Rolleiflex 4.0FT
Rollei · Fixed lens · 6×6cm on 120 film · 2007
Also known as: Rolleiflex 4.0FT · Rolleiflex 4,0 FT · Rolleiflex 4.0 FT · Rollei 4.0FT · Rolleiflex FT · Rolleiflex FT 4.0 · Tele Rolleiflex 4.0FT · Rolleiflex 4.0FT Tele-Xenar · Rolleiflex 4.0FT Tele-Apogon · ローライフレックス 4.0FT · ローライフレックス4.0FT · テレローライ 4.0FT
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0FT | Rolleiflex TLR | 2007–2014 | — | — |
- Years: camera-wiki 2007–2014; Japanese Wikipedia dates only the Japanese release (1 July 2011). A Photrio thread quoting Rollei's German site has dealer shipments from 27 September 2007, which supports camera-wiki's start.
- Weight: 'about 1,390 g' (Japanese Wikipedia). No dimensions were found.
- Lens name: Tele-Xenar 135mm f/4 HFT (Japanese Wikipedia; English Wikipedia) against Tele-Apogon 135mm f/4 (B&H set listing, search snippet). The same lens under Schneider's name and Rollei's.
- Minimum focus: forum posts give 1.5 m against the original Tele-Rolleiflex's 2.6 m; no maker's figure was reached, so it is not entered as data.
- Shutter and meter are described from the FX, which the FT shares; no data sheet for the FT itself was reached.
- No list price in EUR, USD or yen was found in a fetched source. A Danish dealer's asking price of about 40,000 kr in 2007 was quoted on Photrio, not read on the dealer's page.
How to tell them apart
- The long lens panel of a Tele-Rolleiflex with two 135mm lenses, on the black-leatherette FX body with internal meter LEDs and the battery in the focusing knob
- Front ring engraved 'Tele-Xenar 1:4/135 HFT' with the Schneider-Kreuznach name, or 'Tele-Apogon 4/135'
- The 1959 Tele-Rolleiflex it reissues has a Zeiss Sonnar 135mm f/4 and a 2.6 m minimum focus — the lens name separates them at once
4.0FT:
- 'Rolleiflex 4,0 FT' nameplate; Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 135mm f/4 HFT taking lens with a 135mm Heidosmat viewing lens (Japanese Wikipedia; English Wikipedia)
- Some cameras carry the Rollei-brand name Tele-Apogon 135mm f/4 instead of Tele-Xenar (B&H set listing, search snippet)
- 4.0FT: The only model. Launched under Franke & Heidecke GmbH in 2007 (camera-wiki) and built from 2009 by DHW Fototechnik until that company's end in 2014 (English Wikipedia on DHW). Japanese Wikipedia: Japanese release 1 July 2011, about 1,390 g. Forum posts quoting Rollei's German site give dealer shipments from 27 September 2007 with the first run sold out; not confirmed from the maker's page.
Specifications
- Format
- 6×6cm on 120 film · 12 on 120 exposures
- Finder
- folding waist-level hood with magnifier over a Heidosmat 135mm viewing lens; metering LEDs above the screen; interchangeable screens and prism finders as on the FX
- Shutter
- leaf shutter in the taking lens · 1s–1/500, B (as on the 2.8FX; no maker's sheet for the FT was reached) · flash sync X sync · self-timer
- Film advance
- crank, manual film start against two red dots, as on the 2.8GX and FX
- Back
- hinged
- Meter
- TTL, centre-weighted, LED readout in the finder, shared with the 2.8FX
- Weight
- 1390 g
- Country
- Germany
- Accessories
- Interchangeable focusing screens, 90° and 45° prism finders · SCA flash adapter
Where sources disagree
- First
- 2007 (camera-wiki; Rollei's September 2007 shipping notice as quoted on Photrio)
- 2011 (Japanese Wikipedia, Japanese release 1 July 2011)
Better supported: 2007 (camera-wiki; Rollei's September 2007 shipping notice as quoted on Photrio)
Japanese Wikipedia records the Komamura release, four years after the German one.
What reviewers say
No reviews aggregated yet — this family is still in the research queue. Written one? We'd love to index it.
History
The 4.0FT is the last of the three reissues and the one that waited longest: the Tele-Rolleiflex of 1959 rebuilt on the 2.8FX body, with a Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 135mm f/4 in place of the Zeiss Sonnar 135mm f/4 and a 135mm Heidosmat above it (Japanese and English Wikipedia). camera-wiki dates it 2007–2014, and a Photrio thread quoting Rollei’s German site has shipments to dealers from 27 September 2007 with the first run already sold out; Japanese Wikipedia records only the Japanese release through Komamura on 1 July 2011. B&H’s listing calls the lens a Tele-Apogon 135mm f/4, the Rollei-brand name that the FW’s Super-Angulon (W-Apogon) and the FX-N’s Planar (S-Apogon) also received. Japanese Wikipedia gives the weight as about 1,390 g.
Behind the lens panel it is an FX: leaf shutter to 1/500, TTL centre-weighted silicon meter with LEDs above the screen, crank wind with the red-dot film start, Bay III bayonets, a battery in the focusing knob that only the meter uses. No data sheet for the FT was reached, so those figures are carried over rather than confirmed on this camera. The practical change from the old Tele-Rolleiflex, according to the forum posts, is a 1.5 m minimum focus against the Sonnar camera’s 2.6 m, which the original needed a Rolleinar to get below; the figure is not entered as data because no maker’s page gave it.
Franke & Heidecke GmbH launched the FT and DHW Fototechnik, founded by its former staff in 2009, built it until insolvency ended production in 2014 (English Wikipedia). No published review of the FT was found — the Tele-Rolleiflex reviews on 35mmc concern the 1959 camera and its Sonnar’s habit of element separation, a fault the multicoated Tele-Xenar has not been reported to share. Forum opinion credits the FT with a modern meter and closer focusing than the classic, “but it’s expensive”; the one asking price seen, about 40,000 Danish kroner in 2007, came through a forum, and no list price in euros, dollars or yen was found.
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.
Example photos
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Rolleiflex 4.0FT? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
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