Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Rolleiflex Old Standard

Franke & Heidecke · Fixed lens · 6×6 cm, 12 exposures on 120; Japanese Wikipedia also lists 117 film at six exposures for the early Standard. · 1932

Known as “Old Standard”

Also known as: Rolleiflex Old Standard · Rolleiflex Standard · Rolleiflex Standard 1932 · Rolleiflex Alt Standard · Rolleiflex K2 · Rolleiflex 620 · Rolleiflex 621 · Rolleiflex 622 · Rolleiflex Standard Tessar 3.5 · Rolleiflex Standard Tessar 3.8 · Rolleiflex Standard Tessar 4.5 · ローライフレックス スタンダード · ローライフレックス オールドスタンダード · ローライフレックス 旧スタンダード

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Standard, Tessar f/4.5, Compur (model 620) Rolleiflex TLR 1932–1934 200000–567550 (Japanese Wikipedia's block for all Standard models, no split by model) —
Standard, Tessar f/3.8, Compur (model 621) Rolleiflex TLR 1932–1935 — —
Standard, Tessar f/3.5, Compur-Rapid (model 622) · [object Object] Rolleiflex TLR 1932–1938 — —
  1. Model numbers, months and lens apertures are English Wikipedia's model table; camera-wiki.org gives 620 1932–38, 621 1932–35 and 622 1934–38.
  2. Weight is Casual Photophile's figure of about 800 g for a 621; no factory figure was found. The same review gives scale focusing to 1.7 m with a further turn of the knob to the close limit, and 28.5 mm push-on filters.
  3. Production of about 95,000 in six years is Casual Photophile's figure, uncited there; no other source consulted gives a total.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Compur or Compur-Rapid behind a cast lens board, with speed and aperture read off the shutter rim — not the bare lever-worked shutter of the 1929 Original, not the paired dials of the Automat
  • Folding crank with a frame counter, but a red window still used to find frame 1 — the Automat's feeler rollers do away with the window
  • Heidoscop Anastigmat f/3.1 viewing lens (the Automat's is f/2.8)
  • Push-on 28.5 mm filters: no bayonet on the lens rims
  • Body serial between 200000 and 567550
  • Called simply 'Standard' when new; 'Old Standard' only after the New Standard of 1939

Standard, Tessar f/4.5, Compur (model 620):

  • Zeiss Tessar 7.5cm f/4.5 in a Compur to 1/300 s, behind a cast lens board

Standard, Tessar f/3.8, Compur (model 621):

  • Tessar 7.5cm f/3.8 in a Compur to 1/300 s

Standard, Tessar f/3.5, Compur-Rapid (model 622):

  • Tessar 75mm f/3.5 in a Compur-Rapid to 1/500 s — the first 1/500 on a Rolleiflex

Serial-range notes

200000–567550
Japanese Wikipedia's block for the Standard models of 1932–38, continuing from the Original's 1–199999. The Automat begins at 568516. No source consulted splits the block between the 620, 621 and 622.

Specifications

Format
6×6 cm, 12 exposures on 120; Japanese Wikipedia also lists 117 film at six exposures for the early Standard. · 12 exposures
Finder
Folding waist-level hood over a ground-glass screen, viewed through a Heidoscop Anastigmat f/3.1 lens coupled to the taking lens
Shutter
Compur leaf shutter behind a cast lens board; cocked by a lever that is moved the opposite way to release (Japanese Wikipedia) · 1–1/300 s, B, T (620, 621); 1–1/500 s, B, T Compur-Rapid on the 622 · flash sync none
Film advance
Folding crank on the right side with a frame counter; the first frame is found in the red window and the counter set by a button (Casual Photophile)
Back
Hinged
Meter
None
Weight
800 g
Country
Germany

Lifting the front frame of the hood turns it into a sports finder (Japanese Wikipedia), and later cameras have a spirit level in the screen. Juliet Schwab (Casual Photophile) found the screen dim and the hood flaps finicky.

Where sources disagree

First
  • November 1932 — English Wikipedia's model table
  • 1934 — camera-wiki.org

Better supported: 1932

English Wikipedia's table gives months and follows Prochnow's numbering; camera-wiki gives years only.

What reviewers say

History

The Standard of 1932 replaced the Original and was only called the “Old Standard” from 1939, when the New Standard appeared beside the Automat. It was the first Rolleiflex for 120 film, twelve exposures to the roll where the 117 of the Original gave six, and Casual Photophile puts the run at about 95,000 cameras in six years. English Wikipedia’s model table, which follows Prochnow’s numbering, lists three models that overlapped in production: the 620 with a Tessar 7.5cm f/4.5 (January 1932 to January 1934), the 621 with the f/3.8 Tessar (February 1932 to January 1935) and the 622 with the Tessar 75mm f/3.5 in a Compur-Rapid (November 1932 to January 1938). The f/4.5 and f/3.8 cameras have the plain Compur to 1/300 s; the 622 brought 1/500 s to the line, and its lens and shutter carried over to the Automat of 1937 and the New Standard of 1939. All three keep the Heidoscop Anastigmat f/3.1 viewing lens of the Original. Japanese Wikipedia gives one serial block, 200000–567550, for the whole Standard run.

The body is the first with the Rolleiflex shape as it stayed for decades: the shutter sits behind a cast lens board instead of standing exposed, and film is wound by a folding crank with a frame counter. Loading is not yet automatic. The first frame is found through the red window and the counter is then set by a button on the side, which is the step the Automat’s feeler rollers removed five years later. Japanese Wikipedia notes that the shutter lever is cocked by moving it the opposite way to release, that lifting the front frame of the hood gives a sports finder, and that later cameras have a spirit level in the screen. Filters are 28.5 mm push-on: the lens rims have no bayonet.

As a user camera the one published review found is Juliet Schwab’s at Casual Photophile, of a 621 whose mirror carries a hand-written date of 9 May 1934. She bought it as-is, found a small light leak, a dim screen and finicky hood flaps, and weighed it at about 800 g, and her verdict is that few things from the 1930s work as well as it does, with nothing else she owns so compact and so capable. The scale focuses to 1.7 m with a further turn of the knob to the close limit. The 1/300 s top speed on the f/4.5 and f/3.8 cameras is the practical limit with modern film; the 622 is the one to look for if the camera is to be used rather than kept.

Expand Collapse

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 Old Standard? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, EUR: a median of €200 across 5 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-02 (middle half €200–€290). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Rolleiflex Original (1929) · Rolleiflex New Standard · Rolleiflex Automat (incl. X, MX / 3.5A, MX-EVS / 3.5B)

Lenses for this body: Tessar 7.5cm f/4.5 and f/3.8 (early Rolleiflex) · Tessar 75mm f/3.5 (Rolleiflex)

Sources (4)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.