Rolleiflex 6000 Series SLX, 6006, 6008, 6001, 6003, and AF: Identify and compare the models

Cover image: Eric Gaba (Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

You have a black 6×6 camera in front of you. It's heavy, it has a waist-level finder, and “Rolleiflex” is written on it somewhere. But which one is it? Between 1976 and 2015, Rollei built fourteen different bodies under the umbrella of the 6000 series, and the names only help so much. Almost fifteen years of development separate a 6008 Professional from a 6008 Integral 2. A 6006 and a 6006 Model 2, on the other hand, look almost identical from the outside but need fuses of different ratings: 0.8 amps for one, 1 amp for the other. Fit the wrong one and you put the electronics at risk.

The structure follows the order in which the questions usually come up. First you identify which camera you have in front of you. Then we compare what the individual models can do. But a comparison alone doesn't help anyone facing a concrete buying decision. That's why every chapter also tells you what to look out for: with the lenses, the magazines and when buying used.

A note on our own behalf

The biggest problem with the 6000 series is the power supply. None of these cameras will run without a battery, and tracking down a suitable battery is where most people get stuck. We have built our own solution for this. You should know that before you read Chapter 3.

Even so, this is not an advertorial. First and foremost, it's a guide for everyone who is interested in the Rolleiflex 6000 system and is just as big a fan of it as we are. That's why our own solution doesn't stand alone. On the battery question, we also name the workshops that replace cells, the ready-made replacement packs from other suppliers, the mains power route and what you can find on eBay and at resell services. In several places in this article, the better answer is simply a different one from ours.

The most important source first: By far the most thorough work on the 6000 series is the private reference site by F. W. Stutterheim, rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu. There you'll find the complete comparison tables for all models, data sheets, manuals and verified service addresses, all maintained and marked with the date of the last change. A large part of the technical information in this article comes from there. If you want to dig deeper, that's the place to go, not this page.

Table of contents

1. Which model do I have in front of me?
2. What the models can do: the comparison
3. Power supply: the biggest problem of the series
4. Lenses: HFT, PQ, PQS and what fits together
5. Magazines, backs and inserts
6. Buying used: checklist, prices, workshops
7. Digitizing 6×6

1. Which model do I have in front of me?

Let's start with the good news: in the vast majority of cases, the model name is written on the front. On the narrow plate below the waist-level finder, directly above the bayonet mount. It says “Rolleiflex SLX”, “Rolleiflex 6006” or “Rolleiflex 6008 professional”.

Photo: Eric Gaba (Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The model name sits in the same place across the whole family.

That usually settles the question. It gets interesting in the cases where the lettering isn't enough, and there are three of them.

Case 1: It only says “SLX”

The SLX was built in two series. The first ran from September 1976 to December 1979, the second from September 1978 to July 1985. Both are simply called “Rolleiflex SLX”; in the literature they are known as “Old Face” and “New Face”, or SLX and SLX 2.

In practice, you tell them apart by the serial number. The early SLX cameras carry a sequential seven-digit number from 4 800 000 to 4 808 000. Anything with a nine-digit number is a later camera, more on that in a moment.

Why this matters: the first series had documented electronics problems. Stutterheim puts it dryly: the examples that still work today are the good ones. An SLX that works flawlessly in 2026 has already made it through the selection.

Video: “Rolleiflex SLX and SLX2 Demo and Detailed Review”, TechHeritage. Shows both SLX series side by side and walks through the operation in detail.

Case 2: Two bodies, one name: 6006 and 6006 Model 2

The 6006 was built from January 1984 to April 1989, the 6006 Model 2 from April 1989 to January 1993. From the outside, the difference is subtle: the Model 2 lacks the mechanical cable release socket, but in return it can do multiple exposures.

This is not a detail just for collectors. The two need different fuses: 0,8 A for the 6006, 1 A for the Model 2. If you guess here, you risk the electronics. More on this in chapter 3.

Case 3: It says “6008 professional”, but which one?

