Wide-Angle Rolleiflex
Franke & Heidecke · Fixed lens · 56 × 56mm nominal on 120 film, 12 exposures; 24 exposures on 220 film on the second version · 1961
Known as “Rolleiwide”, “Rollei-Wide”
Also known as: Wide-Angle Rolleiflex · Wide Angle Rolleiflex · Rolleiflex Wide · Rolleiflex Wide Angle · Rolleiwide · Rollei-Wide · Rollei Wide · Rolleiflex Wide Distagon 55mm f/4 · Rolleiflex Wide Distagon 55mm F4 · Rolleiflex Wide Model 2 · Wideangle Rolleiflex · ワイドローライフレックス · ローライワイド · ローライフレックス ワイド ディスタゴン 55mm
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wide-Angle Rolleiflex, first version (120 only) | Rolleiflex TLR | 1961 | — | Not separately published; see the family figure |
| Wide-Angle Rolleiflex, second version (120/220) | Rolleiflex TLR | 1961–1967 | one example 2493603 (dealer museum listing, search snippet)³ one example W2491192 (dealer listing, search snippet)³ | A French dealer listing gives 404 for the Model 2 (search snippet, unverified) |
- Serial examples are from dealer listings surfaced by search (Blue Moon Camera's museum page, whose article text could not be fetched, and a Photoco listing); they place the second version in the 249xxxx block and nothing more.
- Production: en.wikipedia's 'only 3600' is the figure carried; one dealer snippet says 'about 4000', another gives 404 for the Model 2 alone. Sotheby's survival estimate of fewer than 700 is quoted by en.wikipedia from a 1990 London catalogue.
- The two-version split and the 2.8E2 platform are from the Blue Moon Camera museum page (search snippet); en.wikipedia says K7E. The version boundary is undated in every source reached.
- Bay IV is standard collector knowledge; the ausgeknipst.de bayonet page that documents it returned HTTP 429.
- No weight, dimensions or list price was found in a fetched source. A French dealer describes the Distagon as a seven-element retrofocus design (search snippet); the lens page carries that.
How to tell them apart
- Two short, fat 55mm lenses in Bay IV mounts on a 2.8E-type body — the only Rolleiflex with a Distagon, and the only wide one until the 4.0FW of 2002
- Distagon 1:4 f=55mm Carl Zeiss on the taking lens; the 4.0FW carries a Schneider Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 instead
- Heidosmat 1:4 55mm viewing lens, where every other Franke & Heidecke Rolleiflex except the Tele has an f/2.8 Heidosmat
- 12/24 switch marks the second version; serials seen in the 249xxxx block
- Selenium cell in the nameplate on metered cameras
Wide-Angle Rolleiflex, first version (120 only):
- Distagon 1:4 f=55mm Carl Zeiss taking lens with a Heidosmat 1:4 55mm viewing lens (en.wikipedia)
- Synchro-Compur MXV, 1–1/500 s and B, X synchronisation, self-timer (en.wikipedia)
- Bay IV bayonets
- No 12/24 exposure switch
Wide-Angle Rolleiflex, second version (120/220):
- 12/24 exposure switch for 220 film
- Serial on the examples seen is in the 249xxxx range, with a W prefix on one
- Wide-Angle Rolleiflex, first version (120 only): Launched April 1961 on the 2.8E (K7E) body (en.wikipedia). The end of the first version is not dated in any source reached; the second version with 220 capability followed at an unknown point before production ended in December 1967.
- Wide-Angle Rolleiflex, second version (120/220): Dated here from 1961 only because no source reached gives the version boundary; the earliest 220-capable Rolleiflexes are generally mid-1960s, so the true start is later. Production ended December 1967 (en.wikipedia).
Specifications
- Format
- 56 × 56mm nominal on 120 film, 12 exposures; 24 exposures on 220 film on the second version · 12; 24 on 220 on the second version exposures
- Finder
- Waist-level folding hood over a ground glass, with flip-up magnifier and sports-finder frame; Heidosmat 55mm 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 the second version
- Back
- Hinged; 120 only on the first version, 120/220 on the second
- Meter
- Selenium meter in the nameplate on some cameras, uncoupled as on the 2.8E it is built from; dealers describe cameras sold with and without the meter (search snippets)
- Country
- West Germany
Viewing lens from en.wikipedia; the wide viewing lens gives the same field as the taking lens on the ground glass.
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 Wide-Angle Rolleiflex is the Tele-Rolleiflex’s opposite number: the same 2.8E body and Synchro-Compur MXV, with a Zeiss Distagon 1:4 f=55mm as the taking lens and a Heidosmat of the same focal length and aperture above it. On 6×6 the Distagon frames like a 28–30mm lens on 35mm film, and it is a retrofocus design — the only way to get a wide field on a twin-lens camera whose shutter and mirror box fix the lens well forward of the film — which is why the lens pair is short and fat where the Tele’s is long. Franke & Heidecke introduced it in April 1961, after Rollei had been selling the Tele for eighteen months, and the two cameras share the Bay IV bayonet that no other Rolleiflex uses.
It was built for six and a half years and in very small numbers. en.wikipedia gives “only 3600” made before production ended in December 1967, and quotes a 1990 Sotheby’s London catalogue that thought fewer than 700 still existed; dealer snippets round the total up to about 4,000 and put the second version at 404, figures recorded here but not verified. Blue Moon Camera’s museum page, seen only as a search snippet, distinguishes two versions, the second adding 220 capability with a 12/24 switch; the examples seen carry serials in the 249xxxx block, one with a W prefix. When the first version gave way to the second no source reached says. Cameras were sold with and without the 2.8E’s uncoupled selenium meter.
Rollei did not make a wide twin-lens camera again until the 4.0FW of 2002, which carries a Schneider Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 and has nothing in common with this one but the idea; between the two the Wide-Angle Rolleiflex was unique, and it remains the Rolleiflex that costs the most on the used market. No hands-on review was found: what exists is dealer copy praising the Distagon’s sharpness and a thin scatter of forum posts, so the camera’s reputation rests on its rarity and its lens’s name more than on published pictures.
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 Wide-Angle Rolleiflex? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
Listings updated 2026-11-02. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.