Rollei Planar Serial Number
As a consequence a serial number cannot easily be linked to a specific production day. Sometimes a production run is delayed and another run with higher numbers comes first. The production of the Rolleiflex 2.8 C with Xenotar started earlier than the 2.8 C with Planar although the second one has a block with lower numbers.
Welcome. This page needs JavaScript for a number of links to work. Right now your browser does not support JavaScript. It means the broswer would be older than your classic Rolleiflex, or more likely that JavaScript was switched off. Please activate JavaScript and reload this page.
Thank you so much. A number of people have been involved in publishing Rolleiflex serial numbers lists. The most extensive and reliable list is by Prochnow. Please see the Books paragraph on the ‘Information for TLR Users’ page. Peter Rongsted did a lot of work linking the camera names used by Prochnow, Parker and Evans. His list is not hosted on the net anymore. The following charts are mainly based on Prochnow’s and Rongsted’s work.
Rolleiflex Planar Lens Serial Numbers
Like most serial numbers lists this chart may contain errors and now and then cameras pop up that do not “fit in”. I have re-arranged and updated the original data-base. I added recent information and also deleted data that most probably were incorrect. The data are grouped by camera line rather than sequential by serial numbers or chronological by production dates. So all E-models (E, E2 and E3) are grouped together although E2 and E3 models were produced concurrent with F-models resulting in higher serial numbers and later production dates. In the camera industry it is common practise to allocate numbers blocks based on production plans.
As a consequence a serial number cannot easily be linked to a specific production day. Sometimes a production run is delayed and another run with higher numbers comes first. The production of the Rolleiflex 2.8 C with Xenotar started earlier than the 2.8 C with Planar although the second one has a block with lower numbers.
The delivery of Planars from Oberkochen, may have been delayed. Another exemple is the 3.5 E2 model 2 having higher numbers than the 3.5 E3. Perhaps the second model E2 was a last minute decission to finish the stock of 5 element lenses. The F model had already been adapted to take 6 element lenses and the soon to begin production of the E3 would also use the 6 element Planars and Xenotars. At the end of the day I decided that both sequential by numbers and chronological by production dates would be confusing and I opted to group by camera line: all A’s together, then all B’s, etc.
I receive quite some messages from Rolleiflex owners who write that they have a camera with wrong parts or more often that I am wrong. Usually it is about the taking lens. That is a part that can easily be identified. I already explained that serial numbers were allocated on the basis of production plans, not necessarily on actual production.
The numbers themselves are printed on insignificant parts that were mounted or glued on nearly finished cameras. Like all parts the number plates were produced in batches of thousends and I guess the factory did not take the trouble to store them in sequential order. I visited the factory on two occasions. One visit was in 2003 and that day the production of the Rolleiflex FX was on.
Original Rolleiflex 4x4 3,5 Tessar march 1931 - Jan 33. 6200 cameras Original Rolleiflex 4x4 2,8 Tessar July 1931 - Jan 33.
3300 cameras Serial number: 127.000 - 523.000 - Second model: 3,5 Tessar Feb 1933 - Dec 34. 300 cameras 2,8 Tessar Feb 1933 - Dec 34.
1680 cameras Serial number: 127.000 - 523.000 - Third model 3,5 Tessar Dec 1934 - Jun 36. 140 cameras 2,8 Tessar Dec 1934 - Jan 38 3100 cameras Serial number: 127.000 - 523.000 - Fourth model (Sports Rolleiflex) 2,8 Tessar Feb 1938 - Feb 41. 2174 cameras type 2 1941 - 44 Max 500 cameras. Serial number: 622.000 - 734.000 (type 2 from 850.000) - 'Grey Baby' 2,8 Xenar Jul 1957 - Apr 1963 63250 cameras Black model May 1963 - March 1968 4930 cameras Serial number: 1957-63 2.000.001 - 2.063.999 (1963, a mix of both models, 2.064.000 - 2.064.999) 1963-1968 2.065.000 - 2.069.120 - (Prochnow Rollei Report 1 & 2). How bout this Patrick, i just purchased another Rollei TLR,the serial number(above nameplate) 1655836 (on taking lens)Planar 1:2.8 f= 80mm Carl Zeiss Nr.2268059 seems to fit the 2.8E category but the features seem to make it an 2.8F. It has a working light meter,has a little switch above nameplate left side(camr in taking position)no self timer,viewing lens has blue violet coating,has built in knob/counter/rolleikin(for 35mm),could lock aperture and shutter speed dials to be moved together, looks like an F, but serial no.
Makes it an E. Will appreciate any input from anyone, TIA,pc.
Rolleiflex Planar Serial Numbers
Thats what intrigues me Patrick,it doesnt have a self timer.everything it has works amazingly well tho, the previous owner i bought it fr says, he had this camera CLA'd 2 yrs ago,but havent used it for almost a yr,but kept it in a safe place,took good care of it. It has a few dings,but both lenses are perfectly clear,not even a scratch,it's definitely heavier than my cord Vb tho. Do the 2.8E models have an interchangeable WLF and screen?
Coz this one does.the flash sync terminal is on the left of the shutter release button (camera in pic taking position) i will try to take a pic of this w/ my canon digtal V3,and upload it later. Thanks for the quick reply, later,pc. HI, if the camera has a second wheel for asa and filter compensation factors below and behind a bit of the focusing knob/meter knob, then its a F model, if it doesnt, its an E. E type two had a removeable wlfinder as did all the various runs of the F model. And YES, the serializations are not to strictly depended upon, various models were made at the same time, the e type two and the f were both produced at the same time, after 1958, then, the E 3 came out, the F upgraded itself to the type two, with no linking of aperture and shutter, and a simpler meter coupling setup. The F also underwent further refinements up through the early seventies with some overlap of model and serial numbers.
You might also have a customized camera, someone may have replaced the nameplate and the part that bears the serial number from one model camera to another one.