Five bodies from seventeen years go by the name 6008. The lettering alone is rarely enough here. The sequence:

The most reliable single identifier is the viewfinder display. Up to and including the 6008 integral and 6008 E, the camera uses red LED digits. The 6008 integral 2 and the 6008 AF have an LCD panel that additionally shows the frame counter, metering mode and format orientation. Once you have looked through both, you will never mix them up again.

The trick that always works: read the serial number

From 1982 onwards, Rollei encoded its serial numbers. Nine digits, and they contain the year of manufacture down to the week. The scheme is simple once you have seen it.

Taking the number 004 230 028 as an example:

• Digit 1 plus 5 gives the last digit of the year of manufacture. Here 0 + 5 = 5, so a year ending in 5. You have to deduce the decade from the model; for a 6008 professional, only 1985 to 1992 is possible.
• Digits 2 and 3 are the index, i.e. the firmware version as shipped from the factory. Here 04.
• Digits 4 and 5 minus 20 give the calendar week. Here 23 minus 20 = week 3.
• Digits 6 to 9 are the sequential number within that week. Here number 28.

The full explanation can be found under Coded serial numbers on rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu.

The index is more than a footnote. Whether a 6008 integral accepts the rotating 4560 back depends on the firmware version, and on some cameras this was later upgraded in the workshop without the serial number changing. If you are keen on 4,5×6 in portrait orientation, ask the seller whether the back has ever run on that particular camera.

Telling the first generation from the second

If the lettering is illegible or the nameplate is missing, a look at two controls helps:

Where is the film speed dial? On the SLX, 6002, 6006 and 6006 Model 2 you set ISO/ASA on the body, using a knurled dial next to the waist-level finder. From the 6008 onwards the setting moves to the magazine, and the body no longer has such a dial. This reliably separates the two generations, even when nothing else is legible.

Photo: Eric Gaba (Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The round ASA/DIN dial sits on the body here, a feature of the first generation. Below it is the main switch with O for off, S for single frame and C for continuous.

The second feature is the action grip. With the 6008 professional and the 6008 integral it was included in the scope of delivery, with the 6003 and 6001 it was an accessory, and on the SLX, 6002 and 6006 it does not exist at all. So a body with the grip attached is never a first-generation camera.

Video: “Rolleiflex SLX / Serie II, a revolution in electronic 6×6 camera technology”, Dominik Meyer. A German-language look at why the SLX in 1976 was a break with everything that had defined medium format until then.

And the Hy6?

The Hy6 from 2007 onwards is often mentioned in the same breath as the 6000 series, but it is a separate line: developed by Franke & Heidecke together with Sinar and Leaf, designed for film and digital backs. It accepts PQ and PQS lenses, plus its own AFD lenses without an aperture ring, and conversely these do not fit any 6000 series camera, because the aperture cannot be set on the body there. So if you are looking for a 6000 series camera, you can mentally set the Hy6 aside. If you are planning to use digital backs, you should know it.

2. What the models can do: the comparison

All bodies share the same basic principle: 6×6 on 120 or 220 roll film, a leaf shutter in the lens, driven by a linear motor, electronically controlled from 30 seconds to 1/500 or 1/1000. Aperture and shutter are not cocked mechanically but driven by motor. Film transport is motorised, there is no crank. And without power, nothing moves at all.

The differences lie mainly in three things: what the camera meters, which automatic modes it offers and how fast it advances the film.

The view you have while taking pictures: the focusing screen in the waist-level finder, laterally reversed. This is exactly where the later models display their readings, up to the 6008 integral as red LED digits, from the integral 2 onwards as an LCD panel.

Compiled from the comparison tables Part 1 (1976–1993) and Part 2 (1988–2015) by F. W. Stutterheim. There you'll find around eighty more rows for each model, covering flash control, finder accessories, connections and remote releases.

What the table doesn't tell you

A few points that are easy to overlook when reading:

The 6001 is not a stripped-down 6008, it is a different camera. It has no light meter at all. No aperture priority, no shutter priority, no program mode, no spot metering; the only indicators in the viewfinder are battery status and flash readiness. It was intended as a studio camera, where you work with a handheld light meter and a flash system anyway. If you want to shoot outdoors, it's the wrong choice, no matter how cheaply it's offered.

