Rolleiflex SLX
Rollei · Rollei 6000 mount · 6×6 on 120 or 220 in the standard film insert, one insert serving both with a 120/220 switch on the back; 4.5×6 with a separate holder (camera-wiki) · 1976
Also known as: Rolleiflex SLX · Rollei SLX · Rolleiflex SLX 2 · Rolleiflex SLX II · Rolleiflex SLX Mk II · Rolleiflex SLX Mark II · Rollei SLX Mod 2 · Rolleiflex SLX 6x6 · Rolleiflex SLX Planar 80mm · ローライフレックス SLX · ローライフレックスSLX · ローライ SLX
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLX, first version (1976–79, 'old face') | Rollei 6000 | 1976–1979 | — | Not published. rolleigraphy.eu's table runs it from 09/1976 to 12/1979, overlapping the second version by fifteen months. |
| SLX 2 / Mark II (1978–85, 'new face') | Rollei 6000 | 1978–1985 | — | Not published. 09/1978–07/1985 (rolleigraphy.eu). |
- No launch price was found in any source read for this page; the 1976 German or US list prices remain to be added.
- Weight and dimensions are rolleigraphy.eu's figures for the SLX column of its comparison table, which does not separate the two versions.
- Japanese Wikipedia's 0.7 s per frame and rolleigraphy.eu's 1.5 frames/s describe the same motor; only the rounding differs.
- rolleigraphy.eu says Rollei body serials became coded from 1982, with index digits in the second and third positions; its coding page was not read for this entry, and SLX bodies before 1982 are not covered by it.
How to tell them apart
- An upright 6×6 body with a built-in motor, the shutter-speed knob on the right side where an advance knob would sit, the ISO dial in its face, and the single/continuous/lock selector below it (camera-wiki)
- Two shutter releases, one at each bottom corner of the front plate; the electronic release socket beside the drive selector takes the release cables and the ME-1 multiple-exposure unit (camera-wiki)
- A hinged back with a film insert and no dark slide: a camera with a removable magazine is a 6006 or later (camera-wiki; rolleigraphy.eu)
- Hot shoe on the left side of the body; 9.6 V rechargeable NiCd pack, without which the camera does nothing (camera-wiki)
- First or second version: a cable-release socket between the two releases and black trim mean the 1978 revision (camera-wiki)
SLX, first version (1976–79, 'old face'):
- Chrome trim on the right-hand side plate and on the rings around the two release buttons (camera-wiki)
- No cable-release socket between the two shutter releases (camera-wiki)
SLX 2 / Mark II (1978–85, 'new face'):
- Mechanical cable-release socket between the two shutter releases, which the original lacks (camera-wiki)
- Black trim on the right-hand side plate and the release-button rings where the original is chrome (camera-wiki)
- A redesigned 120/220 selector on the back, working the same way (camera-wiki)
- SLX, first version (1976–79, 'old face'): The launch version, and the one with the poorer reputation: rolleigraphy.eu says the first series had quality problems and calls the electronics 'quite primitive' even for the seventies, and K. Praslowicz bought a second-version body because of the first version's record of failures.
- SLX 2 / Mark II (1978–85, 'new face'): Rollei did not change the model name: the camera still reads SLX, and SLX 2, SLX II, Mark II and Mod. 2 are dealers' and collectors' names for the 1978 revision with improved electronics (camera-wiki; English Wikipedia dates the Mark II to 1978). The original was dropped at the end of 1979, the revision ran until July 1985, after the 6006 had taken over (rolleigraphy.eu). 1,250 g without lens (rolleigraphy.eu); about 1.8 kg with the 80mm Planar and waist-level finder (English Wikipedia).
