Rolleiflex SL66
| |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Medium format single-lens reflex camera |
| Focusing | |
| Focus | manual |
| Exposure/metering | |
| Exposure | TTL exposure |
| Flash | |
| Flash | hot shoe |
The Rolleiflex SL66 is a medium format single lens reflex camera made by Rollei, in regular production from 1966–82. Although Rollei never officially discontinued the Rollei SL66, it was removed from their promotional support and dealer catalogs in the UK from 1976 and for all intents and purposes was replaced by the Rolleiflex SLX. The UK importer was Rollei themselves. The Rolleiflex SL66 did not feature in Rollei's worldwide product catalog in 1980, and the US importer's July 1979 dealer price list has no SL66 cameras nor 40mm, 250mm, or 500mm lenses. This strongly suggests that the camera was effectively discontinued from 1976 until the launch of the SL66E in October 1982 after the restart of camera production following the first bankruptcy.
The SL66 represented a change in direction for Rollei, which until that time had focused almost exclusively on its popular twin lens reflex cameras, the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord.
In 1957, a gentlemen's agreement between Reinhold Heidecke, inventor of the Rolleiflex TLR, and Victor Hasselblad, inventor of the Hasselblad SLR, was reached to ensure that Rollei would not manufacture SLR cameras, and Hasselblad would not manufacture TLR cameras. However, the rapid adoption of SLRs during the 1960s meant that Rollei risked falling behind in this market at a time when demand for TLRs was decreasing. In 1964 plans were made to create a new, technologically advanced SLR to be introduced at the 1966 photokina festival.
Like the Rolleiflex TLR and the Hasselblad SLR, the SL66 uses 120 or 220 film to produce frames of 6×6 cm. It also incorporates several features that are unique or noteworthy in an SLR camera:
The SL66 uses a focal-plane shutter, although an 80mm lens and a 150mm lens were available from January 1970 with leaf shutters to enable much higher flash synchronization speeds up to 1/500 second, the shutter needed manual cocking before each exposure which is not particularly convenient.
Several later cameras based on the SL66 were made, including the SL66E, SL66X, and SL66SE. The most prominent changes in these newer models involved increased use of electronics in metering and flash synchronization. The SL66SE remained in production until 1992.