Fewer models have multi-spot than you might think. The metering mode in which you take up to five individual readings and the camera averages them is found on the 6008 professional, 6008 professional SRC 1000, 6008 integral, 6008 E, 6008 integral 2 and 6008 AF. The 6003, in both versions, doesn't have it, even though it otherwise offers the same automatic modes.

The 6008 professional could do 1/1000 from the start. This is the most persistent misconception about the series. The name “SRC 1000” on the successor model suggests that the fast speed only arrived in 1993, but in fact the 6008 professional was already designed for it in 1988. The matching PQS lenses just weren't ready until 1990, which is why the speed was never engraved on the shutter speed dial. Beyond the “500” there are three unmarked detents. You can read about it on the lens page of rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu.

Camera and lens limit each other. What works in the end is always decided by the weaker link. A PQ lens on a 6006 can't do aperture priority because the camera doesn't have it. An old HFT lens on a 6008 integral can't do it either, because the lens lacks the aperture simulator. And on a 6001 nothing meters at all, no matter what's mounted on the front. If you have a particular automatic mode in mind, you need to check both sides.

Video: “Rolleiflex 6008 Review”, Nico's Photography Show. Walks through operation, metering modes and handling on the real thing, far more vividly than a table ever could.

What it feels like in practice

Volker Muth has written a detailed hands-on report on 35mmc. He shoots with a 6008 professional from 1988/89 and also owns a Hasselblad, but is keeping the Rollei.

His reasons: the waist-level finder preserves eye contact when shooting portraits, because there's no camera body in front of your face. The action grip turns the heavy box into a camera that works handheld. And he calls the Planar 2/110 the holy grail of medium format lens design. He doesn't gloss over the downsides: without power the camera is dead, and the used market is much smaller than for Hasselblad.

3. Power supply: the biggest problem of the series

An SL 66 is a mechanical camera with a light meter. A 6000 series camera is a computer with a bayonet mount. Shutter, aperture, film transport, mirror: everything runs on motors, everything depends on the battery. Without power you have a very nicely made paperweight.

And this is exactly where the problem lies when buying used: the battery is a Rollei system battery, a block that slides into the body from the left and whose outer side sits flush with the side of the body. It originally contained Sanyo NiCd cells. The last of these were fitted more than twenty years ago. Practically every original battery offered today is either dead or on its way there.

Photo: Eric Gaba (Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The system battery forms the left side of the body. Its outer side shows which fuse is inside.

The fuse: small, inconspicuous, expensive if wrong

The battery housing contains a glass fuse that protects the camera electronics. It's visible, and next to it, hidden between the cells, is a spare fuse that you can pull out by a plastic tab. The catch: not every model takes the same fuse.

Source: Power supply on rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu, specifications according to IEC 60127.

The label on the battery is no guarantee. The battery on the camera in the photo above reads “T 1,25 A slow acting”, but that camera is an SLX, for which the table specifies 0,8 A medium time-lag. Batteries move back and forth between bodies over the years, and the label describes the battery, not your camera. So always go by the camera model, never by what is printed on the battery.

The difference is not academic. A fuse that is too weak blows during normal operation. One that is too strong blows too late when a fault occurs and then takes the electronics, the transport motor or the linear motors in the lens with it; those are the repairs that make the camera an economic write-off.

Your options when the battery gives up

First: have the cells replaced. This is the classic route and the best one for many people. You send in an intact original battery housing and get it back with new cells, these days usually NiMH instead of NiCd, because they have no memory effect and deliver more capacity. Three addresses that have been doing this for years and are listed as verified on the reference page:

• Paepke-Fototechnik, Rather Broich 57, 40472 Düsseldorf. Formerly an authorised Rollei service centre, repairs Rollei products from 1960 onwards, converts system batteries from NiCd to NiMH and sells matching chargers. The owner is now Leonid Kopilevich.
• Wiese Fototechnik, Spaldingstraße 210, 20097 Hamburg. Also a former authorised Rollei service centre, converts the system batteries to lithium cells and offers the matching chargers.
• Ni Cd Services, 4 Queens Park Rd, Bournemouth BH8 9BP, United Kingdom, phone +44 1202 395404. Rebuilds Rolleiflex 6000 series batteries. No website, contact by phone.

