Things (my rolleiflex)

This use to be my father favorite camera. I try to keep it functional, but I do not use it often, because is clumsy and because I have to go special stores to buy the film and, latter, to process it (the film is not cheap, 5 times more expensive that the usual film for cameras).

It's a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) Rolleiflex, probably the most famous camera - ever.

Twins means that we have a set of lens to record the image in the film, and a duplicate set of lens to produce the same image in the "visor" - OK parallax is a (solvable) problem.

That’s why we see the “8 shaped” objective in the front. In reality it’s the 2 twin objectives side by side.

This machine uses 6cm x 6 cm film, with 56mm X 56 mm negatives, witch compares to the 35 mm film, widely used today, with a 36mm x 24mm negative. The increased area of the negative allows a better quality of the photo (if all other parameters are equal). This makes the difference, for example, if you enlarge the picture in order to frame and hang it on the wall. It also compensates, somehow, the lack of zoom lens.

more info:

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/rollei/rolleiflex/

http://www.stutterheim.nl/rollei/faq.html