Bummer!

Mats_A · Apr 3, 2010

My Rolleicord is away having its film advancement mechanism fixed. A beautiful day so I decided to thaw some HP5+ and give the Seagull one more go.
Flip open the hood, focus......... And I'm holding one piece of focusing wheel in my left hand while the rest of the camera is in the right.

The Seagull is now retired at the ripe old age of 3 months. Some die young.
I counted the number of empty spools. 10 of them in a neat row. One Seagull at $130 divided by 10 rolls comes to $13/roll. A Rollei single-use camera costs about the same.

So at the moment I have no other film camera available except the old ICA folder. I guess I will be practicing LF until the Rollei is back.

r

Mats

tony lockerbie · Apr 3, 2010

Poor old Seagull! Of course here in Australia, the Seagulls just steal your fish and chips and poop on your car. Maybe the Gods of silver halide are telling you to get that Rolleiflex 2.8 F

mrred · Apr 3, 2010

Are they really that bad?

Mats_A · Apr 3, 2010

mrred said:
Are they really that bad?

Well my experience with Seagull cameras is not wast. Exactly one data point to be precise. But let's say I don't think you will find many 50 year old Seagulls still working as opposed to the Rolleis.

r

Mats

stillsilver · Apr 3, 2010

Superglue the knob back on or use a pair of needle-nose pliers to focus with.
Of course, LF is a great thing also.

Mike

benjiboy · Apr 3, 2010

shimoda said:
Well my experience with Seagull cameras is not wast. Exactly one data point to be precise. But let's say I don't think you will find many 50 year old Seagulls still working as opposed to the Rolleis.

r

Mats

I'm sorry to hear about your problem, but console yourself with the fact that it could be worse, at least your not an astronaut in the Chinese space programme

JNaetke · Apr 3, 2010

I can't speak for premium quality regarding the seagulls, but I guess sometimes one picks up a good model, like I did.
apart from the focusing scale being off (which I corrected with some handiworks), everything still works nicely after about 60 rolls, even after lots of bad weather conditions and some rough handling (not by me)...
I don't shoot it anymore tho.
it is also a rather old build.

mhcfires · Apr 5, 2010

My 1939 Rollei Automat is still working. It has a few problems, but no light leaks, the film advance is working properly. I only wish it has flash sync, but I can live without it. I do have a couple of Mamiya TLR's, a C33 and C330, but they are like bricks next to this old gem.

chris00nj · Apr 5, 2010

My 1955 Rollei Automat is still working. It's flash sync doesn't always fire or fire in-sync, so I don't use it.

Quality control in China is slim to none. It's gotten better over the years. I'm sure the earlier ones are complete garbage. I'm sure there are several people who love their Seagull's. It's just hit and miss. I'd personally rather have a Rollei, a Zeiss Ikoflex, a Voigtlander Brilliant, a Minolta Autocord, a Mamiya, a Yashica Flex, or a Ciroflex. Basically anything besides a Lubitel.

Bummer!

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