Important: you need an undamaged battery housing. The cells fit tightly; if the new ones are even slightly too large, the housing bulges and no longer fits into the camera.

Second: buy a ready-made replacement pack. If you don't have a housing to send in, you can also go the other way round. Rolleiflex USA sells refurbished 6000 series packs with NiMH cells, currently for 225 US dollars. Accessory dealers are cheaper: akkuline.de offers cell replacement with NiCd industrial cells and also stocks ready-made packs, and Akkushop has a 9,6-volt cell block with 700 mAh for self-installation for around 60 euros, which matches the original design.

Third: buy used. System batteries and chargers regularly turn up on eBay and Kleinanzeigen, often in a bundle with a camera. The catch is the same as with the cameras: a battery that has been sitting for twenty years is very likely dead. “Untested” usually means exactly that in practice. Such listings are still useful, namely as a source for a housing that you then have re-celled. That way you pay for the shell, not for the cells.

Fourth: run it from the mains. Rollei built a Power Interface (order number 30 017) that goes into the compartment in place of the battery and connects to an external power supply: 12 to 18 V DC, at least 200 mA. For studio work this is often the most relaxed solution, because it takes the battery question off the table entirely. The interface turns up used on a regular basis.

Fifth: an adapter with modern cells. Instead of re-celling the original housing, you replace it with an insert that takes standard off-the-shelf batteries. This is the route we took ourselves. So feel free to read the next section with a critical eye.

Don't just solder lithium cells into the original housing. In his experience report on 35mmc, Volker Muth explicitly warns against unapproved lithium polymer cells in the Rollei system battery; in the worst case, the main board gets damaged. The reason is the voltage profile: the battery is designed around a NiCd characteristic curve, and lithium cells behave differently when charging and discharging. A conversion to lithium therefore belongs in the hands of a workshop that knows what it is doing (Wiese Fototechnik offers exactly that), or in a solution where the electronics take this into account. A soldering iron and three cells from the parts bin are neither.

What you can get wrong when charging

Over the years, Rollei built the G, N, C and D chargers. The point that surprises most people: The G, N and C units are designed for NiCd, not for NiMH. Only the Charger D, released in 2019, is made for NiMH. If you have your battery converted to NiMH and keep charging it on the old Charger N, according to Paepke you get to about 95 percent charge, and the unit switches off after one hour instead of at full charge. It works, but it is not what it says on the tin.

With the old Charger G, the discussion isn't even worth having; it is considered completely outdated.

Our own route and where it ends

For some years now we have been building a replacement for the system battery: an insert that takes three standard 14500 Li-ion cells with USB-C ports, backed by a high-current board that cleanly handles the current spikes when the motors start up. All three fuse ratings are included so you can fit the right one. We made the part because we couldn't find a usable solution ourselves.

Video: “The Rolleiflex 6008 Battery We Always Wanted, So We Built It (USB-C!)”, our own video, Ausgeknipst channel.

The honest caveat: the current version of the adapter is intended for the SLX, 6001, 6002, 6003 and 6006, not for the 6008 series, even though the video above has the 6008 in its title. On the 6008 professional, 6008 professional SRC 1000, 6008 integral, 6008 E, 6008 integral 2 and 6008 AF it does not run reliably, because these cameras draw the strongest current peaks in the range. We are working on a new version that should also run on the 6008. The 6001 RCC is a special case. Its electronics check the battery voltage differently, and historically there have been detection problems with Li-ion cells. We have not tested the current adapter on it ourselves. If you have one, write to us first and we'll talk it through before you spend any money.

And one more point that applies regardless of brand: You charge cells with their own USB-C port via USB-C, never in the Rollei charger. The charger is built for NiCd and has no idea what a lithium cell needs.

Video: “Rolleiflex SLX: Will a New Battery Revive This?”, Camera Talk. The reality check: what happens when you give a dead SLX fresh power, and what still doesn't work afterwards.

