2017-07-31

Chattahoochee River Park - Island Ford

Shooting with a vintage Rollei lens here. Rollei's becoming a bit of a forgotten name these days however there was a time, and for a long time, when it was one of the most respected names in photography. Until the very end Rollei held to the quality high ground and was in the circle of a few of the most respected craftsmen in the industry.

Then as the asian market grew, squeezing the life out of the German camera industry, like many, Rollei tried to fight back for profitability and market-share by moving its production east. They even tried a bit of one-up-manship to battle Japan by creating their own factory in Singapore. However over time even that didn't work. And after bouncing around through various ownerships beginning with their purchase by Samsung in 1995 and continuing through several other ownerships; until in 2015 when Rollei finally ceased all camera and lens production. Today, the brands "Rollei" and "Rolleiflex" continue to be owned by the RCP Technik Verwaltungs GmbH. On 2015-01-01, the RCP-Technik GmbH & Co. KG reformed as Rollei GmbH & Co. KG to market digital consumer cameras and accessories under the "Rollei" label in Europe.

I wish them success!

But back to the lens I was shooting with here. This is the Rollei-HFT 50mm Planar 1.8. A lens held in very high esteem. So much so that there are actually a number of very close cousins to this lens manufactured by various quality brands. Most like Rollei here under sub licensing from Zeiss as this is one of a number of derivatives of the renowned Carl Zeiss 50mm Planar design. Of those, this Rollei stands with a very few at the top of that heap. A very sharp lens, center to edge to edge and also with very nice color and contrast given a good Rollei in house multicoating called HFT.

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