Rangefinder Magazine
January 2007

First Exposure by Stan Sholik
Rolleiflex 6008 AF Digital Bundle

ROLLEI HAS ALWAYS HAD an excellent reputation. For many years, it was one of the premier photo manufacturers of camera gear in the world. It was particularly strong in the pro medium format market. But Rolleiflex medium format SLR cameras haven’t gotten a lot of attention in the U.S. for the last few years. There’s the misconception, even in the photographic press, that the company is no longer a player in the domestic U.S. market. The introduction of the superb and remarkably affordable Rolleiflex Digital Bundle corrects that misconception.

The Digital Bundle integrates a Rollei 6008 AF body and a Schneider-Kreuznach lens with Phase One’s dp20p digital back to yield a package that handles like a 35mm, but delivers the image quality of a view camera. Equally at home as a studio or location digital camera, it also converts back to a 6x6cm or 6x4.5cm film camera with the purchase of the appropriate film or Polaroid magazine. Rolleiflex has long been an innovative leader in 6x6cm cameras, beginning with the introduction of the twin-lens Rolleiflex in 1928. Their first rollfilm SLR, the Rollei 66, was introduced in 1966, and featured innovations such as an integrated bellows and reversible lenses for close-up photography, and a tilting lens plane for increasing depth of field.

The Rollei SLX appeared in 1974 and was the first electronic camera system for medium format. Twelve years later the SLX had evolved into the 6008, and in 2002 Rolleiflex introduced the 6008 AF. This was the world’s first (and only) autofocus 6x6cm camera and serves as the camera body of the Digital Bundle. The 6008 AF incorporates nearly all of the features you might expect to find in a top-of-the-line 35mm film or digital camera. Fully automatic exposure control as well as shutter-priority, aperture-priority and manual control are available. A dial on the left side of the body selects center-weighted multi-zone metering, spot metering and multi-spot metering (up to five readings, which the camera automatically averages). I found exposure accuracy to be consistently excellent, even in scenes with a broad expanse of sky.

A three-zone sensor, indicated by brackets in the interchangeable focusing screen, handles autofocus. In Single mode, the release is locked until focus is achieved. In Continuous mode, autofocus is continuous as long as the shutter is held at its first stage of release, and the image can be captured at any time, whether or not focus is achieved. Autofocus on the 6008 isn’t as quick as with most 35mm cameras, but there is very little hunting for focus. The camera focuses and stays locked in. The only time I found the system lacking was in a low-contrast situation at dusk, when the autofocus failed. This is easy enough to overcome, since it’s possible to focus manually by turning the focus ring on the lens after switching the focusing mode switch to "Manual."

In the studio, the Digital Bundle capture images directly to the computer. Color accuracy is excellent, and sharpness is exceptional, as can be seen from the crop of the pendant

Motorized film advance/shutter winding, auto-bracketing, mirror pre-release, instant-return mirror, TTL autoflash (with SCA adapter) are also included, along with a self-timer, PC outlet, cable-release socket and hot-shoe. There are even 11 custom functions available.

Despite having all this technology available, the 6008 is surprisingly intuitive to operate, even without consulting the well written manual. Controls are clearly marked, but most important, those controls that are often accessed are placed within easy reach, and other controls are recessed to prevent inadvertent changes.

The Phase One back delivers saturated colors even under overcast skies. Coupled to the 6008AF with the 80mm lens, exposure and sharpness where excellent.

Adding to the ergonomics of the camera is the removable handgrip: it can, for example, be removed when working with a tripod. For handheld shooting, it adjusts to four different click-stop positions to ensure convenient holding with the waist-level finder, 45° prism and 90° eye-level finder.

The adjustable wrist strap on the handgrip holds the hand securely, perfectly positioning the right hand to adjust the shutter speed/multi-function dial that also holds the exposure lock and upper shutter release, on/off switch, and single/continuous/bracketing release switch. And the handgrip is positioned closely enough to the body that it takes very little effort to hold the 5.5-pound Digital Bundle.

The shutter speed dial electronically controls the direct-drive leaf shutters in the lenses, with available shutter speeds from 1/1000 second to 30 seconds, plus Bulb (although Bulb is not usable with the digital back).

Then there are the lenses. Twenty-nine Zeiss and Schneider lenses are available for the 6008 AF, including macro lenses and even a shift lens for architectural photography. However, only three, a 80mm f/2.8, a 60-140mm f/4.6 zoom, and the spectacular 50mm f/2.8 Super-Angulon, are fully autofocus. The other lenses, from 30mm to 1000mm, are used in manual focus mode, with in-focus confirmation shown in the viewfinder.