We wrote up the whole story behind the development, dead ends included, a while ago: The battery problem of the Rolleiflex 6000 series.

Battery adapter for Rolleiflex SLX, 6006 (USB-C) (from EUR 180,00)

4. Lenses: HFT, PQ, PQS and what goes together

All 6000-series cameras share the same Rollei bayonet with a ten-pin contact strip that carries aperture and shutter speed data. Mechanically, then, almost everything fits almost everything. What actually works is another question, and that depends on the lens generation.

Photo: Eric Gaba (Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. A Rollei-HFT Planar 2,8/80 without the PQ suffix, the first lens generation, built for the SLX. The Bay VI lens hood is fitted at the front.

The lenses were made by Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen and Schneider-Kreuznach in Bad Kreuznach, as well as by Rollei itself in Braunschweig under Zeiss licence. Zeiss designs manufactured by Rollei carry the lens name (Planar, Distagon, Sonnar) but not the Zeiss lettering. Almost all of them have the HFT coating, recognisable by the reddish reflection in the front element.

Based on the lens overview from rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu, which includes a list of focal lengths and filter details for every single lens.

PQS does not belong on an SLX, 6002 or 6006. The linear motors of the PQS lenses are the second generation and draw more power than the early bodies can supply. This is not a matter of convenience but one of design. If someone wants to sell you a PQS lens “suitable for the 6006”, that claim is wrong. The other way round, everything is relaxed: PQ and the old HFT lenses work on the later bodies without any problems, just with less automation.

Filters and lens hoods: Bay VI

The standard lenses of the 6000 series have the Bay VI bayonet mount at the front. This is the same mount as on the SL 66, and it is the reason why matching accessories are so often missing: Bay VI parts are not compatible with the Bay I, Bay II and Bay III mounts of the twin-lens Rolleiflex models. If you are coming from a TLR, you cannot bring your filter set along.

If you generally struggle with Rollei's bayonet jungle, we have untangled it completely for the twin-lens models: Overview of all lenses and bayonet mounts (Bay I, Bay II, Bay III).

In practice, Bay VI means: either you find original Rollei filters, or you fit an adapter to a common screw thread. 67 mm and 72 mm are the obvious sizes, because everything is available for them.

Filter adapter Bay VI to 67 mm (from EUR 34,95) · Lens hood Bay VI (40–60 mm) (EUR 34,95)

5. Magazines, backs and inserts

The film changing system of the 6000 series has three parts, and the terms get mixed up all the time. Sorted out in brief:

• The insert is the holder that takes the roll film and the empty spool. It has two diagonally arranged transport sprockets and can be turned around, so that with the next film the full spool becomes the take-up spool without being moved.
• The back stays on the camera. It has no dark slide, so you can only remove it once the film is fully exposed.
• The magazine has a built-in leaf-type dark slide and can be changed mid-roll. This lets you switch from colour to black and white without sacrificing the film you've started.

A peculiarity that sets the Rollei apart from Hasselblad and co.: the film plane lies in the camera body, not in the magazine. The magazines only have pressure plates. This also explains why the Film Stage, the removable film gate, is a separate component on the late bodies.

Photo: Eric Gaba (Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The SLX system taken apart: lens hood, Planar 2,8/80, film insert, body, system battery, back, strap ring, filters.

The compatibility question, answered briefly

This is the part where the most money gets burned when buying used. A magazine that doesn't fit is a paperweight.

According to the compatibility matrix on rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu, which also covers Polaroid magazines and 70 mm cassettes.

Magazin 6006 on a 6008 works, but there's a catch. With the Magazin 6006 the film speed is set on the body, with the Magazin 6000 on the magazine. Put a 6006 magazine on a 6008 and suddenly neither side has an ISO dial, so the system falls back to ISO 100. You can make up for it with exposure compensation, but it's hardly convenient. Magazines for the 6006 are labelled as such, the later ones bear the print “Magazin 6000”. Take a look before you bid.

