David Overton Photography

This 1963 Seagull 203 was unused in the box when I bought it a few years ago.  It is very similar to the Agfa Isolette III and even has a coupled rangefinder.  The lens however, is a multicoated 3.5/75mm triplet design similar to the Agfa Apotar rather than the sharper Solinar 4 element lens found on many Isolette IIIs.  You can get sharper images if you shoot at f16 or f22.

While the fit and finish of this camera is not as nice as many European folders, the rubberized bellows is superior to the paper-like bellows on the Agfas.  It shoots 12 6x6cm images on 120 roll film and has a built-in mask that allows 16 6x4.5cm in a vertical image.  Winding the film is done with an advance lever, but you still have to look through the little red window on the back to line up your frames.  There is no flash accessory shoe, but it does have PC socket on the lens and the leaf shutter will sync at any speed.  The later model Seagull 203-1 does have a hotshoe.

If you are not fanatical about lens sharpness and are considering a medium format folding camera this camera might be worth a look as almost all old Agfas will need to have the bellows replaced and the lenses usually need to be disassembled to clean dried up grease from the focus threads and these repairs can be expensive.

Pros: coupled rangefinder, durable bellows, depth of field scale printed on front of lens, ability to shoot 12 or 16 pictures.

Cons: triplet lens, possible shoddy craftsmanship, no accessory shoe.