Edited by Ferdi Stutterheim
A number of people have been involved in collecting Rolleiflex serial number ranges. The most extensive and reliable list is by Prochnow. Please see the Books page. Peter Rongsted did a lot of work linking the camera names used by Prochnow, Parker and Evans. His list is not available anymore. The following chart is mainly based on Prochnow's and Rongsted's work. Like most serial number lists this chart may contain errors and now and then cameras pop up that do not "fit in". "Pr" refers to Claus Prochnow. "Pa" refers to Ian Parker, Complete Rollei TLR User's Manual, or earlier editions. "Ev" to Art Evans, Collector's Guide to Rollei Cameras. I have added recent information and the data are grouped by camera line rather than sequential by serial number. Numbers are printed with non-Anglo-Saxon "decimal points" instead of "commas". The original data-base used the decimal points and being of non-Anglo-Saxon background too I realised much to late that I should have changed this. Commas in numbers look silly anyway. :-)
In the camera industry it is common practise to allocate number blocks on based on production plans. As a consequence a serial number cannot be linked to a specific production day. Sometimes a production run is delayed and another run with higher numbers goes first. The production of the Rolleiflex 2.8 C with Xenotar started earlier than the 2.8 C with Planar although the second one has a block with lower number. The delivery of Planars from Oberkochen, may have been delayed.
For the time being this list is limited to the post-war Rolleiflexes. On one hand composing this pre-war part will be lots of work on the other hand I have no great affection for the pre-war cameras. I will take care of this in future. Special models like the "Philips oscilloscope" camera and the "Police" model are not separately listed.
This page was last updated by Webmaster on 22 February 2012.