Ran over my Rollei. Woe is me!

[lesged]

I didn't have the Rolleiflex Automatic MX three weeks, when I accidentally ran over my leather camera bag, with the Rollei inside, while backing out of my driveway

One can say it's only metal and glass, not a human or someone's pet, and let it go as one of the myriad accidents that happened in and around our house over the past 49 years. But this was a surprise gift from Mike Elek, which elevates it to personal loss and reduces it to an ignoble act., no matter that it was an accident.

There was a comic-tragic element on how I ran it over ------twice! Claudia and I were going to visit Martha, the widow of my first cousin Eddie, who we haven't seen in decades. Shuttling in and out of the house to bring old and new photos, I forgot I left my Tiltall tripod leaning against the trunk and my heavy cowhide camera case with 3 cameras in it behind the Honda Civic.

As I backed out, we heard a bump, and a funny sounding thud, and I  misinterpreted what it was. Thinking I was parked at an angle, I assumed I hit the large rock at the corner edge of the driveway; which has our house number 49 painted on it. So I drove forward straightened out the wheels and backed out nice and straight, only to hear the same bump and thud again.

I went to see what I hit.  There was the Tiltall tripod with two of its four members amputated. I sheared off  the long handle that controls and locks the vertical axis position of the tripod head and one of the short ones that locks its azimuth axis.

I finally got up enough nerve to tell Mike what a mess I made of his kind gift. As fate had it there was another double whammy involved in the accident: the second camera that was damaged, this one mortally, was a Konica C35 Mike  gave me a year or so ago.
The third camera, a Canonet QL-1.7 was left miraculously unharmed..

Fortunately, my favorite tripod is reparable as replacement handles are available at Gary Segester's website* at $15 each shipping included. Bill Salati gave mr the H/U.There is a link to the interesting history of the Tiltall and the patent for the ice-cream cone. Btw, my Tiltall I got with Rollei E3.5 Planar that I sold to Kirk T. about 2 years ago. Weep, weep. The Tiltall was old enough to be made by The Macchione Bros. before Leitz distributed it for several decades. The newer ones are not made as well, at all.

But the Rollei took a real bad hit, despite being in a ruggedly built camera case. Te dent at the bottom left corner I believe will not impinge on cameras function. The distortion of the channel lip/light trap can be reshaped and allow the camera back to close flush on both side. The bezel with legend Heidosmat got twisted  and pulled awy from its normal position. That is superficial and can be cut off or positioned back in its original position and only e a cosmetic flaw, but the lens was spared any visible damage.

But the bottom taking lens ( Zeiss Opton Tessar 3.5/75) was pushed down and into the lens mount. There is no visible damage to the glass. I thought at first the Bay 1 to Series hood I had on it protected the lens, but I thing the hit it got created a lever action and transferred a magnified the force at an acute angle and pulled the axis of the taking lens down.  I can see it is not on the same plane as the viewing lens (Heidosmat 2.8/75)

Mike asked me to send it back for a look see, but I think that would be a major repair. And lastly the two knurled wheels that set the aperture and shutter speed are frozen and can’t be moved. The crank runs its forward and backward cycle and sets off the self timer and I hear the shutter click, but the iris blades do not open.  I think I have totaled the camera. I called my insurance agent and found that my absent- minded accident is covered by  my house insurance, but there is a $500 deductible, which won’t help.

I think I’ll set my sights lower to a Rolleicord, which I never had, but think I’d prefer it to a Yashica. If I were lucky enough to find a  Minolta Autocord at a reasonable price that would be an alternative, but they got very pricey.

Note: Correction made to URL:

* www.plumeltd.com/tiltall.htm

[sandeha]

Ouch ... what a horrible report to make.

(Rolleicords are very nice.)

[Philip]

Oh, Les, that's too bad -- I feel your woe!

[Glenn Thoreson]

You have my condolences, Les. I've managed to run over just about everything imaginable but never a camera. I feel your pain.

[LarryD]

Ouch. I am sorry Les. I will cry with you. :-(

[OpenWater]

Makes me sick just to think of it.  You should give it a wake - you might feel better.

[sebastian toombs]

get the most out of that canonet QL...   survival of the fittest and all that.

[lesged]

Thanks all for your condolences. The Tiltall URL I gave at the beginning of the thread is incorrect. It should have been: www.plumeltd.com/tiltall.htm

It's worth reading its history.

Btw, I never dropped a camera on a hard surface in my 70 years of using and collecting cameras.

However, I did drop two lenses on hard surfaces

1)  While changing lenses on my AI , I dropped a Canon FD short tele lens on beach rocks in Chatham in the 80s. It had a small bruise, but worked fine afterwards.

