Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
When I was a teenager, I got hold of an old issue of Modern Photography that had an article about the Chinese camera industry. It might have been written by Jason Schneider, but I can't remember for sure. Might have been Herbert Keppler.
The magazine was from 1985, long before Japanese companies began making their products in China. The Chinese camera industry made stuff just for their domestic market, and the article ridiculed the poor quality, rough finish, and primitivity of the cameras, which were copies of obsolete 1960s-era Japanese cameras. There was a folding 6x6 rangefinder, a compact 35mm fixed lens rangefinder (like a Canonet or Minolta HiMatic), a 6x6 TLR and a 35mm SLR. The TLRs were later marketed worldwide by the Chinese, but the other cameras were not and are not well known in the west.
I remember the description of the 35mm SLR, which was called the Seagull DF-1. It said something like "Have you ever dreamed of shooting a poorly finished, clunky, barely functional meterless manual 35mm SLR? The Seagull DF-1 is for you!" The camera was actually a crudely made copy of an early Minolta, like a SR-2. Even had the Minolta lens mount and came with a 50mm f2 lens that looked to copy the external appearance of a Minolta lens.
Back in 2003, I saw one of these Seagull DF-1 cameras for sale cheap on eBay from an American seller, so I bought it just to play with! Here it is:
Interestingly, the lens on mine looks to have copied its external appearance from a Pentax M-series lens!
The camera lived up to the magazine article's description. It was crudely made, poorly finished. The shutter release is hard to press (the article mentioned that) and the camera fires with a loud jarring CLUNK and practically jumps in your hand from the vibration! Using a soft release makes it a lot easier to press the shutter button smoothly.
Interestingly, the lens is VERY good! The two photos below are ones I made with it back in 2003. The kid in the pics is my son, who just graduated from college. He was six years old in these photos.
This was shot wide open at f2 and 1/30 of a second according to my notes. It is a little soft but not bad. His eyelashes are pretty sharp in the fullsize scan.
This one is much sharper. My notes don't say what aperture, but I'm guessing probably something like f11 based on the depth of field. This one is tack sharp.
I found the camera on my shelf last week and decided to run a roll of film through it. The images impressed me, very sharp. I haven't had time to scan the new ones yet, but will post them in a couple days.
I don't think I'd use the camera all the time, I suspect it would not hold up to heavy use. Its a fun toy to play with every once in a while though!
The magazine was from 1985, long before Japanese companies began making their products in China. The Chinese camera industry made stuff just for their domestic market, and the article ridiculed the poor quality, rough finish, and primitivity of the cameras, which were copies of obsolete 1960s-era Japanese cameras. There was a folding 6x6 rangefinder, a compact 35mm fixed lens rangefinder (like a Canonet or Minolta HiMatic), a 6x6 TLR and a 35mm SLR. The TLRs were later marketed worldwide by the Chinese, but the other cameras were not and are not well known in the west.
I remember the description of the 35mm SLR, which was called the Seagull DF-1. It said something like "Have you ever dreamed of shooting a poorly finished, clunky, barely functional meterless manual 35mm SLR? The Seagull DF-1 is for you!" The camera was actually a crudely made copy of an early Minolta, like a SR-2. Even had the Minolta lens mount and came with a 50mm f2 lens that looked to copy the external appearance of a Minolta lens.
Back in 2003, I saw one of these Seagull DF-1 cameras for sale cheap on eBay from an American seller, so I bought it just to play with! Here it is:
Interestingly, the lens on mine looks to have copied its external appearance from a Pentax M-series lens!
The camera lived up to the magazine article's description. It was crudely made, poorly finished. The shutter release is hard to press (the article mentioned that) and the camera fires with a loud jarring CLUNK and practically jumps in your hand from the vibration! Using a soft release makes it a lot easier to press the shutter button smoothly.
Interestingly, the lens is VERY good! The two photos below are ones I made with it back in 2003. The kid in the pics is my son, who just graduated from college. He was six years old in these photos.
This was shot wide open at f2 and 1/30 of a second according to my notes. It is a little soft but not bad. His eyelashes are pretty sharp in the fullsize scan.
This one is much sharper. My notes don't say what aperture, but I'm guessing probably something like f11 based on the depth of field. This one is tack sharp.
I found the camera on my shelf last week and decided to run a roll of film through it. The images impressed me, very sharp. I haven't had time to scan the new ones yet, but will post them in a couple days.
I don't think I'd use the camera all the time, I suspect it would not hold up to heavy use. Its a fun toy to play with every once in a while though!
