Rollei 35AF – Modern Compact

If you don’t have time to read this review of the Rollei 35AF, I can read this to you with the Photo Thinking Blogcast! You can find it on most podcast platforms or here.

Rollei 35AF

I was recently presented with an unexpected opportunity to try out a brand-new film camera, the Rollei 35AF.  It’s a camera I have been paying quite a bit of attention to, as have many people.  In the 2020s it is very rare for a new film camera to be produced and in 2024 we have had two.  This one and the Pentax 17.

One specific reason I personally was interested, is that the original Rollei 35 is a very popular review I wrote on Photo Thinking.  Interestingly the Rollei 35AF, while is similar shaped, it is a very different camera to use.  Apart from showing you the shape and size comparisons, I will not be comparing the cameras.  In my opinion they are very different cameras.

There had been a lot of speculation about this camera, from how it works, to what price point it should hit.  Some people think it is too expensive, others think it is priced right.  The actual camera itself seems to be polarising, in that there are many people hungry for a new camera, but there is also many stuck in the world of older and cheaper cameras.

I fall somewhere in between.  The idea of a new film camera really appeals to me, but as a collector of vintage cameras I can’t help but consider the older cameras.  Now that is the part which is unfair to the new Rollei 35AF.  Manufacturing in 2024 is very different to the mid twentieth century, so expecting a heavy piece of brass really is not logical.  I do have to wonder if MiNT should have based it on a classic, or maybe it would have been better to build from the ground up.

Then there is the expectation it would have the same lens, or in some cases the same lens mechanisms.  To people that expect them, I ask them to consider that technology moves on and if you want a modern version of something, expect it to be, well, modern.

Reading the specifications; auto focus, auto exposure, built in flash and DX code reading, it has everything you would want in a compact camera.  And that is exactly what this is, a modern compact camera with all the functions you would expect.

I had the Rollei 35AF for two weeks, after which I had to sadly send it back.  Antony Hands of Chasing Summer Photography deserves a special thanks, for organising the loan of the camera with MiNT Camera for me. 

Let’s find out about the camera, including the unboxing, and then what I thought of it during those two weeks.

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History

Rollei branding was introduced by Franke & Heidecke in 1920.  Over the years they have been well known primarily as the leader in Twins Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras.  The Rolleiflex and Rolleicord cameras are well regarded and very much sought after even now.  

In 1966 Rollei took a gamble with a prototype camera an employee called Heinz Waaske had sitting near his desk.  He had previously proposed it to his former employer, Wirgin, but they had refused it.  This was Rollei’s gain, and it was to become the iconic Rollei 35 camera.  

MiNT Camera started out in 2009 as an online store, and then in 2010 as a store in Hong Kong.  Focus was on Polaroid and instant photography.  This included repairs, upgrades and accessories.  Their repaired SX-70 cameras are quite well known. 

In 2015 MiNT introduced the world’s first TLR Instant camera, the InstantFlex TL70.  In hindsight now, you can see the connection going to Rollei.  MiNT brought out the InstantKon RF70 in 2019, a new instant camera.

The collaboration which started the InstantFlex TL70 continued through into the Rollei 35AF, the camera in this article, which was released in 2024.

Unboxing

When Antony had organised for the camera to be shipped to me, I eagerly waited for it to arrive.  While I am not the first one to open it, it is worth describing what you get when you buy one.

Firstly, it comes in a light sliver/grey box.  It is a very modern, similar to products you would buy from Apple.  Inside is the camera, in a cut out section.  Within a separate cutout is the leather strap.  

Underneath the camera is the quick start guide, which interestingly does not include instructions on how to load the battery.  I believe there should be some stickers thrown in there too, but as I am not the first one to have received it, they were not there (as a side note, Antony was very generous afterwards with another camera and lots of stickers!).

Once it has a battery loaded it is quick to get going with this camera.

Camera Specifics

The Rollei 35AF is a compact 35mm camera designed to look like the original Rollei 35 from the 1960s.  It has a squarish shape, although it is a bit bigger than the original.   Interestingly, even with all the new features, it is much lighter.

That is where I stop comparing it to the old camera.  Yes, shape and position of many controls are similar, but in my opinion that is where it ends.  The new 35AF has autofocus, centre weighted autoexposure, built in flash and DX code function.  The old one does not.

On top of the camera is the shutter button, which is surrounded by a switch, which lets you turn on the camera, turn on with flash, and go into ISO adjustment mode.  Next to the shutter button is a small round OLED display.  It is where it lets you know what you are doing with the switch, but also it displays the meter reading.  Exposure reading is centre weighted.

In the shooting modes, it will display AUTO, the compensation setting or for manual settings, the metering in a circle with a plus or minus sign.  As you adjust the settings, it will update the display until it reaches OK. 

