Seagull 120 TLR
by Javier Henderson
Introduction
I've been thinking about getting into medium format for a long time. I've
owned 35mm
Canon cameras for about
twenty years, and a
Calumet Cadet for
almost two, and I'm pleased with the results I get from both. The grain-free
enlargements from 4x5 originals are great, and the convenience of autofocus 35mm
cameras is really nice, but I kept longing for larger negatives than 35mm without
the hassle of 4x5. Enter medium format.
After a few days of researching the subject, I found a few alternatives to
$20,000 Rolleis and decided to try Calumet's
$120 offering: the Seagul WWSC 120 TLR.
Easy enough to use
These days, unpacking and using an autofocus 35mm camera for the first time
can be daunting, even with entry-level bodies. The array of features is immense,
and the manuals are often lacking. In contrast, the Seagull is Just Plain
Simple:
- Open the camera, load film, close the camera
- Uncover the lens, unfold the viewfinder hood, compose, focus
- Adjust shutter speed, lens aperture
- Shoot, advance film
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Loading the film
There's a rotating knob on the bottom of the camera, the exercise is to rotate
it to the "O"pen position, and then opening the body. Load the film on the
bottom, thread it, insert the leader in the take-up spool, remove the slack and
advance it with the wind-up crank until the arrows on the paper backing align
with the markings on the body. Close the camera. No surprises here.
Composing and focusing
The viewscreen is fairly bright, and there's a built-in focusing loupe you can
pop-up and help you focus. There's also a split-prism focusing aid in the center
of the screen.
Using a waist-level finder was a new experience for me. I got used to it
fairly quickly, though I did have some surprise elements creep into the slide
that I did not see while composing the shot. This is because of parallax: the
viewing lens is slightly higher than the taking lens. With practice, however, you
can learn to correct for this limitation. You can use an eye-level finder after
focusing, basically, you put down the front side of the hood, and look through a
square opening on the rear side of the hood. The focusing knob is well dampened,
and it has the very useful DOF markings.
Taking the picture
The shutter goes from 1 second to 1/350, plus B, and since it's a leaf
shutter, sync is achieved at all speeds. There's a self-timer, and you can
screw-in a standard cable release. Neat feature: multiple exposures of the same
frame are possible.
The camera does not have a built-in light meter. I've been using my Minolta
Spotmeter F, and I shot a few frames following the Sunny/16 rule.
There's a hot shoe on the side, above the focusing knob, and a PC connector on
the front.
Unloading the film
Once you shot the last frame (you get twelve), you just keep on turning the
crank until you hear the rollfilm leave the original spool. Crank a few more
times, to be on the safe side, and open the camera. Moisten the paper leader,
attach it to the roll, and pull the roll off the camera. Then take it or send it
to one of the
labs recommended elsewhere in
this website, or your favorite pro-lab.
Sharp lens, too bad the vignetting
I hope some day to have some sample scans online, meanwhile, you'll have to
take my word for it: the lens suffers from severe vignetting from f3.5 to f5.6,
and moderate from f8.0 on. It's tolerable, particularly with print film, past
f16. However, I found the lens to be sharpest at f11, so if you like shooting
slide film, you'll have problems if your subject matter includes a lot of
uniformly lit surfaces near the edges (say, the sky on a landscape).
Film choices
The camera only accepts 120 format film, contrary to what's stated in the 1998
"Essentials" catalog from Calumet, which says it'll take both 120 and 220. The
number of available emulsions is higher in 120 format, but some people like
having 24 exposures per roll.
Summary: a good value
If you're looking for a new camera to get started in medium format, the
Seagull WWSC is a great value, at around $100 or so. I'm not aware of cheaper MF
cameras (I know about Holgas, but my definition of "camera" includes the term
"light-tight box"...).
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