New Rollei compact camera launched, just don’t expect another Rollei 35 AF

The Rollei Powerflex X8 is now available, according to Photo Rumors; but anyone expecting something akin to the currently sold-out, Mint Rollei 35AF may be slightly disappointed. Whereas the latter is a modern recreation of the Rollei 35 series of film cameras, the Rollei Powerflex X8 is a standard fixed-lens digital camera.

Information, other than the camera’s specs, is thin on the ground, but I can only assume this is a similar case to some of the Yashica and Minolta cameras we’ve seen lately, whereby the Rollei name has been licensed and applied to the body of a fairly generic compact camera. Now, this is all perfectly above board; it’s just important to know that while this camera is Rollei in name, it probably doesn't feature Rollei's heritage.

The Rollei Powerflex X8 shares a similar form factor and spec list to other cheap compact cameras on the market. It’s built around a 1/2.8-inch CMOS sensor and claims to have 64-MP resolution. However, my instinct is to regard this in a similar way to camera phones with super-high resolution sensors, in that you can only expect so much from a smaller sensor.

The same can be said for the purported 5K / 25p video, with 4K maxing out at 30p and 1080p / 60p. There’s a built-in flash, which appears to be, rather unusually, positioned on the front of the lens. On that subject, the lens itself has an 8x optical zoom, delivering a zoom range of 38-310mm (35mm equivalent) and a variable aperture of f/1.8-2.6.

You’ll also find a selfie camera on the rear of the camera, which isn’t unusual for cheap compacts like this. It uses its own 1/3.06-inch CMOS sensor. The rear LCD is a 3.6-inch IPS touchscreen and appears to be fixed in place.

The camera has a single card slot, which takes class 10 U3 microSD cards of up to 64GB and has a USB-C port, presumably for charging. There’s also no mention of RAW shooting.

I’ve noticed that the camera is available now at Photospecialist for £251.99, where it’s said to come with a battery, various cables including a USB-A to microSD adapter, a wrist strap, neck strap and cleaning cloth.

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I saw these cheap compact cameras at the Photography & Video Show, clearly inspired by the retro camera craze. Plus, check out the Yashica FX-D 300 review and Minolta MND25 review.