2) A pre-WW2 un-coated Zeiss Sonnar 80/1.5 (Contax/Kiev mount )was dropped on our dining room's asphalt, tile-covered floor..  I damaged the filter threads at the lens' front edge. I was so chargrinned, I gave it back to Mike K. as a gift. I never knew if he had to fix or replace the threaded ring, or if there was internal injury to fix, but I believe Nelsonfoto member Daniel Iggers got it from Mike K. It was a beauty near mint but had a doctor's name neatly engraved into the len's body surface.

[jamesmck]

Lester - Very sorry to hear this.  If you have immediate need/desire for a TLR, I have a nice Autocord L that I could lend you until you make more permanent arrangements.  I am in DC, but will be up in your neighborhood in early July.  PM me if interested.

James

[Mike Kovacs]

Les, it sounds like a complete write-off to me.

[lesged]

James,

That is a mighty fine offer that I'd like to accept. I'll send a PM with details and would indeed enjoy meeting you when you come up to or near Boston.  I'm 25 miles west in Framingham in the town known for its multi-generational heart study started after WW2.*

I got my first Minolta Autocord in 1955 when it was first introduced in New England. I took it with me to Italy in the late 50s. I gave it to a Finnish friend and bought a 2nd one. The town of Newton supplied Pentax SP500 and SP1000 for my classes in the 1970s. I brought in other cameras that I picked up in garage and rummage sales for the students to use and let some use my Minolta Autocord for 6X6.

I lent that second Autocord to two NSHS seniors who were keeping company  They wanted to make a cross-country  before starting college and asked if they could borrow the camera,  they loved to use in my class and have it as their solitary camera  during their adventurous  journey across the country.  Of course I agreed. I apologized that the camera case was not in great shape but asked if they would use it to protect the Minolta Autocord. When they returned the camera, the case was lovingly hand re-stitched and the leather had received the TLC given to the saddle by its horse cavalry soldier; its patina was beautiful.

I bought a third  Minolta which had a built-in meter and took 120 & 220 film. Could that be the Minolta L?  Whatever my model was, it was given to an Boston artist friend when I bought my first Rolleiflex: a minty E2.8 Xenotar in the early 1980s. I haven't used a Minolta Autocord since.

Thanks for the kind offer, James.  I will try real hard to see that lightning won't strike twice.on a TLR.

*   http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to all you caring folks for your responses.

Btw the Mike K. who had the Zeiss Sonnar 80/1.5,  mentioned above, was Mike Kovacs, natch! When do you go to Sweden, Mike?

[Wayne]

I'm very to hear about the Rollei Les!

I can be somewhat clumsy at times, but have so far managed to not seriously maim any cameras. The worst thing I did was also with a Rollei - my mintish E model. I'd just finished doing a lot of work on it and then proceeded to knock it off our coffee table onto the (timber) floor. It was very late at night and I should have finished up a few hours earlier, but once the end of a job is in sight I like to keep at it. Anyhow I feared the worse (especially when I saw the ding it put in the hardwood floor!), but the damage was restricted to a small dent in the corner of the front panel and luckily no affect on lens alignment.

I hope you can get out with another camera and take some pictures to blow the blues away.

[Mike Kovacs]

I'm there and back already

[Julio1fer]

Sorry to hear this, Les. There must be a Heaven for these unlucky cameras.

As you say, in the end it is glass and metal, and it is not even what makes the picture.

[lesged]

Thanks Wayne,

I am not without other cameras. In fact I  have two chest of drawers full of 35mm cameras and batteries of lenses in them and cardboard boxes, but no working TLR  or other MF camera. I guess I got fixated on shooting with a TLR and have ignored the rest of the harem. I shot only one complete roll on the Rollei Automat MX. The second roll was barely started when I ran over the Rollei.

After selling the E3.5 Planar kit to Kirk T., I had a Yashica 24 for nearly 2 years and a Bronica ETRS kit for 3-4 months, but never got to really like either of them. I guess the feel of a camera has replaced my belief in other intangibles like  Leica glow .  Ive had 3 or 4 Yashica TLRs, but none felt like a Rollei or Minolta Autocord. The Yashica Yashinon is a fine lens, but that doesn't alter my Taurus mind set re feel of a camera. 

I must sound snobbish or stubbornly opinionated on this subject. It's all tunnel vision.  Borrowing jamesmck's Minolta Autocord L will give me a chance to hunt down a nice Rolleicord or Minolta. If I finally sell off the cameras and lenses I threaten to sell, I can look around for another Rollei Automat, I don't need an "E" series Rollei and never had an "F." I don't think the Automat I damaged is reparable or it would cost much more than if I bought a good working one.

Meanwhile I have your Rollei mirror lens cap just waiting for a Bay 1 TLR ditto for the Bay 1 to Series VI hood, from Nick Merritt.  A pair of accessories waiting for a camera, like Godot. Btw, they have revised the play recently and it's playing on Broadway now.

Nick Merritt offered to give me back the adapter and hood, which  I included with the Yashica 24 I bought from Scott and added my old Minolta parajuster  to sweeten the deal.