Seagull 4B-1 Review: Pros and Cons
Pros and Cons
As with any camera, there are both pros and cons associated with this camera:
Pros:
—–inexpensive: I got mine for $125 new from a merchant on ebay
—–medium format: Larger negative size, much better resolution that a 35mm camera
—–multiple fomats: shoot either rectangular or square images in 6×4.5 or 6×6 format
—–twin lens reflex design: no camera shake from a spring action mirror like on SLR’s
—–fixed focal length lens: the Haiou SA 85 75mm f3.5 has greater resolution and is faster than many zoom lenses
—–all metal body construction: the only plastic parts on the camera are the focus knob, film advance knob and the back locking knob, the rest is solid metal.
—–no batteries: your camera will never run out of juice, only film
Cons:
—–seperate shutter cocking and film advancing levers: it can sometimes be easy to forget to advance the film before taking an exposure, resulting in double exposure
—–no built in light meter: for some this adds an extra piece of equiptment, a handheld light meter, to their camera outfit
—–leaf shutter: relatively slow shutter speeds, plus you cannot adjust the shutter speed once you have cocked the shutter
—–parallax error: although this is more uncommon unless you take very close up shots with your waist level viewfinder, or shots closer than 10ft with the “sports finder” this is a realistic concern
—–only takes 120 format film, not 220: 220 film gets twice as many pictures as 120, but the roll is roughly the same size mainly because of an absence of paper backing on the film. The most picures you can get from a roll of 120 film is 16 exposures.
—–medium format film processing: if you are the person who will only take your film to the pharmacy to be developed (you know who you are, I was once one of you) you will not like developing this film. Only specialty photolabs will develop medium format (even living in the image capitol of the world it took me a little time to find a lab that would develop my film) for those living in rural areas often times mailers are the best ideas. Processing medium format black and white film in the home darkroom is no harder than processing 35mm film, and may enlargers are medium format capable. You may need a different negative carrier or enlarger lens to do so.
—–quality control in manufacturing: for the price this camera is an excellent investment as a first step into medium format photography, however because the cost of the camera is relatively very low to other medium format cameras keep in mind that the quality control is not on the same levels as brands like mamiya, canon or nikon. If you search the web I’m sure you can find horror stories of consumers who purchased a defective seagull, but you can find such stories for any camera, a friend of mine had a brand new rebel 2000 die in his arms. In the same way, keep in mind that you are purchasing a camera from a foreign company, and that returning a defective seagull for repair will certainly not be as easy as going to canon to get your camera repaired.
Source: Photosig
Seagull 4B TLR Review
A TLR camera is an artwork all in itself. When I shoot with my beloved Seagull TLR 4B, it is a unique camera. When I don’t use it, it rests on my shelf as a unique decoration.
Seagull TLR cameras are made in Shanghai, China from the late 1950s to this day. Today, Seagull is one of the only two TLR brands that are still in active production, the other being Rolleiflex. Cheaper than its siblings, 4B is considered a basic and entry-level model for average consumers in the Seagull TLR line of production.
Traditional photographers may think 4B has got poorer optical quality and fewer features than other Seagull TLR models, such as the latest 4A 109. But hey, we are lomographers! When everybody else is trying to get rid of the “swirly bokeh” which 4B is famous for, I find I am crazily in love with it!
Using TLR camera gives you a totally different experience from a toy camera or a rangefinder. You set the aperture and shutter speed, look down in the viewfinder, moves to the left or right, compose the image, get it focused, cock and press the shutter… and voila! “Don’t think, Just shoot” rule does not apply here. The whole process takes a lot of time, patience and techniques. However, when you see the prints or scans, you will know that all your efforts are rewarded.
I got my brand-new dead-stock 4B from a friend of mine for only 250 yuan (around 35$). I did not know much about the correlation of aperture and shutter speed back then since this was my very first fully manual camera. I just followed the sunny-16 rule and my intuition when taking pictures. The camera has never failed to amaze me whether with slide, negative or b&w film! Take a look at the gallery and see for yourself.
TLRgraphy 