Seagull TLR problem

[Minoxit]

Hi all,

 

I have a Seagull TLR camera,6x6,type 4A,1:3,5/75 HAIOU-31 lens.The camera has

been in my possession from some time now.First film came out completely

blank(transparent),with only one frame at the end of the negative that I could

use.I thought it was me,doing something silly,what with not being accustomed to

MF techniques and all.However,I shot another film today and the film came out

blank as well,with only one frame visible!I checked again the

camera,f-stops/shutter/apertures,all is clicking fine,the speeds seem OK,etc.

 

I am completely confused as to what the heck can be to problem here.The box is

light tight,otherwise my film would have been fogged or worse.I thought it could

be the shutter or the settings...nope,they seem to work fine.The only thing I

can think of right now is that I am doing something wrong when cranking up the

film:I rotate the crank lever for the film advance,of course...now,if I rotate

until the frame has been loaded and then try to trip the shutter,it doesn't

release!If I load the frame AND crank back for half a turn(the lever will stop

after half a countercranking),then the shutter trips.I guess this "Crank back"is

tensioning the shutter,but I have no idea if I am right or wrong.Anyway,this is

my predicament with a prety decent camera that it just became a doorstop of choice!

 

If anyone out there has any advice on this,or wishes to enlighten me as to a

possible reason and/or method to repair this camera,please do so!Your help would

be much appreciated!

 

Best regards,

[graybrick]

After firing the shutter, you crank half a turn forward till it stops to advance the frame (you should feel some tension here), and half a crank back to the original position to cock the shutter (no tension, with a tiny ratcheting sound as the shutter tension builds). There is a multiple exposure button by the lever, too, which will allow you to cock the shutter by rotating the crank back one full turn- handy because you should store the camera with the shutter uncocked. As for why your film is coming out blank, I'm not sure. Are you loading it correctly? Are you sealing the roll after you finish to prevent light exposure? I've had pleasing results with my Seagull so far. You may be able to find an illustrated manual online somewhere... if you have one of those rolls intact, too, you might try loading the camera with a dead roll and leaving the back open to assure that your winding is actually doing something back there. Good luck.

[Minoxit]

grayson,thanks for your input,much appreciated.Yes,I do load in low light(especially the >200 film),make sure the roll is intact and well wrapped for storage or to go into the black bag for reel loading),all this I do and more.Now,what springs into mind now is that the film I have comes from old stock from a fellow police officer in the forensic dept.This film is rather old(exp around 97 or so).Could be the film?Never crossed my mind,although I should've know better!Nevertheless,I just gonna give one more try:I just loaded the camera with a fresh(in date)Kodak Portra 400 and shoot it at 320.This should do the trick in clearly pointing the finger to the problems!

 

I just hope it is not the camera...looks lovely and to be honest,I would prefer to use it with results every now and then.I know I should get a Rollei or at least a Yashica TLR for decent results,but there you go...

 

anyhoo,thanks very much for your thoughts on this,much appreciated!

 

regards,

 

JT

[CosteaM]

Iulian, I have one of these too; actually I kept my first 6x6 TLR from the early '80 that was available back home. What you describe seams strange, Grayson is correct as far as the handling goes so I only hope the problem comes from the old expired film (bad carma my friend, it comes from the forensic....). Please show us some pictures if you have it going. All the best,

[clintock]

That is a strange problem there. On one of my seagull cameras, I noticed the shutter blades had a bit of oil on them, making the shutter slow to close at times. I fired it a few dozen times and it works fine now. Perhaps your shutter was not quite closed all the way, and maybe did work ok for one shot? Something easy to check anyway.

Good luck!

[jpictures]

I have a Seagull 4A. I also noticed that if the self time is not placed correctly at the end of its path your shutter will not open. I had a completely empty film because of that.