Sigh. ANOTHER Rolleiflex...

[LarryD]

Sweet, to the point and polite. I like that.

[Scott]

I'll be surprised if I ever hear from him, though...

[LarryD]

I would not be sure of that as i have done it a few times and sellers love to protect their feedback rating.

[Scott]

Well, fingers crossed.  The camera's likely going to be perfectly servicable as-is.  But to try and sell it as a 3.5F, with a kludged hood, is kind of off-putting. Worthy of a neutral rating at best.

[Scott]

Been playing with this new cam a bit.  And I took its picture:



It's nearly identical in size to the Yashica-Mat on the right.  And, surprisingly (shockingly, amazingly, stunningly) the screen is brighter and clearer than the Yashica screen, which is my defacto standard as it's so darn near perfect.  The Rollei viewing lens is f/2.8, while the Yashica one is f/3.2, so that helps, but the Rollei screen is way better/brighter/clearer than I'd expect from any Rollei.  Can't be original, but it's better than the Yashica.  And, the mirror appears, on cursory inspection, to be in extremely good shape.  Which means I bought the new screen and Polaroid donor prematurely.  Go figure.

Also, here's the hood as-is:



The proof of the pudding's in the pictures.  The shutter needs a cleaning, as does the timer, but it's not in that bad of shape.  Some clean up, some tweaking, and some new leather, and it should be a right fine lil' shooter.

[Scott]

Okay - get ready for a shock.  Ready?  Sure?  Okay.




Wait for it....









Haven't heard a peep from the seller.  :p

[LarryD]

Well it is a weekend... give it a few days... if he is a mass seller he may have a few things to go through and then again he may have gone fishing with his daughter.

[Scott]

He was pretty immediate with the responses before shipping.  Right now, I'm kind of waiting on hearing from him before I start tearing into the camera. :rolleyes:

[br1078lum]

Well, like eBay says, they have a few days to respond to you.  But it is a good looking camera.

PF

[LarryD]

Also if you used paypal you have more options.

[Scott]

Well, I'm not involving PayPal, as I intend on keeping the camera from this point anyway.  Have the front leather off already.  Hoping for a few bucks back for the trouble, but either way, it's mine now.

I'll be opening a DIY thread today to chronicle the work being done on the camera.

[Scott]

Okay, maybe I won't be opening a DIY thread.  Work's nearly done.  Shutter required minor cleaning work and is running nicely now; maybe a tad slow, but I'm not moving the pallet, 'cause the speeds are easily within the requirements for print film, and may be okay for slides.  The self timer was very dirty and required a little more cleaning to free up, but is now ticking down nicely.  Only glitch that's required any effort is that the release lever on the self timer wasn't actuating the release lever on the shutter.  Slight adjustment of the tab on the shutter has it working again.

I need to go dig around and see if I have any B&W 120 film now...

[lesged]

Scott,

Looks like you're well on your way getting your "new" Rollei ready for a test run.

I don't know if Mike Elek still has the Automat 4KB that I ran over that I sent  back to him to use as a parts camera. Why not write him and ask if he still has it and would sell you the hood. I'd guess it would be compatible seeing it's from the same 4K series.

On the other hand, maybe he has refurbished the camera and my suggestion is moot. It's worth sending a PM to find out.

[Scott]

Thanks, Les!  I've shot Mike an email directly.

[Scott]

Well, FWIW, I've continued testing the shutter and the timer, and everything is working properly.  I think, before loading my last roll of Ilford SFX200 (wicked expired, and to be shot at EI200 with no filter), I'm taking the hood off to clean the screen and check out the mirror first-hand, though it looks fine through the viewing lens.  Then it's test time...