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

Tele-Rolleiflex

Franke & Heidecke · Fixed lens · 56 × 56mm nominal on 120 film, 12 exposures; 24 exposures on 220 film on cameras from 1970 · 1959

Known as “Tele Rollei”

Also known as: Tele-Rolleiflex · Tele Rolleiflex · Rolleiflex Tele · Tele Rolleiflex Sonnar 135mm f/4 · Tele Rolleiflex Sonnar 135mm F4 · Rolleiflex Tele Sonnar 135/4 · Tele Rolleiflex Type 1 · Tele Rolleiflex Type 2 · Tele Rolleiflex white face · Rollei Tele Rolleiflex · テレローライフレックス · テレローライ · ローライフレックス テレ ゾナー 135mm

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Tele-Rolleiflex, K7S Rolleiflex TLR 1959–1975 — 8,378 built (camera-wiki.org); 'about 8,500' from serial information per 35mmc. A 1990 Sotheby's London catalogue estimated about 1,200 surviving (en.wikipedia)
  1. Production: camera-wiki.org's 8,378 is the figure carried; 35mmc's 'about 8,500' is a rounding from serial information. Sotheby's survival estimate of about 1,200 is quoted by en.wikipedia from a 1990 London catalogue.
  2. No serial block for the Tele was found in a reached source. Minimum focus of 2.7 m is from the 35mmc review; the Rolleinar 0.35 and 0.7 close-up sets made specifically for the Tele are standard Rollei accessory knowledge, not confirmed from a fetched catalogue.
  3. Bay IV is standard collector knowledge; the ausgeknipst.de bayonet page that documents it returned HTTP 429.
  4. No weight, dimensions or list price was found in a fetched source; 35mmc says only that the camera is 'substantially heavier' than the 3.5 and 2.8 models.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Two 135mm lenses in Bay IV mounts on a 2.8E-type body — the lens pair projects well beyond the front panel, and nothing else in the Rolleiflex line looks like it except the Wide with its 55mm pair
  • Sonnar 1:4 f=135mm Carl Zeiss on the taking lens; the 1990s–2000s Tele-Rolleiflex (4.0FT) carries a Schneider Tele-Xenar 135mm f/4 instead
  • Selenium cell and EVS readout in the nameplate; the meter is uncoupled
  • 12/24 switch and white face on cameras from about 1970
  • Balsam separation in the Sonnar's cemented groups is common enough that dealers list it as a condition point; check the taking lens against a light

Tele-Rolleiflex, K7S:

  • Sonnar 1:4 f=135mm Carl Zeiss taking lens with a Heidosmat 1:4 135mm viewing lens, both far longer than any other Rolleiflex pair (en.wikipedia)
  • Synchro-Compur MXV, 1–1/500 s and B, X synchronisation, self-timer (en.wikipedia)
  • Bay IV bayonets, shared only with the Wide-Angle Rolleiflex
  • 12/24 exposure switch on cameras from 1970 (Japanese Wikipedia); white-faced nameplate on late cameras, which dealers title 'Type 2 white face'

Specifications

Format
56 × 56mm nominal on 120 film, 12 exposures; 24 exposures on 220 film on cameras from 1970 · 12; 24 on 220 from 1970 exposures
Finder
Waist-level folding hood over a ground glass, with flip-up magnifier and sports-finder frame; Heidosmat 135mm f/4 viewing lens
Shutter
Synchro-Compur MXV leaf shutter behind the taking lens · 1–1/500 s, B · flash sync X synchronisation (en.wikipedia); leaf shutter, all speeds · self-timer
Film advance
Folding crank with automatic first-frame sensing and shutter cocking; 12/24 exposure selector on cameras from 1970
Back
Hinged; 120 only until 1970, then 120/220
Meter
Uncoupled selenium meter with EVS readout in the nameplate (35mmc, on a Version 1 camera); reading transferred to the dials by hand
Country
West Germany

Viewing lens from en.wikipedia. The long viewing lens gives the same narrow field as the taking lens, with the usual parallax corrected by the moving frame on the ground glass.

What reviewers say

History

The Tele-Rolleiflex is a 2.8E with two 135mm lenses on the front. Franke & Heidecke introduced it in September 1959, after the 2.8E (K7E) whose body, Synchro-Compur MXV and uncoupled selenium meter it inherits, and gave it a Zeiss Sonnar 1:4 f=135mm as the taking lens and a Heidosmat of the same focal length and aperture for viewing. On 6×6 the Sonnar frames like a 75mm lens on 35mm film — a short portrait length, and 35mmc’s reviewer takes it as a response to the interchangeable-lens Mamiya TLRs that had appeared in the mid-1950s. The lenses protrude far beyond the panel, the camera is substantially heavier than a 3.5 or 2.8, and the bayonets are Bay IV, a size shared with nothing but the Wide-Angle Rolleiflex.

It stayed in the catalogue until 1975 (camera-wiki.org says 1974) and sold slowly: camera-wiki.org gives 8,378 built, and a 1990 Sotheby’s London catalogue quoted by en.wikipedia estimated that about 1,200 still existed. Japanese Wikipedia dates 220 capability to 1970, and dealers separate an early 120-only “Type 1” from a later “Type 2” with the 12/24 switch and the white-faced nameplate of the 1970s cameras; no source reached gives a serial boundary. Rollei sold two close-up sets specifically for it, the Rolleinar 0.35 and 0.7, because the lens itself stops at 2.7 m. A Tele-Rolleiflex returned in the 1990s–2000s as the 4.0FT with a Schneider Tele-Xenar, which is a different camera with the same name.

The one thing every seller mentions is separation. The Sonnar’s cemented groups let go often enough that listings routinely declare “minor separation” or sell the camera as-is with the lens jammed, and Leon Van Kemenade’s 35mmc review is titled around it: his Version 1 camera has balsam separation in the taking lens that he calls nearly impossible to fix, and on a day’s 36 frames it visibly affected three. His verdict after a year is still that “separation or not, its still a wonderful lens” and that the images “might surprise you” — the Sonnar renders beautifully, the uncoupled EVS meter turned out to be trustworthy once learned, and the camera handled well on a long walk, though its weight and the awkward front end keep it on a tripod more often than not. The minimum focus is the practical limit: 2.7 m is too far for a head-and-shoulders portrait, which is what the expensive Rolleinars exist to solve.

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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 Tele-Rolleiflex? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, EUR: a median of €1,500 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-02 (middle half €1,500–€1,500). 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: Wide-Angle Rolleiflex · Rolleiflex 2.8E / E2 / E3 · Rolleiflex 4.0FT

Lenses for this body: Sonnar 135mm f/4 (Tele-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.