Rollei supplied both the 80mm f/2.8 Xenotar, which is part of the Digital Bundle, and the 50mm f/2.8 Super-Angulon for testing. With the Phase One back, there is a 1.6X magnification factor, making the 80mm an effective 128mm and the 50mm an effective 80mm. Rollei supplies a mask the accurately outlines the capture area of the digital back.

Both of the lenses provided were of outstanding optical quality, though mechanically the manual focusing was stiffer that I am accustomed to with other medium-format lenses.

On location, the Rollei Digital Bundle saves images to a CompactFlash card. The handgrip puts all of the essential camera functions at your fingertips as well as providing a comfortable and secure way to hold the camera

The Schneider 80mm focuses to about 2.6 feet, allowing head-and-shoulder portraits with the digital back. Even though it is lighter and far more compact than the 50mm Super-Angulon, I would opt for the 50mm as the standard lens. Maximum aperture is the same, nothing seems to be lost in terms of overall image sharpness, and the field of view at minimum focusing distance is about the same.

The "digital" part of the Digital Bundle is the db20p, Phase One's square-format digital back. With 4080x4080 effective pixels, it is capable of outputting images in 16 bits per color with a 12-stop dynamic range. Output file size is 48 MB at 24-bit RGB or 96MB at 48-bit RGB. Capture rate is 45 captures per minute, tethered or untethered. This matches nicely with the 2-fps motor-drive mirror-return/shutter-cocking rate of the 6008.

There are five user-selectable ISO sensitivities: 50, 100, 200, 400 and 800. This brings up the one of the two shortcoming I found in the integration of the camera and digital back: There is no provision to set ISO sensitivity on the 6008, and when it is set on the Phase One, the information is not transferred electronically to the camera. The default ISO of the camera is 100, so in order to meter accurately at other ISOs, it is necessary to use the exposure compensation dial on the camera. Setting it to +1 gives ISO 50 and so on to –3 for ISO 800.

While this is relatively minor, the other shortcoming can lead to disaster. The release buttons for the digital back are at the top of the adapter plate, very close to the area where you grip the waist-level finder to open it. Without looking, I went to raise the finder and found the back coming off in my hand. Needless to say, I paid closer attention from that time on, but a locking system to ensure this wouldn’t happen would be a nice addition. The Phase One back is as intuitive to operate as the Rollei camera. The menu structure is straightforward, presented on a large 2.2-inch LCD surrounded by four large buttons.

From the Main Menu, these buttons select Play, ISO, White Balance and Menu screens, clearly labeled in large type next to each button.

The 50mm f/2.8 Super-Angulon would be the ideal “standard” lens for the Digital Bundle. Although the 80mm is lighter and more compact, the 50mm gives up nothing in terms of sharpness.

Inside the menus, the buttons act to select Enter and Exit, and to navigate Up or Down through the menu items. The screen is backlit so that images and menus are easily visible in bright sunlight. Included with the Digital Bundle is a separate db20p Reference Manual with detailed information on each function. Also included is an opal white calibration plate and instruction sheet in its use to remove what Phase One calls “lens cast” and others, probably erroneously, call “chromatic aberration.”

By making an exposure through the plate, capturing a calibration image then storing it in the Phase One Capture One software, it can be applied to subsequent captures with that lens to eliminate the lens cast.

Capture One software has earned a well deserved reputation for not only the quality of its conversions from RAW file captures to TIFF files, but also for the workflow designed into its use. The Rollei db20p back will only capture images in either of two RAW formats, IIQ RAW L (lossless) and IIQ RAW S (a smaller file, but not totally lossless).

For untethered shooting, files are written to a CompactFlash card in the digital back. Tethered shooting is possible using a FireWire/IEEE 1394 connection. However, it is necessary to make the tethered captures from the camera, not the computer. With a standard FireWire connection, the back draws power from the computer and will operate without a battery or CF card inserted. With a 4-pin Firewire connection to a laptop, a battery is required. The Digital Bundle includes two batteries for the Phase One back.

Battery life is always a consideration with digital equipment. The db20p back is powered by a standard Lithium-ion camcorder battery rated at 250 captures in four hours. The proprietary Rollei battery is a NiCad rated at 200 exposures between charges. Both batteries held up well during the shooting. The Rollei battery seemed to hold up particularly well, needing only a short time to recharge even when operating all day with the digital back tethered in the studio. The best news of all about the Rollei Digital Bundle is that, although expensive, it is something of a bargain. At a street price of $15,000, it only costs about $7000 more than a Phase One P20 back without camera! The Schneider 50mm f/2.8 Super-Angulon is available for a street price of about $4000.

Stan Sholik is a contributing writer for NewsWatch Feature Service. He is also a commercial photographer with over 30 years of large format studio and location experience.