In 1966, the first medium format SLR by Rollei was presented, after decades of Rolleiflex TLR success, and several years of Hasselblad SLR success.
The Rolleiflex SL66 (single lens 6x6, thus SL66) is a focal plane shutter camera for shutter-less lenses, with shutter times of 1-1/1000 sec. and a flash synch time of 1/30 sec. There were two leaf shutter lenses available (80mm and 150mm) for flash synch up to 1/500 sec.
The SL66 offered many features which have remained truly unique up to today: First, it allows for bellows focusing with 8° upwards/downwards tilt for Scheimpflug plane-of-focus control, second its most common lenses can be retro mounted directly via a front bayonet without any adapter for macro photography. Third, it offers several Carl Zeiss Luminar microscope lenses which allow for up to 19x (!) magnification in combination with the camera built-in bellows and extension tubes.
In addition, it offers true MLU via a lever on the right hand side (the only disadvantage is that you cannot cancel it, so you need to make a short blank exposure with the lens cap on, and let's say 1/1000 sec. and f/22, to be able to skip it once you selected it), and camera-based depth-of-field preview via a lever on the left hand side which can also be locked in place. The darkslide can be put into a slot on the back of the film back so that you won't ever lose it. As the lenses don't have a focusing helicoid (they are all focused via the bellows which is built into the camera body), the focusing ring has switchable focusing and depth-of-field scales for the four most common focal lengths built in, which can be changed in less than a second. All in all, its obvious and its less obvious features make it clear that this camera has truly been designed for the everyday practice of the professional photographer, and it is hard to think of many additional improvements.
The SL66 family (SL66 as well as its successors SL66E, SL66X, SL66SE, which offered additional TTL metering and other minor improvements) was in regular production until 1992, collectors' models were produced up to 1996.
Common lenses
The five most common focal lengths for the SL66 are 50mm, 80mm, 120mm, 150mm and 250mm (there are lenses from 30mm to 1000mm - read more about them in the next paragraph). The 1:4/50mm Distagon is the standard wide-angle lens, the 1:2.8/80mm Planar is the system's normal lens with its focal length approximately equalling the frame diagonal, the 1:4/150mm Sonnar is the standard telephoto lens. The 1:5.6/120mm S-Planar (older) and 1:4/120mm Makro-Planar (newer) are optically optimised for the close focusing range. The 1:5.6/250mm Sonnar is a longer telephoto lens also rather common. There are two lenses available with leaf shutters, the 1:4/80mm Distagon LS and the 1:4/150 Sonnar LS.
Other lenses
Other less common lenses include the 1:3.5/30mm F-Distagon fish-eye, the 1:4/40mm Distagon (non-FLE and FLE versions), the 1:3.5/60mm Distagon, the 1:4.5/75 Rolleigon Shift with its matched tilt adapter, and the supertele lenses 1:5.6/500 Tele-Tessar, 1:8/1000 Tele-Tessar, 1:5.6/1000 Mirotar. In addition, there is a 2x teleconverter available as well as an adapter for adapting third-party lenses (!) and the two Luminar adapters for the various Carl Zeiss Luminar microscope lenses.
My Rolleiflex SL66
I bought my Rolleiflex SL66, pictured in the photo on this page, a couple of years ago, but haven't used it very much because I moved to England and because I mainly used my excellent Canon PowerShot A70 during the last two years. Recently however, I decided to expand my system and bought three additional lenses, the 4/50, 4/150, and 5.6/250, as well as a second 6x6 film back and a Polaroid film back. Unfortunately, at approximately the same time, the focusing mechanism broke so I can only shoot at about infinity at the moment... I'll have to send it to Paepke and hope that I'll soon be able to enjoy such a wonderful analogue camera again.
Why do I like the SL66?
Because it is maybe the cheapest way of using the very best medium format lenses. A new Hasselblad or Rollei set with just the standard lens and one 6x6 magazine costs 3000 euros -- for this amount of money one can now buy an SL66 with a 6x6 magazine, Polaroid film holder, 3.5/30 fish-eye (!), 4/50, 2.8/80, 4/150, and 5.6/250, everything in good to excellent condition, fully working, and with a one-year warranty. Keep in mind that these lenses, apart from the coating and the electronics, are exactly the same lenses as the current Hasselblad/Rollei lenses each of which costs several thousand euros! Even compared to the Kiev, the SL66 is quite competitively priced now: buying the just mentioned large SL66 set for 3000 euros is now only about 25-90% more expensive than buying a comparable Kiev set from a reputable dealer with warranty. Considering that Carl Zeiss lenses are still a bit better than the (generally very good) Kiev lenses, and that the reliability of the SL66 is certainly better, this makes the SL66 quite a deal now. Furthermore, the SL66 offers a number of features for close-up photography which the Kiev (or any other common medium format camera, for that matter) does not offer.
Important legal notice: The linked sites are not under my control and I am not responsible for the contents of any linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. I am not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any linked site. I am providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by myself of the site.
Links
great SL66 web site by the Rollei Club of Beverly Hills
comprehensive SL66 family page by Bob Monaghan (ed.)