Specifications
- Format
- 6×6 on 120 or 220 in the standard film insert, one insert serving both with a 120/220 switch on the back; 4.5×6 with a separate holder (camera-wiki)
- Finder (waist-level finder)
- folding hood with built-in loupe and a sports-finder frame, standard; interchangeable (camera-wiki)
- Finder (eye-level finders)
- 45° and 90° prism finders and a rigid magnifying hood, interchangeable with the waist-level hood, with several interchangeable focusing screens (camera-wiki); the 560 0xx screens and the finders are shared with the SL66 and the later 6000 bodies
- Shutter
- electronically timed leaf shutter in every lens, shutter and diaphragm each driven by a voice-coil 'linear motor' through the lens contacts; no shutter in the body (camera-wiki; rolleigraphy.eu; English Wikipedia on the motors) · 30 s–1/500 and B (camera-wiki); rolleigraphy.eu's table adds T. Speeds longer than 1 s are not available in AE, and the speed index turns red when set outside the AE range (camera-wiki) · flash sync all speeds, from the leaf shutter; hot shoe on the left side of the body, with no TTL flash metering (camera-wiki; rolleigraphy.eu)
- Film advance
- built-in motor, single or continuous, with a lock position on the selector under the speed knob; 1.5 frames/s (rolleigraphy.eu; English Wikipedia), which Japanese Wikipedia gives as 0.7 s per frame. The paper leader is wound by hand to the Start mark and the motor runs to frame 1 at the first press of the release; it winds off at the end of the roll (camera-wiki; Japanese Wikipedia)
- Back
- fixed, hinged back taking film inserts with two transport gears; no dark slide, so film cannot be changed mid-roll. The non-removable back is what kept professionals away (rolleigraphy.eu; camera-wiki)
- Meter
- TTL centre-weighted, three cells, with stray-light compensation (rolleigraphy.eu); EV 3–18 at ISO 100; ISO 25–6400 set on a dial in the face of the speed knob. Shutter-priority AE with the lens on A, or manual in 1/3-stop steps; the metered aperture is shown by a needle on the lens's aperture scale while the meter button is pressed, which also serves as depth-of-field preview with a manual aperture; over- and under-exposure LEDs at the right of the finder (camera-wiki; rolleigraphy.eu)
- Weight
- 1250 g
- Dimensions
- 106 × 108 × 138 (w × d × h), body without lens (rolleigraphy.eu) mm
- Country
- West Germany
Where sources disagree
- First
- 1976 — camera-wiki, English Wikipedia (spring 1976), rolleigraphy.eu (09/1976)
- 1974 — Japanese Wikipedia, which gives the photokina announcement year
Better supported: 1976
What reviewers say
- K. Praslowicz (blog) — A second-version body bought for its better electronics and kept for hikes: accurate automatic exposure even on slide film, smooth if slow focusing, a release on both sides for the left-handed, and the largest focusing screen of his 6×6 cameras, against more than two pounds of weight, a shutter that is 'loud AF' and a proprietary battery pack he had rebuilt and replaced with lithium cells.
History
The Rolleiflex SLX is the camera with which Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke of Braunschweig put electronics into medium format. It began, by rolleigraphy.eu’s account, as the SLC 66, a smaller and cheaper companion to the SL66 that proved hard to build; the project was redesigned without a detachable magazine and without a crank, and the result was shown at photokina 1974 and sold from 1976. Every lens carries its own leaf shutter and diaphragm, each driven by a voice-coil motor that Rollei called a linear motor, and the body holds only the mirror, the motor transport, a three-cell centre-weighted meter and a 9.6 V NiCd pack without which nothing works. Seven Zeiss designs, licence-built by Rollei with HFT coating, were offered at launch: Distagon 40mm f/4 and 50mm f/4, Planar 80mm f/2.8, S-Planar 120mm f/5.6, Sonnar 150mm f/4 and 250mm f/5.6 and Tele-Tessar 350mm f/5.6 (camera-wiki).
In use it is a shutter-priority automatic: the speed is set on the knob at the right of the body, the lens goes to A, and a needle on the lens’s aperture scale shows what the meter has chosen when the meter button is pressed. Speeds run from 30 s to 1/500, though nothing longer than a second is available on automatic. Film goes into an insert in a hinged back, 120 or 220 on a switch, and the motor runs to the first frame and winds off at the end; there is no dark slide, which rolleigraphy.eu names as the reason professionals stayed with magazine cameras. The electronic release socket takes long cables and the ME-1 multiple-exposure unit, and it also pre-releases the mirror, an action that cannot be undone except by firing.
The 1978 revision, which Rollei still called SLX and everyone else calls SLX 2 or Mark II, is told by a mechanical cable-release socket between the two front releases and by black trim where the original has chrome (camera-wiki). It carried improved electronics, and the distinction matters: rolleigraphy.eu says the first series had quality problems and that the electronics were ‘not as good as they should have been’ even for the seventies, and K. Praslowicz, the one reviewer found, chose a second-version body for that reason and found its automatic exposure accurate on slide film. His other verdicts are a loud shutter, a slow focusing action and a proprietary battery pack that, forty years on, has to be rebuilt or replaced with lithium cells. The original was dropped at the end of 1979 and the revision ran to mid-1985, by which time the 6006 had added the magazine the SLX lacked (rolleigraphy.eu).
This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $450 across 6 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-02 (middle half $350–$500). First day tracked.
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
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- ジャンク■Rolleiflex SLX 6×6 (804270015)■AN1108
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