Brief Scenes

Focussing with a tlr (Rolleicord, …) camera, how does it work?

Hi,

You focus by turning the knob on the (I think) right side of the camera. You preview the focus by looking on the ground glass screen that’s under the flip-up hood on top of the camera. Everything will be reversed though, so it takes some getting used to. That’s why there are two lenses, you view with one, the other is the taking lense. They are coupled, so they move in unison when you focus. There should also be a pop-up magnifying glass inside the hood (press on the front of the hood when it’s open, or look for a little button), which pops up to magnify the center of the screen for better focusing. Not sure if the Rollei has a sports finder, but for far-away shots you can set at infinity, press on the front of the hood and it locks down, and there’s a small square finder hole on the back side, you look through and use it as a viewfinder without using the ground glass. This method was often used by sports and news photographers to save time. (I’m basing this all on my Autocord, which is just a more user friendly version of the Rollei, made from the same dies).

Macro Video improvements with the Panasonic SD700