I am beginning to suspect that I am alone here. Is that really true? Does no one else in this grand photographic universe not use and favor the Rolleiflex 600* series of cameras? Can this be? Surely I am not the only crazy person out here, wandering alone in this place. I spend US dollars for the equipment. It arrives and I make it work. I admit, the Old Rollei SLRs are often very fussy. Verry fussy. They make you want to throw them up against the wall from time to time. Batteries are hard or impossible to find. When found they don't last long. But the lenses. Those make up for all else. I don't have the Schneiders, but the reports are that they are superb. The Zeiss lenses are exactly like Hasselblad lenses. Planars, Distagons, and so on. Same. Perform the same. So who's out there? Don't you folks have anything to say about these cinder block beasts? Surely there are tales to be told. Legends to be passed down. Relate! Talk! Let's communicate. Who does have the batteries? How do I get a new one? I have 4 bodies. and 4 lenses and 5 backs. that ought to qualify me as a shooter. I have resurrected 2 bodies thought to be dead; now working and taken on trips. So who's there?
Logan

No one it would seem. I finally got my SL66's fixed up and have been using them and checking here right often to see if any one seems to be using the 600* family of Rollei's. From time to time one seems to pop up in the Gallery but not often. Why is that I ask? Why. These cameras deserve better I think. They are too heavy, I think, but heavy didn't bother Edward Weston who often shot with a horribly heavy Graflex Reflex, now did it? No!!!Or Paul Strand who shot with heavy stuff, too. Hasselblads are lighter, I'll give you that and the lenses are pretty much the same, but to get to say you shot with a Rollei Now there's a real claim worthy of recognition that will turn a few heads in years to come, mind you!!! It will. If you've got one; use it. I've got a 6008I that needs use and will get it. Lets go to work here 600* users!!!
Logan

Well, that was last November and does not seem to have elicited much of a reply. We don;t seem to be doing much. I certainly haven;t been doing anything, except perhaps bitching a lot at others about not doing much but not doing anything, myself. That's no good, is it? What I need to do is get to work my self and stop bitching. So off to work.
Logan

Well, seems you'll be alone for some more time. I'm going to sell my Rolleiflexes. I still think they're great cameras, but i got my hands on a pretty neat Bronica SQ set, and i can't support two different MF Kits

Well, fare you well, Sir, I have SQ's as well, love 'em and use them a lot, tho Rollei SL66's mostly now. The 6000
s batteries are a real pain now and I like the 66's a lot these days. What beauties of construction and favor.
Bon voyage, Sir
Logan

I can pick up the slack from Spoilerhead jumping ship. Don't have a Rollei 6000, but I do have an SL66SE, and this was the closest group. Love my camera, but I've just discovered the meter underexposes by around three to four stops. I'm wondering if the battery might be putting out too low a voltage. I have a couple of Gossen Profisix meters that do the job admirably, but the TTL metering is a nice feature to have. Apart from that small issue, my SL has become my main walkaround camera since the day I bought it.

I must say one can certainly do worst than a sl66 of any ilk for a walk around camera. I have a SL66 and a SL66E my self and I love both 'em. The 600* models are fine shooters I must say but they are heavy and ride like a cinder block and the lenses are superb, but I do like the 66's better. Never did trust all that electronics myself but the 600*'s are masterpieces of German engineering at its very best. I will continue to use both for sure but will tend towards the 66 models I am afraid.
Logan

I'm shooting with a Hy6, 6008AF, and 2.8F TLR. Mostly I'm using a digital back, but I do like to shoot t-max 400 and also portra 400 film too. I enjoy each of the cameras for different reasons. Yesterday for the first time ever I got to see a SL66 first hand. These are very well built and I can see why one would like them. My first Rollei was the 6008AF and I have put more than 60,000 shots on it. Amazing camera.
Whlogan, battery probs on 6000 should be over since Nimh batteries are available new and you can refit the ones you own. I have shot with all the lenses and I prefer the schneiders except the zeiss 40mm FLE PQ, 110/2 PQ. The 30mm fisheye and 120mm macro have no schneider alternatives.

Thanks. Yes I agree, the Nimh batteis I have converted are now superior. They work fine in all of my 600* cameras and I am using them more now. I have the 6008i in the car actually as an on-call camera with 220 film loaded for whatever may come up. Haven't seen any of the shots yet but I know they will be perfect as all Rollei shots are. Thanks for your update. I don't really know why more users don't use the Rollei 600* cameras as they are so far superior to everything else. its a funny thing, I guess. I only have Zeiss glass.... too bad as I know the Scneider glass is excellent, too.

