As you already know, I gave in and bought a Rollei 35AF. I was curious to see how it compared to the original, and thanks to Miyagi Studio, I was able to compare both cameras a little bit. I don't intend to do an exhaustive review, I'm sure you've already seen dozens of reviews of the camera if that's what you're interested in. It took me more than 2 weeks to finish both rolls, so I hope you appreciate the work put in this post 🙏
I'll leave you with some photos, without telling you which is which, and then I'll tell you a bit more :)
Can you tell which is which? You could for the focal lens. On your left, the AF (35mm), on your right, the SE (40mm). Out of focus photos are either a shaking problem or a bad focusing.
In summary:
- The Rollei 35SE (or any of the classics): the only problem I have with it is zone focusing. If it were rangefinder, it would be the perfect camera.
- The Rollei 35AF: the only problem it has is... the shutter button. It's a bit stiff and causes a little shake at slow speeds.
- Both are comparable in terms of optical quality, which speaks very well of both.
And my advice:
- If you do landscape or street photography, the 35SE is more than enough.
- If you do portraits, the AF is a guarantee.
Can you do portraits with the 35SE? You can, but I had to measure with a meter to take this portrait 😄
While this was taken without any weird trick.
Shot with two Rolleis, 35SE and 35AF and two Kodak Gold 200.