With the war, demand increased to the point where Franke had to reconnect with his old company and start to offer products built by Voigtländer. Franke’s skills in sales and connections within the German optics industry earned him contracts with the German military. whose products were mainly rifle scopes, microscopes, and binoculars.
Shortly after, Paul Franke would form his own company called Franke & Co. A large number of Géhard’s sales went to other European countries and the United States, and with the start of the first World War in 1917, the company’s sales would come to a halt, causing the company to quickly go out of business, leaving Franke unemployed. Paul Franke was an excellent salesman and would quickly learn the business of exporting and in 1912 would leave the company to work for a rifle scope company called Géhard, likely in some type of sales role. In 1909, an intern named Paul Franke worked in sales for Voigtländer where he would start to develop connections within the German photo industry. Rudolph Heidecke (left) and Paul Franke (right), both former Voigtländer employees would later found the company responsible for the Rolleiflex. Heidecke was an excellent designer, and in his new role he would help Voigtländer with many of their early folding camera designs. Upon his return to Voigtländer, he would be promoted to a production manager. Between the years of 19, he would temporarily step away from the company to serve in the German military. On January 10th, 1900, Voigtländer would hire a 20 year old mechanic named Reinhold Heidecke who worked in the company’s factories as a designer. I’ve covered these early days of the company’s history before if you’d like to read more, but for this part of the story, we’ll start in the early 20th century around the time Voigtländer had made a serious push into producing their own cameras. Voigtländer is the oldest name in photography, having existed as far back as 1756 in Vienna, Austria. To fully understand how the Rolleiflex and it’s parent company, Franke & Heidecke came to exist, we need to talk about Voigtländer. This review is about the Rolleiflex Standard K2, one of the earliest models in the Rolleiflex lineup, but it’s story begins with a completely different company than the one who built it. +1 for historical significance, not the first, not the best, but one of the most unique cameras ever made Although it lacked many of the features that later Rolleiflexes would come with standard, it was still a very well built and innovative camera upon it’s release, and remains one of the most collectible cameras ever made. This was the first Rollei to use 120 roll film, have a film advance lever, and a removable back. Offering a large number of upgrades from that earlier model, the “Old Standard” was the model that elevated Franke & Heidecke to one of the most highly respected camera manufacturers of the 20th century. The Rolleiflex “Old Standard” K2 Model 622 is a handful of a name for what was the followup to the original Rolleiflex TLR. Viewfinder: Coupled Reflex Viewfinder with Ground Glass and Spirit Level Focusing Screen Lens (viewing): 7.5cm f/3.1 Heidoscop-Anastigmat uncoated unknown elements Lens (taking): 7.5cm f/3.5 Carl Zeiss Tessar uncoated 4-elements
It was the first camera made by Franke & Heidecke to garner worldwide attention and set the standard for what a Twin Lens Reflex camera should be.įilm Type: 120 Roll Film (twelve 6cm x 6cm exposures per roll) The very next model that replaced it was also called the Standard, so as a result, has earned the nickname as the “Old Standard” although that never appeared in any promotional material at the time. This model was the first revision to the original Rolleiflex from 1929 and upgraded the camera with several significant features, including support for 120 format roll film instead of 117 roll film, a film rewind crank, sports finder, removable back, exposure counter, support for 35mm film, and an optional f/3.5 Tessar and Compur-Rapid shutter. This is a Rolleiflex Standard K2 Twin Lens Reflex medium format camera, built by Franke & Heidecke Brunswick between the years 19.