Fresh GAS...

StephenM said:
It seems almost unbelievable that with 100 years of 35mm cameras requiring a film loading and advance mechanism, the designers could not replicate something so fundamental to the design of a new 35mm camera. My first SLR was an Exa IIB which required the whole back and base plate to be slid off; it was easy to remove and there was no "squeeze it here to get it half back, then squeeze somewhere else to fix it".
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I found the back really difficult to remove. It was a lot of pulling around and squeezing then it just fell off. Getting it back on was the same. It was almost de-fenestrated. Some cameras are fiddly but even the ancient Automat was easier and I'm usually not very good with 120. I can't think of another camera that was anywhere near as bothersome to load as the Rollei.
 
Canon cheapie has arrived. It looks virtually new. Already got a film loaded and annoyed the cat with the flash within 5 minutes. Getting the strap on it was the hard bit. Good old fashioned noisy AF and motorwind. Definitely not a stealth camera! Even had a battery in it so it was showing a display. Frame counter is on the back so really easy to see. The switch for full/half frame mode is inside the back and easy to see.

Doesn't feel too cheap either. It's a bit shiny 80s plastic but it's not gone horrible and the grip isn't a sticky rubber. It's a textured plastic instead. Definitely worth what I paid for it.
 
I did have a Canon Sureshot for maybe two rolls of film.

I liked it - but it did have an issue that the film counter kept resetting so I never knew how many shots I'd taken.

I would have kept it, but I then inherited my father in law's Ricoh (FF-AF3). Which I love.
 
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I know you said you didn't want an Olympus but ..... Have you tried an Olympus 35RC?

I like them so much I have three of them. Fixed 42mm lens, range finder focus, filter ring, can take lens hoods, great image quality, very solid build.

I have been through 2 XAs and 2 XA2s which stopped working whereas the 35RC just keeps on going. Takes LR44 batteries which are only needed for the meter, but I don't bother putting batteries in mine
Due to failing eyesight I generally use them as scale focus rather than using the rangefinder

I've recovered them in three different colours.
 
Kevin Allan said:
I know you said you didn't want an Olympus but ..... Have you tried an Olympus 35RC?

I like them so much I have three of them. Fixed 42mm lens, range finder focus, filter ring, can take lens hoods, great image quality, very solid build.

I have been through 2 XAs and 2 XA2s which stopped working whereas the 35RC just keeps on going. Takes LR44 batteries which are only needed for the meter, but I don't bother putting batteries in mine
Due to failing eyesight I generally use them as scale focus rather than using the rangefinder

I've recovered them in three different colours.
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Possibly. It depends on how the weird canon does. That's really easy to use and the peekaboo lens that just pops out to take a photo and disappears back inside the camera like a cuckoo clock's cuckoo. It's quite fun. It's also got easy to get long life batteries.
 
Kevin Allan said:
I know you said you didn't want an Olympus but ..... Have you tried an Olympus 35RC?

I like them so much I have three of them. Fixed 42mm lens, range finder focus, filter ring, can take lens hoods, great image quality, very solid build.

I have been through 2 XAs and 2 XA2s which stopped working whereas the 35RC just keeps on going. Takes LR44 batteries which are only needed for the meter, but I don't bother putting batteries in mine
Due to failing eyesight I generally use them as scale focus rather than using the rangefinder

I've recovered them in three different colours.
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Have you tried all 3 of those RF Olys, Kevin? I've wondered about them for years, but any time I even got close to buying on the whole "choose" question reared its ugly head!

In retrospect, I enjoyed my Canonet GL17, and got some really nice photos with it, but it was my first RF and I found it fairly hard to get along with it. The 6 month "OCOLOF" I did back in 2015 with the Leitz-Minolta CL/Bessa R3A combo helped me move on from my RF jitters.

I've also seen it said that rangefinders are better than SLRs for those with failing eyesight, ie that matching a split image is easier than determining that a particular edge is "sharp". So it's interesting that you're finding it not quite so (and still producing wonderful images for us to enjoy, too!).
 
