C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Rolleicord II (1936) replaced the art-deco Model I with a streamlined body and upgraded optics. Rollei offered two taking lens options: the **Zeiss Triotar 75mm f/3.5** triplet and, on higher-specification variants, the **Zeiss Tessar 75mm f/3.5** four-element lens -- a meaningful jump in resolving power and corner performance. The shutter was upgraded to the Compur-Rapid, extending the top speed from 1/300s to 1/500s. The film advance remained a knob system with a red-window frame counter. No built-in meter. The Rolleicord II is notable for its exceptionally long production run: manufacture continued through World War II and into the late 1940s, making it the longest-produced single model in the Rolleicord line.
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Recommended film stocks for the — format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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About this camera
The refined Rolleicord: a cleaner body, a faster lens option, and a 14-year production run that spanned war and recovery.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 (6x6 cm) |
| Taking lens (standard) | Zeiss Triotar 75mm f/3.5 (3 elements / 3 groups) |
| Taking lens (upgrade) | Zeiss Tessar 75mm f/3.5 (4 elements / 3 groups) |
| Viewing lens | ~ |
| Years | 1936 - ~1950 |
| Shutter | 1s - 1/500s + B, Compur-Rapid leaf |
| Flash sync | None on early variants; some later variants had sync port ~ |
| Meter | None |
| Film advance | Knob |
Rollei discontinued the Rolleicord I's art-deco paneled body after three years and relaunched with the Model II in 1936. The cleaner, rounder body style introduced here persisted -- with refinements -- through every subsequent Rolleicord. The option of a Tessar lens on some configurations elevated the II above its predecessor both in image quality and market positioning. Production continued through the war years: Rollei's Braunschweig factory maintained limited output under wartime conditions, and the camera that emerged from the war was functionally continuous with the prewar model, though some component sourcing changed. The Rolleicord III (1950) eventually superseded the II, introducing automatic film transport improvements and a revised shutter specification. The long production gap between II and III means wartime and immediate postwar examples of the II are common in the used market.
The Rolleicord II is the model that established the Rolleicord's identity as a serious instrument rather than a cost-reduced curiosity. The Tessar-equipped variant in particular produces results that are functionally comparable to midrange Rolleiflex output -- the Tessar design was the same optical formula Rollei used in budget Rolleiflex models -- at a lower original price. Photographers in the late 1930s and 1940s who could not afford a Rolleiflex but needed reliable 6x6 medium-format performance reached for the Rolleicord II.
The camera's production continuity across World War II also gives it a distinctive archival dimension: Rolleicord IIs appear throughout European documentary photography of the late 1930s and 1940s, used by both amateur and semi-professional photographers in a period when press photographers typically worked with Leica or Speed Graphic equipment.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →Rollei Rolleicord II
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