For ISO settings, move the switch over to ISO and use the delay shutter button on the front to cycle through the ISO settings.  They range from ISO 25 to 3200 through either the DX auto selection or manually selected.

The shutter button itself has two functions.  Firstly, half pressing it will autofocus the camera and give a meter reading in the OLED display.  Fully pressing it will fire the shutter, exposing the frame.  It will not rise again until you next cock the shutter by advancing the frame.

On the front of the camera is where the majority of the controls reside. The right hand side has aperture dial.  This will control the aperture regardless of whether manual or automatic modes.  Aperture options range from f/2.8 through to f/16.  In the middle of that dial is a film length reminder from 12 through to 36 exposures.

The left hand side has a mode and shutter speed dial.  When on “A” setting it will set the camera on automatic, which effectively is aperture priority.  Options for exposure compensation are also here, but only in automatic mode.  They are -2, -1, +1 and +2 stops of exposure.  The shutter speed range available on this dial are one second through to 1/500 second, and Long Time (LT) for up to 60 seconds.  Like the other dial, there is a reminder dial inside this dial, with options for black and white, colour slide and colour negative.

The lens itself is a Rollei 35mm f/2.8 fixed lens, with five element glass. Focus ranges from 70cm to infinity.  Unlike the original, it does not retract, to allow for the autofocus mechanism.  Autofocus utilises LiDAR technology.  For those not familiar, this uses a laser to determine distance.

Also on the front is the delay timer button and the flash.  Flash strength is 3.5 metres for f/2.8.

At the back is the viewfinder, rewind switch and battery compartment.  It is powered by a CR2 3v battery.

Underneath the camera is the rewind knob, tripod socket and the back latch.  The rewind knob slots back into a holder when not in use.  When the latch is undone the whole back of the camera comes off to allow film loading.

To load film, once the back is off, and you have inserted the cartridge, you need to swing open the pressure plate and pull the film through.  You then have to thread the leader into the slot take up spool.  Putting the pressure plate back, then wind the camera twice.  Only then push the back on.  Initially the camera will display -2 on the counter.  Fire a couple of shots and wind on until it is set to 1.  You are then ready to go.

The viewfinder itself has bright line frame lines with no markings for parallax correction. In the centre is the focus point. 

The Experience

When Antony offered to arrange the loan of the Rollei 35AF from MiNT Camera, I jumped at the chance, just like anyone reading this would have likely done.  It arrived a few days later and I got to take it out of the box.  As it had a strap in there, I put it on and was pleased to see it was leather and comfortable.

First impression was that this thing is light.  I quickly grabbed the original Rollei 35 and while the new one is a bit bigger, it felt a lot lighter.  When I say bigger, it’s a matter of perspective on whether this matters, as it is still quite small.  We were off to a good start.

One thing I noticed is that the quick start guide omitted to show how to load a battery.  On the plus side, the battery is on the back and not inside the film chamber.  Nice update.  In any case, it already had one in, so I looked up loading film and started to follow the steps.

Loading film was a little more complex than I would have hoped for a new camera, but the method is a secure one which should mean you never have the leader slip out.  The part about loading that concerned me was slotting the back into place afterwards.  You have to really push it in and press on the back for it fit into the groove.  Just felt a little risky to me, and that you might damage the camera.  It is worth mentioning, it did not while I had it.

Letting the camera read the DX code, or setting the ISO manually was very straight forward, and I was grateful for a modern compact which allows you to choose it.

Off I went, the first chance I got to shoot with it loaded with Ilford Delta 400.  It was at a local food fair and the weather was very overcast, which is why I chose black and white film.  It is a very fun camera to shoot, I really enjoyed it.  Very easy to use, but at the same time you can manually control it.

Ergonomically it is nice camera to handle.  Very light, fits in the hand well and when in auto mode very quick to take a photo.  I had been warned the shutter release button was a bit stiff, but I did not find that.  It is not what I would call a soft release, but I don’t mind really feeling it fire.  What I had not expected and did take a bit time to get used to was that it does not come back up until you wind to the next frame and the shutter is cocked.

That brings us to the advance winder.  It has one of the longest throws I have seen on a camera for quite a while.  That did not worry me much, but it did not feel smooth which was something I wish had been paid more attention to.  Also felt it was a bit hard to grab, as it rests on a screw at the back.  Again, this was a small thing to worry about.

Considering the low light, I did appreciate the fast lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8.  I ran through the roll of film in the afternoon and was pleased I was enjoying using it.  Unfortunately, the weather in Sydney, which is usually sunny, decided to give me overcast conditions for a full week after that.

This gave me a chance to get the film processed, scan it in and see the results.  Originally, I thought that the results were a bit muddy, but taking into account the really horrible flat lack of light, the lens actually did quite well.  I bumped up the contrast a bit, just like you would in this situation in a dark room.  The results were well exposed.  Sharpness was at a good level and even across the frame.  