ChrisR said:
I've also seen it said that rangefinders are better than SLRs for those with failing eyesight, ie that matching a split image is easier than determining that a particular edge is "sharp". So it's interesting that you're finding it not quite so (and still producing wonderful images for us to enjoy, too!).
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My eyesight issues are perhaps rather unusual. I'm short sighted in my right eye and long sighted in my left eye. I can't move my right eye - called Duane's syndrome. I don't get on with vari-focals and carry around seperate specs for close work and vision, and some cameras require switching between them to operate.

Hence I find scale focussing easier to operate than a rangefinder. I've not had many problems with the focus being off when using the 35RCs.
 
Kevin Allan said:
My eyesight issues are perhaps rather unusual. I'm short sighted in my right eye and long sighted in my left eye.
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I'm the same.

So far as I can find out, there are various conditions that lead to this sort of problem...

www.bhamcommunity.nhs.uk

Common Eye Conditions

Common conditions that we see in the Paediatric Eye Service
www.bhamcommunity.nhs.uk
 
Those sight problems must be particularly difficult for photographers, yet both of you manage to overcome them enough tomake lovely images!
 
Sent the Rollei back ages ago.. The seller was out of the office again and tried to refuse me returning it.. They'd been on holiday for a month by the time I had bought it. I tried to return it within about 3 days of arrival. No idea what kind of business they are running there but I do notice their ebay seller profile (didn't buy from ebay, bought from their shop front) is showing them as a private seller with no returns when they claim to be a UK distributor for this camera.

Now they are being very awkward about the refund as the camera hasn't apparently misbehaved on them. Said they'd run a film through it. Having read about other people having issues and that you have to send it all the way back to Hong Kong for warranty repair which takes ages as well I'm even less wanting the camera back. Or wanting a replacement. They're obsessed with having video of the fault which is pretty difficult to do as I need both hands to hold the camera steady and wind it on as the winder is on the left hand side for a start. Other people have submitted video showing issues with the AF system and apparently Rollei just blame the person holding the camera and not that the AF system is flaky in actual operation.

There's also a nasty scratch on two adjacent negatives which I've not had on a camera in a long time. Definitely suggests the film transport is a bit dodgy.

I've never had a camera refuse to take photos completely. Nearest experience is with Minolta and some other AF film cameras if you point them directly at a flat wall with no edges and they won't focus. I've never had a camera that won't take a picture of anything at all! Flowers, nope. Garden nope. Wall nope. Window and wall nope. Whole building, nope. All of those have just worked when you pointed at something that wasn't a blank flat wall.

If it were a £70 new camera I'd just chuck it in the bin and chalk it up to experience but as it was a £700 I expect it work or have a full refund. The used Canon I got worked fine this weekend. Doing the same job as the Rollei refused to do. That was £80 and it is 40 years old nearly.
 
I'd see if a bit of black insulating tape along the top (I think!) edge of the back door cured that - could be either slightly warped/bent or failing light seal.
 
Nod said:
I'd see if a bit of black insulating tape along the top (I think!) edge of the back door cured that - could be either slightly warped/bent or failing light seal.
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This is from the Rollei which is brand new. Sorry, should have been clearer. The back design is p*** poor so it's not surprising really.

Seller can't find the fault still and is now trying to offer used trade in. OH F OFF. Claiming it's a change of mind. Nope. The camera doesn't bloody well work. It just stuck and wouldn't wind on or fire the shutter. To top it all the film mechanism is so poor it can't even hold the film flat.

Had it actually finished the film then I'd have happily kept it even though the actual usability is a bit poor, especially on the film loading and unloading side of things but the actual results, when it was arsed, were decent.

The whole attitude from them and Mint/Rollei is the camera is fine and all the users are thick and wrong and can't make it work. Not that their product is a half arsed prototype with major usability problems that Stevie Wonder could have seen.
 
