I’m always intrigued when a new Rollei camera is announced, even in these digital days — my first camera was a Rollei twin-lens 2 1/4″ square, and it still remains my favorite.

Imagine my surprise then, when investigating the new Rollei da 6324 and finding it virtually identical in every visual respect to a point-shoot camera I bought recently.

The Advent MP8 is a very nice camera, made in China and, with 8 mega-pixels and many good features, a classy product for its price range (I paid £130 GBP).

The new Rollei da 6324 is identical, front and back, in a way that can’t be simple coincidence. The Advent does have a couple of extra megapixels and part of the lens spec differs too, but the case and presentation are the same.

Did Rollei go to China, pick out a nice camera, and rebadge it with the Rollei imprint?

I’d love to know. Just think, for the same price I could have sported a Rollei. Bah!

Rollei has announced the new 8 megapixel DA8324 digital camera. Features include, 3x optical zoom, 2.4 inch LCD, center weighted, plus spot metering, 32 MB of internal memory, and uses standard AA batteries.

Specifications:
8.0 Megapixels
Image resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels
JPEG format
32MB internal memory
Auto focus range 80cm in normal mode
Auto focus range 5cm in macro mode
Sensitivity range 50, 100, 200 ISO
Video clip resolution 640 x 480 at 30fps with sound
Secure Digital card for storage, support up to 1GB
Power source 2x AA format batteries
Dimensions 89 x 60.5 x 28.1 mm
Weight 140 g

I have to declare an interest here. Rollei is my absolute favorite cameramaker. Apart from a home-made pinhole box when I was five, my first real camera was a glorious Rollei, one of those legendary 2 1/4″ square jobs with two lenses, one above the other, and a look-down viewfinder. Everytime I went out with it, I felt like a press photographer.

Some years later, I came across a Rollei 35mm compact in a department store sale. It was made in Singapore (not its native Germany) and cost $35. With its famous Tessar 4-element lens it produced superb definition.

Anyway, enough of me. Here’s a new Rollei in digital mode (where’s my credit card?).

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