Andrew's "Lo-Fi" thread has got me thinking of film again after a hiatus of several years. Both of these beauties are operational, although neither has a functioning light meter. Not a problem. I have a roll of film that's been sitting in my refrigerator door for several years. Time to pull out one of these. If I go with the Rollei, I need to find my instructions and brush up. I remember there was something funky about its operation, where one could cause damage if operations were done in the wrong order, but my memory is fuzzy as to the particulars.
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Very cool, Tony.
I have a Rollei 35, too, and there is one thing you have to remember: the lens has 2 positions, retracted (as it appears in the photo) - and then you slide it out all the way and it sort of 'clicks' into place - and then the camera is ready to take pictures. (There's a focus scale on the lens which you have to guesstimate, although the depth of field scales help, and you also need to set the ISO and the aperture and shutter speed manually, but that's not a big deal. My Rollei 35 has a rough but generally accurate built-in light-meter and there is a tiny window scale on which you can align aperture and shutter speed, depending on ISO and lighting conditions; quite crude but usable. I'm not certain if yours has one or if certain models did and others not.) But---
And it's a big BUT - the tricky part which you have to do correctly (or you might risk damaging the delicate gearing mechanisms inside the camera) has to do with how you 'slide' the lens back into the camera into its 'retracted' position: in order to do this, you must FIRST advance the film lever. (Even if there is no film in the camera!) By 'advancing' the film lever - you are also aligning the internal mechanism which allows you simply to slide the lens back into its retracted position. (You might have to 'declick' it by rotating it a fraction before sliding it back in, too.)
IF you fail to advance the film lever first - and then you attempt to 'retract' the lens into its internal position - it's possible you might damage the camera or its internal mechanism.
Once you try it a few times (and I'll repeat: you don't actually need to have film inside the camera to 'advance' the film advance lever), you'll get the hang of it - and almost assuredly, it will become part of your 'muscle memory' and you'll never forget to do it in the future.
I carried my Rollei 35 everywhere for years as my only take-everywhere film camera - and got quite a number of very cool photos with it. Seeing yours makes me realize I'd like to use mine again, too