Logan

Hi Logan,
There are lots of 6000 series users, so maybe more will join in. It's a great camera platform, with fantastic ergonomics, built in dark slide and motor winder with 1/3 stop adjustment on shutter speeds and aperture settings. I've used mine mostly with the phase p20 digital back, or the ixpress CF 528 digital back... My favorite finder is the lupe finder.
Eric

Well, the 6008 in the car is doing well, but the batteries do need a full charge once in a while. It has as roll of 220 that seems to go on forever! I am so glad I bought up a stock of Trix 220 when I did. It is bound to run out one of these days and then that'll be the end... too bad. 220 was a fine idea and I loved it for those trips out West.... but those days are getting fewer and ferer for me as I get older now. Oh well, they were suerly fine when they were possible. Perhaps some European manufacturer will fill that gap for us. It would be nice.
Logan

Just joined the group with a 6003 SRC 1000 + 80/2.8 Planar I bought in May this year, and then sent to Paepke Fototechnik to be fixed as the lens aperture settings did not match the led display. Faulty re-celled NiCD battery discarded and a new NiMH one installed, also.

Looking forward to sending off the first film I've loaded [XP2], and still figuring if the hand-grip really is "handy" when using the camera at waist level. And then there's that 10 metre remote release cable that came with it....

I have just found my way here and detect an atmosphere of sadness that the Rollei 6000 series are not getting the attention they deserve. Here in the UK, we have a community of users including many pro's still using colour negs in 6000 cameras to produce incredible wedding and portraiture images. Although an amateur, I am a 6000 enthusiast and I use my 6008i and my Mark 2 SLX as much as possible, for my course work with NYIP and in general photography. I overcame the battery problems about 10 years ago by rewiring several 6000 NiCad battery packs with new cells and using a Maha charger to recondition (fully discharge) the other 2 packs. This brought them back to life and put paid to the 'memory effect' by which NiCads take less and less charge.
Now for a home truth on the Zeiss 6000 lenses. Word on the grapevine is that they have the edge on Hassies....the reason? There are over 70 kinds of glass available to Zeiss in Germany and a Hassie Planar and a Rollei Planar may look the same but the best glass chemistry somehow stays in Germany resulting in a slightly better performance for the Rollei. A legend in the making?

I also have an X-Act 2 which is one of the most incredible pieces of kit out there and very very easy to use. Just as well, because I dont have the instructions! Can anyone help. I will post a few of my 6000 shots just to get things moving with the rest of you. Theres a 6000 group on Flickr BTW with some nice material but 75% of the images are pretty commonplace and dont do justice to these wonderful instruments.

Wow, yeah, this group is pretty barren. I'm hoping it's because APUG is primarily N. American (and there's very little Rollei on this continent it seems).

Just bought a 6003 SRC1000 from the UK (I'm all the way in Seattle, WA, USA). They are so hard to find and it seems like Hasselblad gets all the attention on youtube / word of mouth here in the USA. I hunted / shopped around for a 6x6 SLR system for a while before discovering the Rollei. In some ways the quirks / pain points really show - the Planar 80/2.8 takes so many turns to focus, and the 6003 screen is a bit hard to focus in dim light.

Hoping my first roll of Acros100 turns out nice - plan to get it done and developed this weekend.

Okay, I'll throw my 2 cents worth in with the group and see if we can't get the level of posts per year to average closer to 1. :0

Stepped up to a Rollei SLX 2 in November and traded off all my Bronica SQ gear. And I am very happy to shoot with Zeiss lenses again, as I prefer to shoot ZM on my Leica film M's and Contax CY mount Zeiss on a Contax S2. There's a certain sharpness that's a joy to use. Battled with the SLX 2 battery, starting with a 3rd party battery that came with the SLX 2... and frankly both were pieces of junk, though they work. Bought a better condition SLX 2 and it's a fine camera. Dated perhaps, and a bit quirky in the way it handles Shutter Priority, but there is nothing wrong with the shots. Excellent in fact. But next I found two cast off battery cases and rebuilt them using a page you can find here on Photrio (was APUG) initially posted by IC-Racer. I've listed the parts and where to find them, and then tried to show how to do the work. Easy project that takes about 30 minutes after you gather the parts. Only downside is that I'll have to remove the battery from the casing to recharge it. Not a worry. Easy to do. Nevertheless, I'm now back shooting and have ordered a 6008i off the 'bay from Germany.Scarce as hens teeth here in the States, but solidly built and handy. And yes, there are 2 Flickr groups: 1 for the SLX alone which is generally moribund, and a 2nd that is for SLX and 6000 series, and correspondingly more active.

FWIW, the scarcity of documentation means I couldn't tell what the real difference between the 6008i and the 6008 Professional was, so I went with the former over the latter. The latter are MUCH more plentiful on eBay... which I'm not sure whether that means folks with these are dumping them, while the 6008i's are holding on to theirs? or whether that just reflects production, or what. In any case there is a table that can be Googled on the difference, but not much more than that... and the table is more useful between different 6003, 6006 and 6008 than it s on the variations within each.