The Magazin 4560 from October 1996 onwards is the special one in the system: 4.5×6 cm, and you can reposition it in its frame to switch between landscape and portrait format. Watch the description in the listing, as there was an older 4.5×6 back without this rotation feature. Only the parts actually marked “4560” can do it.

Video: “Rolleiflex 6008 || Film Loading”, Nico's Photography Show. Loading film step by step. Handy, because the 6000 series has no film sensor: you have to wind the film on by hand to the mark, and the motor does the rest.

What's typically missing when buying used

Cameras from estates and clear-outs rarely come complete. These parts have almost always gone missing, because they get taken off while shooting and then misplaced:

• Body cap and rear lens cap. Without them the bayonet is left open, not a good idea on a camera with a contact strip.
• Magazine cover. Protects the film gate side of the detached magazine.
• The latch on the magazine or waist-level finder. A small plastic part that tends to break after forty years. If the magazine door no longer closes securely, it is usually the culprit.
• Focusing screen cover for when the waist-level finder is removed.

Video: “Rolleiflex 6000 & SLX Door Latch Replacement”, our own video, Ausgeknipst channel. The swap takes a few minutes and only needs a Phillips screwdriver.

Without a magazine, the film gate is exposed. A rear cover belongs on it during storage.

Magazine back latch (EUR 34,95) · Magazine cover 6006 / 6008 (EUR 29,95) · Body cap SLX / 6006 / 6008 (EUR 25,95) · Focusing screen cover (EUR 34,95)

Focusing screens, by the way, are the one case where you don't have to send anything in: you can swap them yourself on all SLX and 6000 series bodies, and they are interchangeable between the Rolleiflex TLRs from the GX onward, the SL 66 and the entire 6000 family. If you're looking for a brighter screen, you'll find one at specialists such as Maxwell Precision Optics (Decatur, USA) or BrightScreen by Rick Oleson. Current contact details are listed on the service page of rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu, which notes when each entry was last checked. With small one-person businesses, that is more useful than a link that eventually leads nowhere.

6. Buying used: checklist, prices, workshops

You can no longer buy a 6000 series camera new; the factory has closed. That leaves the used market, and for this series it is small, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage: little choice, but also little room for fanciful prices.

Checking the camera

1. Does it run at all? Sounds trivial, but it's the key question. Without a charged battery, you can't judge anything. A seller who writes “untested, no battery available” is selling you a gamble, not a camera. Factor that into the price.
2. Run through all shutter speeds. From 30 seconds to the fastest speed, fire each one individually and listen. The leaf shutter sits in the lens and is driven electronically; uneven sounds or sticking blades are expensive.
3. Let the aperture work. Press the stop-down button and go through all values. The aperture has its own motor too.
4. Film transport without film. Single frame and continuous. A motor that stutters or clicks is a warning sign.
5. Check the fuse. Take the battery out, look at the fuse and compare it with the table in chapter 3. And check whether the spare fuse is still between the cells.
6. Contacts in the bayonet. The ten-pin contact strip transmits all data to the lens. Verdigris or bent contacts mean that automatic functions will fail sporadically.
7. Dark slide and latches. The blade-type dark slide must run fully, and the latches on the magazine and waist-level finder must engage securely.
8. Focusing screen and mirror. The mirror is semi-transparent so that the metering cells behind it receive light. Scratches or residue are more critical here than on a normal SLR.

The places where plastic gives way after forty years: latches, flaps, catches. They cost little and still decide whether the camera stays light-tight.

The 6008 AF is the special case. In 2002 it was the first 6×6 camera with autofocus and technically remarkable. But electronic circuit boards for it are no longer available today, so an electronics fault is, as a rule, the end. For the 6008 integral, the spare parts situation looks considerably better. If repairability matters to you, the AF is not the sensible choice, however tempting the autofocus sounds.

What it roughly costs

Snapshot as of 20 August 2026, seen on Kleinanzeigen.de. The market is thin and individual listings shift the picture quickly, so take the figures as a rough order of magnitude, not as a price list.