Looks like you might need to get ebay involved if you still can. Good luck with it.
 
srichards said:
This is from the Rollei which is brand new. Sorry, should have been clearer. The back design is p*** poor so it's not surprising really.

Seller can't find the fault still and is now trying to offer used trade in. OH F OFF. Claiming it's a change of mind. Nope. The camera doesn't bloody well work. It just stuck and wouldn't wind on or fire the shutter. To top it all the film mechanism is so poor it can't even hold the film flat.

Had it actually finished the film then I'd have happily kept it even though the actual usability is a bit poor, especially on the film loading and unloading side of things but the actual results, when it was arsed, were decent.

The whole attitude from them and Mint/Rollei is the camera is fine and all the users are thick and wrong and can't make it work. Not that their product is a half arsed prototype with major usability problems that Stevie Wonder could have seen.
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Distance selling regulations allows you to return it be it faulty or not, even if you did change your mind you can return it.
 
zx9 said:
Distance selling regulations allows you to return it be it faulty or not, even if you did change your mind you can return it.
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They are suggesting they will only offer a used value to refund because the battery door sticker was removed. Yes, without removing that you can't power the camera to actually operate it! It's an utter joke.
 
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It took me 4 months to return a Plustek 8200i which had had a silent model change which meant Vuescan didn't work properly. Keep at them. It's your right to return it if you're not satisfied, whether or not it's faulty. They went all the way down the "prove it's faulty" and "warranty with Plustek" etc rabbit holes, and a few more. Gort there in the end. You have to pay return postage.
 
ChrisR said:
It took me 4 months to return a Plustek 8200i which had had a silent model change which meant Vuescan didn't work properly. Keep at them. It's your right to return it if you're not satisfied, whether or not it's faulty. They went all the way down the "prove it's faulty" and "warranty with Plustek" etc rabbit holes, and a few more. Gort there in the end. You have to pay return postage.
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Quote from one of my many emails:

'To be clear, I am seeking to return it to the seller under the distance selling regulations. See this page: https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds. I quote:

"Online, mail and phone order sales​

Online, mail and telephone order customers have the right to cancel their order for a limited time even if the goods are not faulty. Sales of this kind are known as ‘distance selling’.

You must offer a refund to customers if they’ve told you within 14 days of receiving their goods that they want to cancel. They have another 14 days to return the goods once they’ve told you.

You must refund the customer within 14 days of receiving the goods back. They do not have to provide a reason."'

Mine was received 6 September, return requested one week later after testing showed it didn't work for me. Finally got my refund processed 18 January (so a bit less than the 4 months I mentioned above). The seller was Eccentric Professional Ltd, ECPROF. I think I mentioned this before whilst the saga was still in progress, and I didn't want to mention their name in case it made things even more complicated. No compunctions at this stage. I'll never buy anything from them again.
 
srichards said:
Yep. Consumer Rights is on my side. Bought with a credit card so if the seller won't process a return I go to the credit card provider and get a full refund that way.

Have emailed Rollei anyway.
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Given the way you've been messed about by the seller, it's possibly now time to go with the credit card provider Suz. :(
 
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Peter B said:
Given the way you've been messed about by the seller, it's possibly now time to go with the credit card provider Suz. :(
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Indeed it is. I've just emailed him to tell him as much due to the impasse in the situation, which he claims isn't there. We hit 14 days from when they had the camera back tomorrow so if there isn't a refund done by then I'll be contacting card issuer on Friday.

They claim to be working hard to resolve the issue. Not sure what there is to resolve exactly. It's faulty. I've told them it's faulty multiple times and yet no action from them to do the full refund as required. I do wonder how many they have had back and it's a case of 'oh no not another one'.

The card provider is a bit annoying as you have to phone them during normal office hours only.

The seller seems to be quite young and expect he's basically been burned by Rollei who are all 'it's the users fault our cameras don't work' not their fault for having a janky unreliable design that seems to randomly lock up for no reason.

