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2026-10-14 Rollei Beta 5 Flash

    The Rollei Beta 5 flash was made in Singapore, starting in March of 1981. By the time production ended in the middle of the same year 4500 units had been made. If you think that production was small, the following Beta 6 flash numbered 500 and the Beta 5F only numbered 250. The Beta models numbered 1-4 had all been made in Japan.
    Rollei went bankrupt in the middle of 1981.
    I had seen a Beta 5 at a meeting of the Edmonton Photographic Historical Society years ago. I remember from that meeting it was an astounding flash for many reasons. 






    
    Some other flash have adopted the slanted position of the Beta 5, but I suspect the Beta 5 started the trend. As you can see the flash is positioned almost exactly over the lens—not the body. This can have implications over the projection of the shadows and the coverage of the flash’s beam I won’t expand on, but is a detail worth noting.











    It isn’t immediately apparent, but the flash swivels on its hot shoe. Even more clever the automatic flash sensor also automatically swivels to always point at the subject.














    The sensor is located at the extreme right facing the flash at the bottom level with the “Rollei” above the hot shoe mount.







    From the back the hot shoe mount has a white line that aligns with a reference white square on the flash body. If you press the large black button labelled “L” (for lock) on the body above the hot shoe you can turn the flash to the right as far as you have seen earlier.







You can turn the flash 90º to the left. Of course you can also tilt the “N” reflector up and continue tilting until the flash tube is facing backwards. The reason the reflector is marked  “N” is because there were three reflectors marked Wide, Normal and Telephoto.   
Wide-angle / Telephoto Reflector Set: 

Wide-angle reflector with 46º x 65º angle of illumination, specially designed for use with wide-angle lenses up to an angle of view of 65º
Telephoto reflector with 18º x 30º angle of illumination, specially designed for use with tele-photo lenses up to an angle of view of 30º.
There was a fourth reflector for portrait shots
Rolleiflector 2: Folding reflector with 35º x 35º angle of illumination, for telephoto lenses up to an angle of view of 35º, specially designed for portrait shots.

    Then there were a set of filters that clipped over the almost bare tube exposed when the reflector heads were slipped off. 
Creative set: Special bounce dome reflector with seven interchangeable adaptor screens for special effects, macro shots and "phantom" color effects.
    It is reported all the accessory flash modifiers are pretty rare.


Computer flash unit with programmable digital calculator, rational power regulation and LED displays ; interchangeable swiveling reflector, Iockable rotating mounting foot linked to swiveling sensor, flash operation also possible without reflector; ready light, computer test signal, positive / negative exposure override with LED display, Eight programmed apertures from f/1.4 to 16 at 100 ASA, switchable automatic or manual operating mode.

Guide number* ** for 100 ASA / 2I DIN : 112 feet/34 m
power supply by 4 x 1.5V alkaline manganese batteries, type AA
or 4 x 1.2V nickel cadmium accumulators, type AA; 
Recycling time
with batteries 0.9-10 sec
with accumulators 0.9-6 sec
Flash capacity 
with batteries 100-700
with accumulators 60-450
Flash duration  1/500-I/50,000 sec
Angle of illumination approx. 35º x 45º
Duration of display indication approx. 7 sec;

Calculator input /display indication 
25 -800 ASA
f/16, 11, 8, 5.6, 4, 2.8, 2, 1.4
3-265 feet
Color temperature corresponding to average daylight 5500 K
Dimensions 153 x 87 x 58 mm (6.02 x 3.43 x 2.28 in.)
Weight less batteries /accumulators 410 g (14.46 oz.) 
 
* depending on working mode and subject distance
**with normal reflector

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