5 Frames on the River Severn with a Rolleiflex 2.8C

Last summer I met a friend I hadn’t seen for many years, and we visited a couple of places on the eastern banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire.

I took my Rolleiflex 2.8C (model K7C) with me which I’d bought online during 2020, loaded with Kodak Portra 400 120 film. I took a punt on it as the photos in the listing were awful, but the camera turned out to be in excellent condition. The model was first released in late 1952 and remained in production until 1955 with more than 30,000 cameras made during that time.

The 2.8C was initially supplied with a Schneider Kreuznach Xenotar 80mm f/2.8 lens, though from 1954 it was fitted with the Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8. It is the last Rolleiflex TLR to have a ten bladed aperture, giving a more rounded shape to defocused area in the image than the five-bladed apertures used on subsequent models and is sought after because out-of-focus areas and highlights are rendered as round rather than the more distracting pentagon shape.

The 2.8C sometimes divides opinion with a couple of ‘quirks’ that affect the operation of the camera, the first being the interlocks above the shutter speed and aperture controls.

These need to be pressed before the aperture or shutter speed can be changed and were designed to stop the settings being inadvertently changed. Another important thing to learn early on is that the shutter speed can only be changed before the Syncro Compur MXV CR0 shutter is wound on – once the shutter is cocked changing the shutter speed can damage the mechanism. It also features ‘continental’ shutter speeds – 1 sec, ½, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/250 and 1/500. The gaps between the increments increase as you turn towards the faster speeds. The subsequent 2.8D was fitted with a newer Synchro-Compur with evenly spaced speeds and EV scale facility.

John Phillips, in his definitive book ‘The Classic Rollei’ (ISBN 978-1-90667-293-5) published in 2010, states: ‘A high proportion of the relatively modest production run of 30,000 were sold to professionals. As a consequence, examples in excellent condition are hard to find. The fussy hood and milled locks below the taking lens make this one of the least attractive of the Rollei TLRs.’

Our first stop was at Sharpness Docks which links the River Severn to the Gloucester – Sharpness Canal and a quick walk around the picnic area that overlooks the breakwater and entrance to the ‘new’ dock. Last year marked its 150^th anniversary in 2024 – there had been a dock in Sharpness since the early nineteenth century, but the New Dock was able to accommodate larger ships that were coming into service at the time.

Later we headed south to Aust Service Station, just off the M48 Severn Bridge, and walked to the viewing point. It was originally opened in 1966 and carried traffic between England and Wales on the new M4 motorway.

The building was the original service station but was converted to offices in the 1990s when traffic declined, and now stands empty, though there are plans to convert it into a centre for disabled children, providing play facilities.

The original Severn Bridge was opened by the late Queen Elizabeth II who unveiled a commemorative stone, still in place at the viewpoint overlooking the bridge, but it has since fallen victim to vandalism. The road was renamed as the M48 when the Second Severn Crossing opening in 1996 – that becoming the M4.

Prior to the opening of the original Severn Bridge, getting from England to Wales would have involved a more than 50 mile road journey to Gloucester or a trip on one of the car ferries that from Aust to Beachley on the East side of the river. Bob Dylan was famously photographed on the Aust ferry slipway by Barry Feinstein in 1966 on his infamous ‘Judas’ tour of the UK. The ferry service ceased in September 1966 following the opening of the bridge.

Since then, increasing amounts of traffic meant a second Severn bridge was opened in the mid-1990s, a more modern design that is less likely to be closed when the fierce winds of the Severn Estuary strike.

I couldn’t see much difference between the performance of the 2.8C and my much later (1979) 2.8F – the last of the classic Franke and Heidecke cameras – also equipped with a Xenotar 80mm f/2.8 lens. Maybe the 2.8C has been judged too harshly?

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