I had been after one of these cameras for some time. I eyed the beauty in the case every time I visited the camera shop in Hong Kong. The store owner even let me play around with it on several occasions. I enjoyed its smooth curves, its feel and beautiful looks. This is a camera, by the way.

Rollei QZ 35T with lens capThe store owner boasted repeatedly of a skylight filter on the front of the lens. I couldn't have cared less. I wanted this camera. That was six month ago. On every visit, we talked money, but he wouldn't budge from his price.

On a recent visit to the store, I had bought a case for a Leica IIIf. The case attached to the camera with a 1/2-inch (or is that 3/8) tripod screw. My camera has the smaller socket. So the case had to go back to the store. I had in the back of my head (OK, maybe it was in the front of my head) that I'd make another try for the Rollei, so I got money out of the bank. Surprisingly, he agreed to my price. Twenty minutes later, I had the Rollei QZ 35T in my possession -- the full pack, including the box, the strap, owner's manual, various warranty and ownership cards, flash and soft cases for the camera and flash.

Immediate disappointment: The owner's manual is in Korean! Well, that's not going to help me, so I downloaded an English version of the manual, printed it out and stuck it into my bag.

I picked up two sets of batteries and some film, and I was set for some semiserious photography with my new camera.

Initial impressions:

  • The smooth curves that I loved in the camera store keep growing on me. Man, this is one beautiful camera. To me, I think it's one of the most elegant cameras I own. 

  • I don't care much for how the strap attaches. If it were up to me, I'd have put both lugs on the end of the camera, so it would hang vertically from your neck. The right-side end of the strap interferes somewhat with holding the camera properly. I'm divided between the security of using the neck strap and the comfort of holding the camera. 

  • Rollei QZ 35T with flash unitThe flash is sort of cool. I don't use flash that much in photography, so the fact that it's not TTL (through the lens) doesn't really bother me. I wonder how it will fare as a fill-flash unit. Oh yes, it needs an auto-off function.

  • Start-up time is very good. The lens cap is a mixed bag. I can see myself losing that really quickly. I think I'll find something smaller and cheaper and keep the lens cap cum remote control in the bag. The remote control is cool, but I'm almost positive the lens cap will fall off and be gone for good. 

  • The camera's fit and finish is exquisite. The Rollei name is deeply engraved into its titanium case and filled with a high-gloss black paint. Other markings also are engraved, so a year or a decade from now, the numbers and writings won't have rubbed away from use. 

  • The controls operate with a precision you don't see in a mass-market camera. That's probably why it costs so much when it was first introduced. 

  • The lens range is OK. Not stellar, but OK. I'd have liked a little more room on the wide end, maybe down to 28. Still, 38-90 is a decent range -- even in this day of 28-200 zooms. It's reasonably fast at f/2.8 at the wide end and f/5.6 at 90mm. I'd have accepted a bit more weight to get it down to f/4.0.

I'm going to stop with the accolades. Suffice to say, it's a superlative camera in every sense. The F.A. Porsche design is unquestionably excellent, and it's matched by what appears to very high construction quality.

By the way, I scrapped the filter. It was unimpressive and turned out to be little more than a filter ring against a optical UV glass disk.