Seagull (海鸥) 4B-1
A Rolleiflex-inspired twin lens reflex (TLR) from Shanghai.
Seagull 4B-1 with 75mm f/3.5 Haiou lens. (Photo made with a Nikon F, 55mm f/3.5 Micro-Nikkor-P.C, and Portra 400.)
The Forbidden City
I was in the Forbidden City in Beijing in the 1990s. There were stands that rented out cameras — twin lens reflexes. Sadly, I didn’t rent one and I didn’t note the brand name. In later years, the camera rental stands had gone.
I purchased this Seagull TLR recently. It reminds me of that trip.
Kema by Kenaki restaurant Potomac, Md. Seagull 4B-1, 75mm f/3.5 Haiou, FP-4+, 2025.
20th century Chinese cameras
The camera manufacturing industry of 20th century China produced a variety of products some of which were copies of foreign cameras such as the screw mount Leica, Agfa Isolette, Rolleiflex, various Japanese cameras, and others. There was even a limited-production Hasselblad 500C copy called the Dong Feng (‘East Wind’). It was made around 1970 and one of them sold at auction a few years ago in Vienna, Austria for €66,000 (Leitz Photographic Auctions, 2013).
Chinese cameras were given evocative, poetic names. There was the Heavenly Pond, East Wind, Purple Mountain, Great Wall, Rainbow, Red Flag, Red Plum Blossom, Peony, July First, Great Leap, Sparkling and Transparent, and more.
Unlike in Germany and Japan, the camera factories were distributed around the country with main facilities in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Tianjin plus others in Chongqing, Wuhan, Qingdao, and elsewhere. The Seagull was made by the Shanghai Camera Factory.
(Source for this section: St. Denny, 1989.)
Plants in the window Seagull 4B-1, 75mm f/3.5 Haiou, FP-4+, 2025.
The Seagull
I’m intrigued by classic Chinese film cameras, and decided to add one to my inventory. As a fan of manual cameras, I was delighted to find a Seagull twin lens reflex model that had more manual functions than usual:
Knob wind (no crank).
Manual shutter cocking (separate from the film advance).
Red window to manually gauge film advancement (no automatic frame spacing, no frame counting mechanism).
There are newer Seagull TLRs that have the usual modern provisions for those functions, but I like the older, mechanically simpler design. The Seagull is my newest camera and I put its first roll of film through it with no issues. The camera operates smoothly and the focus screen is bright and easy to use. It seems to be an excellent camera, I like it.
Style
This camera has a lot of style because on the nameplate, instead of the usual Roman lettering, there is 海鸥 — Seagull in Chinese characters. And it’s not in standard print form, it’s in a more flowing cursive style.
Maintenance and repair
I purchased this in early 2025 — no maintenance yet.
References / further reading
Leitz Photographica Auction, Vienna. Auction 24 (Nov. 2013), Lot 606. East Wind / Dong Feng 'Hasselblad Copy', manufactured c.1970.
McKeown, J.M. and J.C. 1996. McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 1997-1998. Grantsburg, Wis.: Centennial Photo.
This has a sparse entry for the Seagull. Only the model 4 is noted and the name of the manufacturer is given as ‘Light Industrial Products (China)’. This suggests that in the late 1990s, Western interest in Chinese cameras was limited.
St. Denny, D. 1989. Cameras of the People’s Republic of China. Leicester, England: Jessop Specialist Publishing. The Seagull 4B-1 is on p. 91.
Smithsonian Institution. China’s Calligraphic Arts: Cursive script (草書) asia-archive dot si.edu/learn/chinas-calligraphic-arts/cursive-script/ accessed May 12, 2025.
‘In cursive script, individual strokes within a character are drastically simplified and abbreviated, often becoming a single continuous movement of the writer’s brush’.