Found one person here with the same symptoms of the shutter button basically refusing to work.

www.35mmc.com

Rollei 35AF - My Love/Hate Relationship - Problems Encountered and Lessons Learned

I'm still ambivalent about the Rollei 35AF. It's a very pretty camera that often takes very nice pictures. But it suffers from ongoing use issues
www.35mmc.com www.35mmc.com

At one point, my camera’s shutter button stopped working. At about shot 20 on a 24-shot roll, the film advanced properly and the shutter button popped up into the “ready” position, but when it was pressed the shutter did not fire. This lasted for the rest of the roll. For some reason, this started working again the next morning after I let the camera sit overnight. Mint’s tech support suggested that I wasn’t advancing the film correctly, which most definitely is not the case.
 
Interestingly in this review of one, all of them had issues with the shutter button not working properly at times. Main dude was also pushing the advance lever to make sure it was properly wound on and had the same problem.

More interestingly he's at a harbour location with boats and water. I was at Little Moreton hall with waters so part of me wonders whether the water is doing weird stuff to the Auto focus system and it's locking the camera for a short while? Bit daft if they've not considered water as a potential problem....

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvNa0MJjIA8
 
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Another one with similar on Reddit. Shutter button pops up so you can't advance the film. Mine was up but it wouldn't take a shot or advance the film either. So totally locked. They returned it and got a full refund.

Screenshot 2025-08-06 at 14.48.17.png
 
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Zoomed in on the missing dark area and it's got fuzzy edges. I reckon it's similar to the problem in the kamerastore YouTube ie it's a manufacturing defect. The area lines up I think with the hinged pressure plate so I assume it was more difficult to give that area a buzz cut to remove the fuzz :rolleyes:
 
Seller claims to have shot 5 rolls with it without any focussing issues. Still insisting it's a film loading issue. Considering just about every single reviewer that I've now seen says how awful it is to load film and lots of them have had issues with it doing exactly what mine did it's frustrating.

Looks like I'll end up with the wretched thing back. It's a truly horrible camera to use.

Flickr group for them is tiny and it's full of terrible double exposures and the only people putting the camera through regular use are in Hong Kong so I assume Mint employees and not normal people.

If everyone that uses the camera has the same issues would that not be really a manufacturing defect with it? It's not as if it's being used by people that have never picked up a camera before.
 
srichards said:
If everyone that uses the camera has the same issues would that not be really a manufacturing defect with it? It's not as if it's being used by people that have never picked up a camera before.
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^^^^ Looks like it to me.

Stick to your original plan, as I and others have said it is your right to reject it.
 
Finally. Seller agreed to refund but not for any of the faults I had. Nope. Apparently it was doing a few blank frames ie the shutter wasn't even firing so rollei/Mint had to agree it was faulty and would refund them.

So relieved the stupid thing failed in yet another way on them as well so I at least get my money back.

The cameras themselves don't have serial numbers on but the boxes do. I'd be interested to know what happens and whether this one turns up again.
 

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Excellent result, even if unnecessarily delayed and completely ignoring UK consumer law! It doesn't have to be faulty to get a refund, maybe you just didn't like the colour! But if it is agreed to be faulty, they have to pay the return postage.
 
Accidentally bought a Reto Pano. It's a plastic fantastic with flash. Fixed aperture, fixed shutter speed, fixed focal length. Also has a pano mode which is a pair of curtains that pop over the film and also the viewfinder. Looked quite fun and at £35 including delivery it's not an expensive mistake. It's a very wide angle at 22mm so you have to be more careful how you hold it.

It can be used without the battery too so that's an advantage. Flash mode is also user controlled not automatic.

It's the exact opposite of most other cameras I have.
 
Fresh Gas seems to have turned into really bad gas for daft new plastic cameras.

Just decided a Kodak Ektar H35N was a sensible buy. The reto pano has a stiff winder which I'm hoping will loosen with more use but it is actually painful as the rotary wheel is a bit sharp feeling. May have to have a go over it with some sandpaper if it doesn't.

