Back from the dead - Seagull 203

I’ve had plenty of good luck buying “untested” cameras on eBay, but that luck ran out with the purchase of the Seagull 203!

The Seagull 203 is a Chinese folding rangefinder for 120 film, produced from 1964. It features a coupled rangefinder and a leaf shutter with speeds of 1s-1/300th second.

My particular example was disgusting!

After an initial inspection there was a whole list of problems:

The front folding door didn’t close, the shutter didn’t work, the lens was not clear, the winder didn’t work, the rangefinder patch was not visible, there was glue on the top plate and it was filthy inside and out and smelled really bad. The front leather looked mouldy.

I was hoping to receive it working and just give it a clean, but no such luck. With nothing to lose the decision was quickly made to strip it down and see if I could at least get it working. Starting a good wipe down with warm soapy water to make it feel safe to touch!

First job was the front door, the problem was simple - the pin had come out of it’s hole, so a simple fix.

Next the top cover was removed and all mirrors cleaned, and whilst it was off I discovered a previous owner had glued the winder on! This glue easily picked off, but the residue on the top plate was a bit more stubborn.

This is where things get a bit more tricky! With the lens/shutter assembly removed and some poking about with a small screwdriver to try to understand how it operates, it appeared the self timer was cocked and stuck. This was released with some more poking, and voile the shutter fired. Whilst it was in bits, it was a good opportunity to give everything a good clean including the glass lenses, oily shutter blades and inside the body whilst the bellows could be pushed back in.

Now happy that the speeds sounded correct and it was firing every time, the re-assemble process could begin. With a memory like a Goldfish, I photograph the disassembly to make life a little easier. Unusually no screws were left over once it was all put back together, which is always a bonus!

Seagull 203

And there it is - not quite in it’s formal glory, but working.

What I thought was mould on the front turned out to be the residue of the glue that secured the leather panels, which were in fact missing. I did consider replacing the leather, but frankly I will probably mess it up, and they wouldn’t match the rest of the camera.

Now for a real test with some fresh Ilford HP5…

Seagull 203 -Ilford HP5

Out of the 12 shots, only the ones in bright daylight came out ok - the first half was shot in a woodland with slower shutter speeds and were a bit rubbish.

This tree was shot at 1/300th @ f22 and there is some serious drop off of sharpness away from the centre of the image. To be honest I was expecting it to be better.

Seagull 203 - Ilford HP5

This scene was 1/300th @ f16 and again only a small portion of the image is relatively sharp.

To some up, I am happy I managed to fix it, but will not be using it again! The weird synchro lock for shutter speed and aperture is rather annoying, the images are not great and the rangefinder patch was still barely visible so had to zone focus.

So time to let the Seagull fly free, off to the pages of eBay to find it’s next new home…