A really touching story about your family’s first camera Seagull 4B TLR. I love your story. Here is mine. My first SLR was a Pearl River S201 with a kit 58mm F2.0 lens. I bought it after I graduated from my college and started working as an assistant lecturer at a university in Chongqing, China. I believed I might be one of only two individuals in that university who bought an SLR for personal use, as an SLR was regarded as a luxury item at that time in China - My S201 cost me RMB571 which was more than my annual salary at that time. I was aware that the department I worked for had the same camera while the Admin office of the university had a Nikon F3HP with 50mm F1.4 Nikkor. I sold my S201 to one of my classmates when I was back to university to continue my graduate school study after I bought a Nikon FM2n film camera with a 50mm F1.4 Nikkor lens in 1988. The FM2n captured many precious moments, including a few days in Tiananmen Square before June 4, 1989 - I left there on June 3, without knowing there would be a massacre the next day. Unfortunately, all of those 35mm negatives were lost when our family moved overseas. None of them were previously printed out. In October 2004, I accepted a job offer in the United States and relocated from Singapore to the US. My first job assignment was to travel with two guests from China, to show them around New York City and Washington DC, as they did not speak English, I acted as their travel guide. They paid me the travel expenses. These two guests were from the factory in China that assembled my first SLR - Pearl River S201. They were big bosses for the factory then. One of the guests said he was the financial director when the factory started assembling that camera, the sale price of RMB571 was actually calculated based on material and manufacturing costs and decided by him. After knowing I once was an owner of their cameras, Pearl River S201, but no longer had it, they decided to get an S201 for me and mailed it to me as a gift when they went back to China. I was told that the S-201 factory was no longer making any film cameras, but they were able to have a worker find some loose old parts, put them together, and assembled one for me. I received the camera they mailed to me in a few weeks. I was aware of company policy that I cannot keep any gift from clients, if it is worth $50 or beyond, so I reported it to my manager for the gift when it was delivered. My manager told me I could keep it, as a used SLR from Japan was only worth around $14.99 in our local stores for used items. The camera S-201 would be worth nothing in the US market, but it has a special position in my life - it was my first SLR. So here is my first SLR - a camera that once cost more than a year’s salary for a college graduate in the late 80’ last century in China. Next to it was a Nikon SLR model FM2n, a camera model which replaced my Pearl River S201. I had the camera with its kit 50mm lens for years, it captured some important and precious moments, including our newborn daughter Tinting. The summer in Hangzhou was very hot, our baby daughter developed some heat rash on her skin, cried, and could not sleep well due to the hot weather and humidity in Summer Hangzhou. At that time, an Air Conditioner was regarded as a luxury home appliance, few homes afforded to install an AC unit, and so did our home. In order to get an AC, my beloved Nikon FM2 with Nikkor 50mm F1.4 lens was sold, and the amount was good enough to purchase a new AC unit. I did not have any interchangeable SLRs for years after I sold my Nikon FM2n, even though I always had at least a camera for my family. The first digital SLR I bought was an Olympus E-1 (body alone $2000 in 2003). Since then, I barely shot any films, as the film is too expensive for me to shoot.
I have a like-new seagull 205 rangefinder and just put a roll of film through it the other day for the first time. As old as the camera is, I’m honestly shocked by the quality of the photos. It is comparable to any other top of the line film camera of the time period. What amazed me still was the rangefinder was perfectly accurate even all these decades later. I’m in the US and have never seen another one of these cameras here, so I’m not sure how it got over here but I treasure it. The camera is mint condition inside and out, but the black trim around the viewfinder has markings on it so I know it’s been used by it’s original owner. They took great care of it obviously and I wish I could talk to that camera, to hear the stories and photos it must have taken over the last 50 years or so. Is there anyone who works on these cameras or does maintenance for them?