Medium Format on a Budget : TLRs
Karl Blessing  [February 1, 2006 2:24 am]

Seagulls

Seagulls are Chinese made TLRs that resemble a Yashica Mat, but with a Lubitel style shutter/aperture setting. They are probably not as nice as the Yashica, but they can be purchased new for about 250 USD at [a]http://shop.lomography.com/;lomography.com[/a]

Seagull's top-down viewer composes your shot while the high-contrast 75mm coated Haiou lens ensures a gorgeous image. Fully manual controls and a multiple exposure option allows for hands-on creativity. Includes strap and satin-lined gift box. Limited edition Red/Gold colorway is only available through lomography.com! Free shipment included.

Rolleis

If you did not mind to drop the extra coinage on a rollie, you can get some from KEH.com for as low as 190 USD in bargain condition. Most of them there will cost in excess of 300 USD to 900 USD. It's mainly the smaller models such as the baby 4x4, or the Rolleicord V that will have a cheaper price tag. Some of them do not take standard 120 rolls of film but rather 117 for example.

Like I said earlier, Rolleis are like the Rolyce Roys of TLRs, or the TLR Leica, your pick. They're great to shoot with, fine crafted camera, but at the same time you might be afraid to take it out too often worried about tarnishing it.

Kodak reflex/duaflex and Argoflex 75

These cameras you can find fairly cheap on eBay, one of the main reasons being is because they don't take the standard 120 or 220 rolls of film. Rather they take a Kodak 620 roll that is no longer made. The film is the same as a 120 roll, but it would be a matter of rolling the film off a 120 spool and placing it onto a 620 spool. There are some services online that can do this for you or sell you pre-made 620 rolls. You can expect to find these cameras quite easily for under 100 USD on eBay, but I would much rather pay the 30$ to get a lubitel that takes standard rolls than to hassle with 620s. For those who wish to respool there is a how-to located on a newer article Here.

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