the living room at home. Sometime after his employment in 1965 at 'Rollei Foto-technik' in Braunschweig, Germany, Waaske showed his made prototype to his director Heinrich Peesel. It was love at first sight and the small camera had to be put into production quickly. The 'Rollei 35' was presented to the press and public at the Photokina in 1966. The small camera hit like a bomb because it went completely against the trend of those days when the cameras were given more and more possibilities, but where they also became bigger and heavier. Rollei did not manufacture everything on the camera itself. The light meter of the '35' was made by Gossen, the shutter by Compur and the lenses by Zeiss. The original Rollei 35 was later produced in many variants, with a Rollei 35 S with 2.8 / 40 mm Sonnar lens as the absolute top model. At the time, it was not only available in black and black with matchroom, but also in silver and gold.
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