The rollei 35T, orginally known as the rollei 35, was a later edition of the rollei 35 released in 1974, 8 years after the original. The rollei 35 was first prototyped by Heinz Waaske in 1962 and first produced by Rollei in Braunschweig in 1966. The first edition of the rollei 35 was produced in germany with a Zeiss Tessar 3.5/40mm lens, a Gossen exposure meter and a Compur.

After 5 years of production in Germany, production shifted to Singapore in 1971 and continued there till 1981. In september of 1974, Rollei released the Rollei 35S with a sonnar 2.4/40mm lens. At the same time, the original rollei 35 was renamed to rollei 35T in order to differentiate the cameras better.

The rollei 35T is a fully mechanical view finder camera with zone focusing with a range of 0.9 meters to infinity, or, 3 feet to infinity. It is a fully manual camera that allows you to adjust both the shutter speed and aperture. The aperture controls have a range of f/3.5 to f/22 and a stutter speed range of 1/2s to 1/500s. While these ranges seem modest for the modern photographer, for a camera as compact and simplistic as the rollei 35T, it is rather impressive.

My journey to discovering the rollei 35T was not long, it started first with an interest in film photography itself, I purchased the nikon f75, a steller beginner level SLR produced in the early 2000s. My intentions for shifting to film photography was to force myself to learn the basics of photography such as metering, lighting, compostion and controls. I was hoping the sheer cost of a single photo, both in terms of physical cash as well as time would force me to slow down in my photography and be mindful of every shot taken.

I did not however, consider that getting a somewhat modern SLR with automatic controls would completely offset everything that I had orginally intented to achieve. After a few months of mainly using the f75 in Aperture Control mode, I started researching some other film camera models that would serve both the original intent that I had as well as being compact and solid enough to throw into my bag to being around everyday. After a couple months of research, I landed on the rollei 35 range and so started the search to find the cheapest option available.

I ended up getting my camera on a singapore based online reseller market for around S$250 which was considerably less expensive than most. It was being let go at a lower price mainly due to it being dented and because its lightmeter not working, which is a common issue with these cameras.

The camera originally terrified me, from the fact that it was completely manual to the zone focusing and the fact that it was view finder camera. I found that I was taking 10 times longer to take a single shot as I had so much to consider with each shutter click, which in many ways was the original intent of purchasing this camera.

I mostly relied on a lightmeter app on my phone as well as the sunny 16 rule to do most of my metering. As for the zone focusing, I trusted my own sense of space and distance to get right. Although it had started slow, within 2 weeks, I had taken my last shot on the roll and was ready to unload the film.

This, was where it all went to hell. While rewinding, I had noticed that there was an unsual amount of resistance in the film and it did not feel like anything was happening no matter how long I turned the rewind lever. While doing my research, I had come accross another photography youtuber’s post about how their film got stuck and tore during the rewind process and I figured something similar could have happened. I locked myself in as dark of a room as I could find and opened the camera backing.

True enough, the film had torn, although not all the way thankfully. I simply removed the film from the takeup spool and rewound it back into the canister manually, and shipped it off to the cheapest lab I could find to get it developed.

While I had anticipated some possible lightleaks in the film, or possibly even a blank film, I did not in the least expect whatever I actually ended up recieveing from the lab.

I have many theories as to what could have possibly happened. While there are definitely signs of light leaks, this level of damage to the films has got to be due to the film being expired and/ or some major mistakes in the development process of the roll. Both of which are highly plausible, due to the fact that I got my film from a rather sketchy shop and my roll was developed at a lab that I did not trust all that much and rarely use.

Not all is lost however, there is still much to be gleaned and learnt from the roll, despite the obvious issues, the photos are still extremly sharp, even the ones that were shot with a much higher aperture stop. Most of them are also extremly well metered and there were minimal underexposed or overexposed photos in the roll.

Overall, it was a great experience shooting with this camera, and I am currently half way through a new roll and I am hopeful that this will turn out much better than the first. I will continue to share my thoughts and reflection as I continue using this beast of a camera. So far though, I have to say I am started to fall in love with it.