I have been holding off doing a full review on the Blackbird, Fly TLR until I had a pretty good feel for it, and had a chance to try out a few different films. After a few weeks with the camera it has become as natural to load and use as my trusty Holga. First I would like to thank the guys at Powershovel in Japan, who graciously sent me a camera to test, I was both honored and excited to be testing one of the first production models. 

So what do I think? Let me say first that no other toy camera in the last 10 years has been introduced with the anticipation of this camera. It represents not only a new product, but a new genre. I know there have been other TLRs that you can run 35 through, and plenty of medium format cameras that will expose the entire piece of 35mm film including the sprockets. The BBF however, is the first true 35mm Twin Lens Reflex Plastic Camera, allowing for the experience of shooting a TLR without the cost of using 120 film. That in itself is a tremendous advantage for the BBF. You can load this guy up with whatever 35 you have lying around, and get the film back in an hour from any local lab printed, processed and scanned.

Why twin lens reflex? What’s the big deal? Shooting a TLR really does make you slow down a bit and concentrate on the image. Hip shooting or random aiming with a Vivitar UWS can yield some nice street images, but that’s not the point of the BBF. The BBF is camera you grab for your quiet, slow day of shooting. That day where you are not concerned with the amount of exposures you shoot, or locations you get too. It’s the slow day at the beach camera, the sitting on a park bench and watching the world go by camera. It’s the deliberate camera, the you-did-it-on-purpose camera. It’s on that day that you open up your camera cabinet, look past the Holga 135, the Ultra wide and slim, and pick up the BBF.

I was warned that loading the film would take patience, as you are bending it backwards and then attempting to lock it into the take up spool. No worries here- the internal mechanisms of this camera are very well designed. The film moves smoothly along and right into the take up spool without problem.

While there are no dials for shutter speed and aperture like there are on your Rolleiflex, you do have the benefit of knowing what the two choices are: f7 at 1/125th and f/11 at 1/125th. (’sunny’ and ‘cloudy’) So if you want to pack a meter for the first few rolls, set it to 1/125 and change the aperture accordingly. If you’ve shot a Holga, this eyeball metering will already be second nature to you. Focusing, much like a Holga, is marked off with distances on the top dial, and once you get the first roll back you’ll have them down without any problems. Framing your image depends on what mask you have chosen to insert while loading the film. You have three choices: 24mm square, 24×36mm rectangle, and no mask at all (which will then expose the sprockets). The focus screen has each of the three marked off with easy to see lines. But again, after a few rolls you won’t even need them.

So you’re off and shooting, and thinking this is awkward as every photograph is going to look as if its shot from your waist. The BBF also has a handy ’sport finder’ accessible by popping the back of the focus surround forward, giving you a small opening to aim through. And what do these images look like? I say across between a Vivitar UWS and a Holga 135. They are crisp, with a small amount of natural vignetting on the edges. Shot without any mask, they take on a whole new personality. The image spans side-to-side, exposing the sprocket area and producing an even larger vignette. ‘Sprocket Images’ seem to be a favorite on flickr, which has become the unofficial forum and image bank for the BBF.

The verdict? I read the opinions of several forum threads on this camera, and its pretty divided between the digital shooters, who agree with the old school film shooters, and us: the ‘Toy Camera people’. The digital people think- wait, we don’t really care do we? The old school Film shooters seem to think this, like all toy cams, is a gimmick. One user on Rangefinder forum called it “A gimmick to make someone a few bucks. I wouldn’t pay 2 cents for it.” But he probably drives a Buick, and waits by the mailbox each month for his copy of Popular Photography to come while cleaning his Pentax K1000. The Toy cam users have been in a frenzy for this to get to market, and I think that is the only opinion that really matters. Because they are going to buy every single one of these that Powershovel can make. I got one for free, and I still tracked down a second one from a dealer in Tokyo so that I could pack it neatly away in my collection. I get emails every day about how to get one, and a huge percentage of the googler’s have found FourCornersDark.com by searching for info on it.

At over US$100 there are going to be a few people who shy away from the BBF, but for every one of those there will be 15 who buy one for twice that. Not only is this camera destined to be a collectors item on par with the Fujipet- it will be the means to making some of your best photographs. If you’ve read this far, chances are you are already trying to get one. You won’t be disappointed. The Blackbird, Fly from Powershovel is a beautiful example of engineering and dedication to the toy camera market. It makes a statement not only to toy cam shooters- but to all film shooters that there are companies out there willing to spend the money and time to bring to market new and exciting film cameras. Powershovel took their time and created not just a new genre of photography, but a masterpiece of design.

Want it? Of course you do. 

Need it? A toy cam for over $100 blurs the line between camera and toy, and if any plastic camera is going to cross over, this is the one. If you shoot film, and enjoy 35mm- you need it.