The pattern here is remarkable: a 6008 professional with a working battery can be cheaper than a 6006 with a lens, even though the 6008 is technically the considerably more capable camera. If you are flexible on the model, you will regularly get the better deal here. In any case, factor a battery rebuild or replacement into the purchase price; with a unit that has been sitting unused for twenty years, that is the rule rather than the exception.

We have collected general advice on buying used, what to look out for in listings, how to judge prices and which phrases are warning signs, here: Buying a used film camera: where to look, what to check, what to pay.

Who still repairs the series

This is the unpleasant part. Rollei is history, and there were never many technicians who would take on 6000 series cameras. The shortage of spare parts has pushed the number down even further. What is left:

Addresses and verification status: Service and repairs on rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu. The site notes for each entry when it was last checked, which is worth a lot in a field where workshops disappear.

For everything beyond the 6000 series, we maintain a directory of repair workshops for film cameras with a map and radius search, covering Germany and international locations.

Manuals and data sheets

Before you try anything, download the manual. For the 6000 series, the situation is pleasingly good:

• Downloads on rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu: brochures, data sheets, manuals, accessory lists, collected and sorted.
• Rolleiflex 6008 AF instruction manual (German, PDF) on cameramanuals.org.
• Butkus / Orphan Cameras, Rollei section, the big archive for camera manuals. It is funded by donations; if you download something there, you should leave a few euros.

7. Digitising 6×6

In the end, the exposed roll film is lying there and the pictures need to get onto the computer. For 6×6 there are three ways, and none of them is the clear winner.

Flatbed scanner with transparency unit. Cheap, slow, and with medium format not nearly as bad as often claimed, the large negative area forgives moderate resolution. Perfectly adequate for contact sheets and web resolution.

Service providers. Many labs scan the film right away when developing it. For the occasional roll film this is often the most sensible solution, because the cost of your own equipment only pays off beyond a certain volume. Where you can have your film developed is listed in our directory of film labs.

Photographing with a digital camera. Fast and high resolution, but it requires parallel alignment of sensor and negative, an even light source and a holder that keeps 6×6 flat. If you already own a digital camera and a macro lens, this is the route with the best result per euro.

The last route is the one we know best, so here is just a link instead of a sales pitch. We have described the complete setup, including the mistakes that commonly happen along the way, here: Scanning film with a digital camera, the complete guide. And if you get stuck on the alignment, there is a trick with a mirror: Aligning camera and film parallel.

In a nutshell

If you only take away three things from this article:

1. Identify the model by the lettering and the serial number, not by gut feeling. The differences between the 6006 and 6006 Model 2, or between the 6008 integral and integral 2, determine the fuse, magazine and lenses.
2. The battery is the real purchase decision. A body without power cannot be assessed, and practically every original NiCd battery is at the end of its life. Plan the solution in before you buy: cell replacement, mains operation or an adapter.
3. Check camera and lens together. PQS does not belong on the SLX, 6002 and 6006. And a 6001 does not meter ambient light, no matter what is mounted on the front.

If you have a 6000 and find something that is missing or wrong here: write to us. We will add it.

Further reading: the best source on the series is and remains rolleiflex6000.rolleigraphy.eu by F. W. Stutterheim, with complete comparison tables, lens lists, manuals and service addresses. If you want to know which flash system fits a 6003 or how many Distagon variants there were, you will find it there and not here.

Our own parts for the series: caps, latches, covers, Bay VI accessories and battery adapters can be found in our range. More guides on analogue photography are in the blog overview.

Sources

• F. W. Stutterheim: Rolleiflex SLX and 6000 System, comparison tables Part 1 and Part 2, Lenses, Power supply, Film changing systems, Service, Serial numbers
• Rolleiflex 6000 System, Wikipedia (English)
• Volker Muth: Rolleiflex 6000, a passionate review, 35mmc
• Rollei 6008 Professional Review, Casual Photophile
• Rolleiflex 6000 series / SLX, which one to get?, Photrio forum
• Price monitoring on Kleinanzeigen.de, as of 20.08.2026
• Claus Prochnow: Rollei Report 5, Rolleiflex SLX und 6000 Report, Lindemanns 2000, ISBN 3-89506-183-2