Rolleiflex “grey baby”

Descendant of the Rolleiflex Baby of 1931, this version popularly known as the “Grey Baby” Rolleiflex, was introduced in 1957, it was then replaced by a black version in 1963.

This model helped kick-start a brief boom for 38 mm “super slides” whose slide mounts were the same external dimensions as 35 mm slides, but offering a larger image area, and inspired several Japanese lookalikes such as the Yashica 44 (which also came in grey).

One nice feature of the Baby Rolleiflex 4×4 is its coupled LV (Light Value) system. Aperture and shutter speeds are linked together, so a number of combinations of the two can be selected which will give the same effective exposure.

While over 65 000 of the grey version were produced, only 5 000 were delivered in black, making the black version a lot more attractive to collectors. Nonetheless, the grey remains the iconic version with its very distinctive look.