According to this (german language) site: http://www.sw-fotowettbewerb.de/rolleiflex-6003-6008.html

Your 6008i is probably the 6008 integral. Two generations behind the 6008 professional. The integral can do PQS lenses. It should have the Hi-D screen (brighter), more stuff shown in the finder and you can change settings after Mirror-Up. And a few other things like fill in flash. Maybe Google translate can give you something readable.

Nice to see some life here!

Lantua: THanks for the link. I think you have that exactly backwards in terms of production dates! The Professional pre-dates the 6008 Integral.... which is what my gut said. So far, I haven't picked up a PQ or PQS lens. Plan to test the camera and send it off for a CLA ...unless it's cleaner and tighter than I suspect. I did that with a Leica M4-2 and M6-TTL and it was well worth the money.
Here's the link to the thread on batteries. Began it on page 2 as that's where we really got into the nitty gritty of updating the battery. I haven't had to recharge yet, so can't define the length of the charge, but it has worked in 20 degree weather just fine. Link: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/the-power-of-volts-and-milliamps.105128/page-2

That is what I meant with ' behind'. As in later/younger.

I followed that battery thread. I'd be uncomfortable to take such a frankenbattery through an airport. So it's NiMH for me. Unless those LiPo hold up better in the cold, which I don't think. Then I'd make one for local use only.

Anyway, I'm happy you are happy with the system. I think it's great. And it's good that it is a bit in the shadow of the Hasselblads. Makes it more affordable. The market with the best deals will be Germany, however. But that's OK. The postal duty free allowance in the US is quite large. Not so the other way around.

You're right., and I tried to edit my message to that effect, but the board doesn't allow edits of the messages in this section apparently. Yes, there's an "EDIT" button, but it connects to nothing.

But FWIW, it's not the battery (which is just in a casing that won't get looked at beyond a shrug), it's the Balanced Charger which is downright scary looking. With all it's multi-connectors, it tends to look like a bomb controller. I suspect the thing to look for is how the drone people manage air travel, 'cause in essence this is no more than a drone battery.
I have two batteries set up this way. When the 6008 Integral gets here, I'll see what state the existing battery is in before doing anything. I have a Rollei charger... so if the existing battery's any good, I'd be in good shape. But the LiPo's do recharge quickly which is a strong suit. Deep charge about an hour and a 45 minutes. More common, 45 minutes. The only improvement would be to run a set of recharging leads out one end of the batter so that you could recharge without having to dis-assemble. But that just doesn't seem worth it at the moment without some deep thinking.

And you're right that with these cameras below the radar screen for some crazy reason, they're even cheap compared to Rollei TLR's.... like the 2.8F which can get downright pricey. I'm curious which lenses you have for your camera and which model camera btw? I have the HFT lenses made for the SLX: 50, 80, 150 and 250, but use mostly the 50 and 80. IC-Racer noted that he upgraded the 50 and 80 to PQ lenses when he traded up from an SLX to 6008. Guess it makes sense to integrate more readily with the camera's brain... but I'm trying not to rush it.

Well, we have the same lens collection. The 250 was an accident, but a lucky one. There is a Rollei user, a fan even, who often turns up in web searches about everything Rollei 6000. He does sell parts of his collection on ebay from time to time. He had this 250 Sonnar on auction with a starting offer at around €205 and I was the only one bidding! That will not happen with the Hasselblad gear. It is a Mint condition lens as well.

The lens looks like the barrel of a cannon. I use it on occasion at is a joy when doing so. But in my backpack it takes as much space as two of the other lenses, so it's not part of the standard takeaway set.

When go out into nature hoping to find a few really nice spots I'm crazy enough to take the trilogy with me. 50, 80 and 150. Even though I often only end up using the 80 and perhaps once one of the others. Of course I need to have a 35mm Minolta with me as well, with one or two lenses. Three if I'm going to a really special place. Add the digicam, because you also need that for a quick post to friends. But I'm a huge Olympus fan there, so it hardly adds weight and m4/3 stuff is tiny.

Although the wide angle gets plenty of use I really love tele lenses. I figured out early that if you want to get nice pictures easily then just use a tele lens, point it anywere and push that strange button on the camera that makes a funny click sound. So the 150 is a must have.

When I want to use my small backpack I can fit the Rollei with the small 80mm lens in the top compartment that isn't supposed to be for camera equipment. Then I have to forgo the other lenses but I can still take some 35mm and/or digital stuff with me in the actual photo part of the bag.

About the battery. Yes it is an ordinary Li battery inside a Rollei housing. But I don't want to know what it looks like going through the x-ray machine. If they figure that is not a regular mass produced design, self approved by a manufacturer (CE and UL labels) then all bets are off. The people at the airport are not engineers, they cannot evaluate stuff and make a judgement. They work like a machine controled by a punch card, and any deviation from the plan might throw an exception. Otherwise how could you hire thousands of screeners world wide at bargain price salary with short training periods before they go live.

Of course I had it happen that they took great interest in my camera, shoes and other stuff, but didn't notice the carpet knife that I forgot inside my hand luggage... I only found it myself when unpacking.