Kodak is half frame. Seems to have a glass lens (!) So that's now 3 half frame capable cameras.

Just waiting for someone to do an Xpan clone that's not daft money then my collection will be complete!
 
Abandoned the roll in the Reto as it made some horrid noises and was impossible to wind on at frame 27 or so. Wished I'd put crappy Colour plus in not a roll of plastic gold that is Fuji Superia 400 :(
 
Just a thought (not that I ever did the following. Honest!!!) Are you sure that it's a 36 exposure roll rather than a 24?
 
Nod said:
Just a thought (not that I ever did the following. Honest!!!) Are you sure that it's a 36 exposure roll rather than a 24?
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I did wonder! Once I'd got it home I rewound and took it out and it's got 36 in big numbers on the roll so I'm assuming it's 36 :)

The film display window is hard to read so part of me is hoping that it was actually on 37 not 27 and it was just me being dozy...

Just checked the film counter and it's currently showing 36 after winding the film back. Hmm. Looks like that might be completely unreliable.
 
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Fingers crossed, Suz.
 
srichards said:
Abandoned the roll in the Reto as it made some horrid noises and was impossible to wind on at frame 27 or so. Wished I'd put crappy Colour plus in not a roll of plastic gold that is Fuji Superia 400 :(
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I have a Reto Ultrawide & Slim camera and that's the same. I've shot a 36exp roll through it before but, as I got further through the roll, it became more and more difficult to advance after each shot to the extent that I thought I might break the camera. I also found that the film advance wheel was a little painful on my thumb! The next time I used it I stuck to 24exp and it was much better.

I have a Kodak H35N (also made by Reto, I believe) and that didn't seem to suffer from the same problem when I used it.
 
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FishyFish said:
I have a Reto Ultrawide & Slim camera and that's the same. I've shot a 36exp roll through it before but, as I got further through the roll, it became more and more difficult to advance after each shot to the extent that I thought I might break the camera. I also found that the film advance wheel was a little painful on my thumb! The next time I used it I stuck to 24exp and it was much better.

I have a Kodak H35N (also made by Reto, I believe) and that didn't seem to suffer from the same problem when I used it.
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Glad the Kodak is better. Film advance wheel on the Reto Pano is also painful. Looking at photos of the Kodak the back is basically the exact same design as the Pano with the distinctive squares and everything. Also got the same advance wheel position. Had to advance the Pano with my right thumb a lot as my left just couldn't even move it!
 
Kodak H35N arrived. Popped a roll of colour plus in it so not to waste a really good film if it has any issues.

Compared to the Pano the film advance is nicer, The strap has a stiffer string so you can pop it through the strap holder holes on the body without swearing and needing a pointy pin or needle to persuade it through.

Film loading is slightly different. The rewind lever doesn't need to be popped down as the cartridge just slips right in. Winder gearing feels different. It's not an endless one to get to the next frame by the feel of it.

The flash/no flash control is very stiff. The pano lever thing for the modes is better. Also that locks the shutter out when it's got the cover across. This one has nothing like that so there's more likely to be accidental pictures. Star mode thing is also very stiff to move.

Hopefully this one will be less uncomfortable to use.

I did think the winding wheel was terrible but then found they'd put a piece of cardboard inside with how the film should sit....

If it's any good then loading it with XP2 or another 400 b & w for the gloomy months might not be a bad use for it.
 
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I've a gallery of the pictures I've shot with mine on Flickr:

flic.kr

Kodak H35N

Explore this photo album by fishyfish_arcade on Flickr!
flic.kr flic.kr

The glass lens isn't the sharpest, as you might expect, and it wasn't worth scanning them at high resolution, but they are attractive enough images considering the rather basic camera they came from. I didn't use the flash or the star filter on mine, but I recall the controls for both being quite stiff when I messed around with them.
 
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Supposedly you can pop the battery out and put it in flash mode so it will then shoot at f8 instead of f11.
 
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