Introduced in February of 1981, the SL2000F was intended to be a machine that combined the versatility of both the medium format SLR and the 35mm camera. The SL2000F sports both an eye level and waist level prism, interchangeable lenses, interchangeable film magazines, and some spiffy metering options, such as a spot meter. The camera uses high quality lenses and is pretty reliable, despite being such an advanced and complex camera. It was met with mixed reviews when it hit the market and was incredibly expensive for the time. The camera was succeeded by the updated Rolleiflex 3003 and the line was discontinued shortly thereafter.
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SL2000F on Peter's Bar
Welcome to the Curious Camera Club. Today's exhibit is the Rolleiflex SL2000F, a most curious camera indeed.
The SL2000F is a camera photographers either loved, hated, loved to hate, or hated to love. It looked and felt kind of a like a medium format camera but without the large frame size payoff, as it was 35mm.
Rollei introduced this camera in 1981, as a way of combining the versatility of the typical medium format SLR with the smaller size allowed by the 35mm format. The camera features interchangeable lenses and film magazines. Interestingly enough, it has an eye-level prism and waist level finder, both already built into the camera. We cannot think of another 35mm that combined TTL eye-level and waist-level viewing simultaneously, without the need to swap out finders. The interchangeable film magazines should not be overlooked either. This is not a feature 35mm photographers are used to enjoying. The rare Zeiss Ikon Contarex or Kodak Ektra user can tell you what it is like, but those are about it.
Unfortunately, the SL2000F was received with very mixed feelings. Some thought the ergonomics of the camera were less-than-impressive. Others were just turned off by how radical a change this camera presented to 35mm photography. All this, combined with a lackluster marketing campaign on Rollei's part, and this line of cameras saw only a single update, via the Rollei 3003, before being discontinued.
We recently got this camera into the shop and Peter volunteered to get a test roll through it, taking it home with him for the weekend. He made this portrait of the camera on his newly built bar with his trusty Hasselblad.