Rollei d30 metric (1998)

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Rollei, a camera company from Brunswick, Germany showcased an early prototype of the Rollei d24 flex at the Photokina 1998 show. The camera was more of a study for the FLEX series Rollei intended to market. From this series only the d7 flex and the d30 flex were actually marketed in 2000. The cameras were proudly labeled being the first DSLR's "made in Germany". The camera did not compress the images and stored them uncompressed on a wide variety of memory cards (maybe that's what FLEX stands for?) The camera supported Smart Media, Compact Flash and PC Cards for storage. Despite being a true DSLR camera it had no interchangeable lenses. The official explanation was "for quality reasons no interchangeable lenses to avoid dust settling on the imaging sensor".

The d30 metric version featured here was intended for police forces, coroners, crime scene and all sorts of measurement photography. The unique body design was unrivaled. CCD sensor, viewfinder and lens were manufactured into one unit! One of the biggest parts of the camera was the body compartment that housed 6 AA-batteries. The metric cameras became quite popular and Rollei spawned a whole series over the years. A special software was created that could deal with the data and even render a 3D-model. To use the camera one would take a series of 9 shots (3 x 3) with and without the flash and with measurement markers and scales.

Rollei offered a dedicated flash (f28) for the d-flex series. You can see it in the 360° shot. In the pictures above you can see such a calibration frame and a pictures of a dismantled Rollei d30. The camera itself was sold over a period of 8 years and was the longest running 1.4MP DLSR of all time.