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Rollei 16S Submini
The Rollei 16, and its successor the 16S, are beautifully finished and engineered cameras. Undoubtedly they are among the best made "subminiatures" ever. However, as beautiful as they are, they make little sense today other than as a collectibles. The problem is that technology has completely passed them by. Today's full frame 35mm compacts like the Olympus Syllus Epic or Canon ELPH offer the photographer much, much more in features and considerably better picture quality. Unless you are a devoted Rollei or Sub-mini fan, forget shooting these babies. There are many more better choices for shooters.
The lens is one of the sharpest ever on a Submini, the 25/2.8 Zeiss Tessar. Optional were the beautifully made, and sharp, Zeiss Mutar wide and tele auxiliary lens attachments which bayoneted over the 25/2.8's size "0" Rollei bayonet. The filters bayoneted in too, an attention to fine detail not often found in sub-minis. The collapsible finder (you pull it out from the body) is very clear and contains the frame outlines for the normal as well as the wide and tele Mutars. But the best is that you have a parallax-corrected viewfinder! No rangefinder folks, you focus by scale guestimate, but with a lens this short it works just fine. The 16S offered programmed shutter speeds 1/30th to 1/500th using its selenium meter. Manual set exposure was not possible. The film format is 12x17mm, using 16mm movie film spooled in special Rollei 16 cartridges.
Originally only made in chrome and black snake skin, late models offered options of red, green, and creme colored snake skin. The 16S was produced from 1966 to 1972, with a total production of just under 20,000 units. Weight 9 1/2 oz, more than modern full frame 35 point and shoots with many more features. So the 16S was among the best of it's kind ever made, yet it didn't succeed that well in the market. It seems it had to compete with a new compact full frame 35 which was introduced in 1966, the Rollei 35!
Old classic with a modern classic, the 16S beside my Canon IXY, aka ELPH
Revised: November 26, 2003 . Copyright © 1998-2002 Stephen Gandy. All rights reserved. This means you may NOT copy and re-use the text or the pictures in ANY other internet or printed publication of ANY kind. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.