The Rollei 1.5x Mutar is a conversion lens for the Rolleiflex TLR cameras that increases the focal length of a 75mm lens to 110mm. The Mutar is hooked over the Rolleiflex's viewing lens, then locked into place by rotating a thickly knurled ring surrounding the lower lens. It has a five-element taking lens and a four-element viewing lens, and was available with adapting rings for Rollei Bay I, II, and III models. It is most commonly found equipped with Bay II bayonet rings, making it compatible with the 75mm f3.5 lens found on the Rolleiflex 3.5F.  All Rollei Mutars are rare - fewer than 1000 were manufactured between 1963-1967. It weighs 348 grams with its clever folding lens hood installed and came new with a tightly fitted leather case.

In practice, the Rollei 1.5x Mutar allows for the relatively quick installation of a portrait-length lens on your Rolleiflex. With a close focus 1.65 meters, it is not a close-range optic, but frames subjects nicely and produces a dreamy out-of-focus swirl when used wide open. For applications in which sharpness is important, the Rollei 1.5x Mutar should always be used stopped down to f/8 or smaller. Rollei recommended increasing exposure 1/3 - 1/2 a stop with the 1.5x Mutar attached. Fitting the Rollei 1.5x Mutar does shift the camera's balance of weight considerably forward.

Despite the Rollei 1.5x Mutar's optical and practical limitations, many Rollei users have come to appreciate its relatively compact addition of telephoto optics to the Rollei TLR system. They are very finely made lenses that represent Rollei's closest attempt to an interchangeable-lens TLR system. Rollei Mutar lenses enjoy considerable rarity and collectibility today. 

Want to know how we spend a slow, rainy morning at work?  We finally pull that Rolleimarin underwater housing off of the shelf and teach ourselves how to get a Rolleiflex inside of it.  We took this one out back in the rain and made some portraiture with it. Yes, we could have taken it down to the Willamette River and gone for a swim, but work wasn't THAT slow.

One super nifty feature to this Rolleimarin is that it has built-in Rolleinar close up filters in the housing. The large metal lever centered above the faceplate extends or retracts the Rolleinar filters, so your underwater Rollei can easily go back and forth between close or distant work.  Works just as well out of water too!⁠

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One feature of the Rolleiflex 3.5F is that you can swap out its finders, from waist level to eye level finders.  It's like styling your Rollei with a new hairdo.

There's more than one way to play with light and your camera collection - check out this festive, glowing Rolleiflex 3.5F.

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We won't hold it against you if you thought a Rolleiflex couldn't get any cooler than it does in its usual presentation. It is an incredible and sublime camera, after all. How would one possibly build atop that?

Well, Rollei found numerous ways via a plethora of accessories that will surprise and delight you. There are Mutars: lens converters for wide angle or telephoto. There is the Rolleikin: a 35mm adapter for your TLR. The Rolleinars give you close focusing capability complete with parallax correction. There is a nifty accessory called the Rolleimeter which is a rangefinder attachment for the top of the cameras that gives the sportsfinder a rangefinder for focusing.

And yes, there is the binocular extension hood. Words will not accurately describe how much fun these are atop Rolleis. We lost a good 15 minutes of our work day playing with this last week.

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What kind of self-respecting camera shop would we be without a beloved and loyal shop dog?  Daisy, partially pictured here, was from 2008 until 2019 even more a fixture in our store than the typical Rolleiflex 3.5F, fully pictured here.  While Rollei cameras come and go from our shelves, there will ever only be one Daisy and she'll be in our memories always.

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A beautiful Rollei 3.5f with visible lens separation in its bottom optic.  Separation is not an uncommon thing to see in cameras of this vintage, but how much of an effect does it have on image quality?  Our opinion has long been that separation won't have a noticeable impact on image quality.  Is it something you want in your lenses?  Of course not.  Is it going to ruin your photos?  Negative on that too.  Perhaps, if you are pointing straight at the sun or a bright light your images may haze out a bit but, under most normal conditions, the optics will still deliver nice images. 

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