Blackbird Fly 35mm TLR Twin Lens Reflex Camera - Black with Orange Face [Camera] Reviews

Average Customer Rating - 2.8 out of 5 stars

5 customer reviews

overpriced toy camera, fun, but not at this price....., May 25, 2009
SO not worth $100+. I received this camera in a "goody bag" on a recent trip to Japan. It's a great toy camera, but I would only reward $50 or so for it. It's cute, kitchy, and well designed. But it is entirely made of plastic. There is a lot of blur and I believe it is not simply due to the plastic lens but that the camera is so lite. When you release the shutter the entire camera moves (!)

If you are a fan of toy cameras, enjoy. But be aware, within no way is this camera a good student camera or introduction to surrounding substance format. Buy a used YashicaMat or related camera if that's what you are looking for. Yes, a basic tlr will cost you $300 used within good condition, but if you buy this "bbf" (black bird fly) you'll spend <$100 and will have no guarantee how long it will finishing until one of the plastic parts breaks.

Do understand, I am a fan of toy/pinhole cameras, lately not at this price point.

cheers...

cute, nice feel, but some very physical problems for the photographer, November 30, 2009
Background: My experience is as a professional photographer and designer with more than 20 years of experience, and a lot of experience beside "toy cameras". The "toy" camera movement (Diana, and Holga) is a well established avenue of art photography as well as lately plain fun photography. Using cheap simple cameras with fuzzy lenses one can create some absolutely attractive images. I've spent a lot of time working near Holgas (I have 4) and Hasselblads ( I have 2). Each of my Holgas be acquired for $15 or less... hot. The most expensive accessory was a polaroid pay for that is remarkable and great to use. I started working in atmosphere format with a Yashicamat 124G which i still have and cherish. If you are looking to bring back into medium format the Yashicamat is a great place to start and you can find them cheap on ebay. I love TLR and vertical view cameras because of the ground chalice "backwards" viewers and their square format. Once you get used to that kind of set up you will other want such a viewfinder.

that viewfinder is what caught my eye when I saw the Blackbird... along with the nice styling, great colors, and good get the impression of the plastic.

REVIEW: there's a lot that is poor in the experience of using this camera. The blackbird's viewfinder is not ground glass, it's a quasi optical finder beside mirror. This kind of finder one can also see on old Argus TLRs (also available on ebay for cheap). But the viewfinder of the Blackbird is really messed up and concrete to see through. If this camera cost $15 or $25 I'd consider it, but it's not. No one should pay over $100 for a camera like this, it's in recent times not worth it and this ridiculous price flies in the face of the "toy" camera movement. People bought the holga and the diana because they be cheap AND they made interesting images.

Overall the controls of the Blackbird are fine. They give you a tremendously good range of instruction book focus from 0.8 meters to infinity. The shutter is smooth and crisp. The overall look and feel of the camera is very nice. (not $120 nice, more resembling $20 nice!)

For those who want to get into medium format cameras, forget more or less this one. The film format is 35mm and the viewfinder sucks. If you want to do 35mm toy camera work there are profusely of toy 35mm cameras out there that will be easier and more fun to use. Medium format does make a difference and have a good clear way to frame a photo way a lot to getting a good composition - even surrounded by toy cam land.

I did not buy one of these partly because I hold not seen one cheap enough on the other hand. I tried out a Blackbird that was loaned to me for evaluation. If I ever find an orange revision of the blackbird selling for under $25 I'll very credible pick one up for myself, but it will be with some reservations. And aside from the bad viewfinder the other reservations are due to the 35mm motion picture format. Yes I understand you can get this processed at seriously of places. And yes I get that you can use frame inserts to change the format from beyond 35mm to a cropped 24mm square, but that's not going to verbs the same kind of results I would seize from my holga shooting fuji instant film or 120 film. The holga also allows the photographer to use external flash and/or studio strobes. The holga is not as designery cute as the Blackbird, but if you want really cute in attendance are a lot of old cameras on ebay that are seriously cute, seriously cheap, and which will be like mad more fun to use. Look for an old Argus, Voigtlander, and Yashica.

Super Zazz!, February 12, 2009
this is a 'TOY CAMERA' and it shoots 35mm film. be paid no mistake about it.

if you want perfect predictable photos, stick to digital.
if a bit of fortuitous blur pisses you off, stick to digital.
if you think loading and unloading show is cumbersome, stick to digital.

with that being said, this is a fantastic plastic TLR toy camera. it comes next to 2 frame masks: a standard 35mm film format and a square format frame. You can even remove the costume entirely to expose the entire width of the film, including the side sprocket holes.

the viewfinder take a bit of getting used to, as it's smaller than most other TLR viewfinders. i've shot 2 rolls of film, and my images are in truth sharper than i hoped they would be.

i lucked out when i purchased my BBF because i had some amazon gift cards moved out over from Xmas. the blackbird fly gets 4 stars due to the steep price point (it's an import). i do think it is a bit expensive for a toy camera...

Quite a useless product, February 7, 2009
I required to try a twin lens reflex camera but was not willing to spend on the Mamiya/Hasselblad brands; be unsure of Seagull/Holga- they looked cheap- so finally saw this camera- 35mm with twin lens reflex- Wow I thought! But I was totally wrong. This is a nouns toy camera- the pictures it takes are mostly all out of focus. The operation including loading and unloading film are very cumbersome. I enjoy wasted $120 on a piece of junk. Stay away from this camera- it solitary looks trendy, that's all!

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