What I really wanted to test out well was how well the metering works in this camera, when it has something other than bland light to work with.  On the next sunny day, I eagerly put in a roll of Kodak Ektachrome E100, as we all know, slide film has very little latitude and tests a meter.

First time with slide I took the camera with me to a shoot of the ocean pool at South Coogee.  I got to test out the compensation settings as shooting landscapes had to consider the sky.  The next day, I went for a walk to Newtown, which is a trendy suburb of Sydney, with cafes, shops and lots of graffiti. 

Autofocus works well.  The centre point is well defined and easy to see you can be sure you focus on the right thing.  It is a bit noisy, but fast enough for most occasions.  The LiDAR technology has been integrated quite well.  There is no option to manually focus through.

Metering does require taking the camera from your eye and looking at the OLED display.  It was very easy to read, even in bright sunlight, but this is where I ran into some usability challenges.  While my distance eyesight is good, I need reading glasses.  To see and read the OLED I need my glasses on, but when looking through the viewfinder, I found it a bit difficult to see with glasses on.  If the OLED display had been a bit bigger, I may have been able to operate without the on and off of glasses.

This may have also been resolved by including some exposure details in the viewfinder.  Apart from the bright line frame, it does not include any other information.  The viewfinder itself was a very reasonable brightness which made composing straightforward.

But before I talk about the next film I shot that day, let’s fast forward a few days and talk about the exposures from the E100 slide film.  I have to give the exposure metering top marks, it exposed very well for all but two frames.  That is an outstanding hit rate.

The results are crisp, clear and as mentioned, well exposed.  I would happily put the slides into a projector, probably to my family’s groans.  Even the shots at the ocean pool, where I had the compensation set for the sky worked well.  

A few months earlier, I had bought a film that had been released locally in Australia called Speed 400.  This film is an old AGFA film formula used for road speed cameras for the police, back when they were not digital.  It is a colour C41 film.  I loaded that up while I was shooting in Newtown as the light was good, I still had some time and was enjoying myself.

I got to the end of the Speed 400 or thought I did.  The winder kept going way past the 36 and I got to frame 40 when I got nervous and rewound the film.  I could feel it had worked, I am not sure why the counter kept going and the advance kept, well advancing.  The film was exposed through to the end, so this is a bit of a mystery to me, but I have read since that this has happened to a few people.  Primarily I have noticed that it was where film was boutique and hand rolled, as I’d say the Speed 400 is.

A few days later I had my film back.  Apart from the excellent exposures on the E100, there was obvious advance issues on the Speed 400.  During the shoot I found a few times where I went to advance that I could not, and that the shutter was charged for the next frame.  I had put it down to muscle memory and that I may have advanced without realising it already.

The negatives, when I scanned them in, had five frames where they were multiple exposures.  So somewhere during the use of this boutique film the mechanism would fire the shutter, but would keep the shutter cocked, and not allow advancing the frame.  When this was happening, I did check the rewind switch, and it seemed to be set correctly, but I have also read it needs to be really well in place.  You can see in some of the double exposures I figured something was going on, where I have shot the same thing a second time.

Again, as per the slide film, the exposures were very well done.  Only one little niggle on the frames, at least for this copy, it seems to have something that looks like hairs on the edges, specifically in the top left corner.  Not a big problem, even for the slides, as when in their mounts you cannot even see it.  Might be a problem for anyone wanting to scan or print the film rebate though.

Note: I have been advised since writing this, that this issue was on a few cameras at the beginning before they went into full production, and this should not be experienced in any ordered cameras.

Let’s talk about the lens performance.  As I mentioned earlier, I found the performance of this lens very good for sharpness.  Having it for such a short time and only putting three rolls of film into it, I did not get a chance to try much with wide open apertures, but I did not see much definition fall off at all. Most frames are sharp edge to edge, maybe a little off the very extreme of the edges.

Of the exposure itself, I did not notice any significant vignetting on any frames.  There is some there on the landscape photos especially, but it is so minor that I would not consider it a distraction.  Overall, while this is not a wow lens, it is a very capable performer, and I would not be unhappy to be using it daily.

I had the Rollei 35AF for a couple of weeks and have to say I fully enjoyed it.  It is a fantastic thing that MiNT have done bringing this camera out, albeit in small batch initially.  There are some rough edges to sort out for this camera, including some issues that need to sorted for a camera of this price, especially if you like using boutique film.  But where it shines is the results.  I am very happy what I got out of this camera.

As a recommendation I would say, weigh the price against having a brand new film camera, and if you can live with some of its challenges.  If the final image is important for you, then this could be a camera worth investing into.  I am looking forward to seeing where they take it from here.