Black & White Photography - September 2015 UK

75

B+W

LIKES DISLIKES

Fun and educational DIY project

Takes lovely lo-fi pictures

No batteries required

Fixed aperture and shutter speed

Challenge to put together

Dim viewfinder

I

f you’re a fan of making model

airplanes and would like to get

a practical understanding of

how analogue cameras work

then the Konstruktor DIY Kit

may be for you. The camera

comes beautifully packaged, but

in lots of pieces. It’s up to you

to build the camera using the

instructions and a screwdriver

(included in the set). It’s good

fun, challenging, educational

and should be done within an

hour or two. Once completed,

you get a fully functioning, if

basic, 35mm SLR camera

with interchangeable lenses.

The kit lens is a plastic 50mm

f/10 prime lens that produces

slightly lo-fi images. Colours are

skewed in a subtle way, while

monochrome shots look great.

Pay an extra £20 and you’ll get

the following accessories: a

magnifying chimney hood for

easier focusing, a close-up lens

and a macro lens. Each lens

focuses manually as you look

through the top-down viewfinder,

which can sometimes be a touch

dim. Manual controls are limited

to choosing between the fixed

1/60sec shutter speed and the

Bulb setting for long exposures.

KONSTRUKTOR DIY KIT

TECH SPECS

Film 35mm

Focusing distance 0.5m-infinity

Flash connection None

Viewfinder Top-down

Tripod mount No

Battery None

RRP £29

Contact microsites.lomography.com/konstruktor

BUILD YOUR OWN CAMERA

LIKES

DISLIKES

Compact medium format camera

Wideangle glass lens

Simple to use

Limited manual controls

Tricky to load film

Expensive

L

omography doesn’t have

to mean fuzzy, light-leaked

image making and as if

to prove it, the company

has developed its own medium

format camera: the LC-A 120.

The device is predominantly

plastic but it sports a glass

38mm f/4.5 Minigon lens, which

is equivalent to a wide 21mm

lens on a 35mm camera. The

lens captures images that are

pretty sharp (by Lomo standards)

especially towards the centre,

along with the strong vignetting

many toy camera fans crave.

Black & white images work

particularly well with this camera.

An MX switch allows you to

LC-A 120

TECH SPECS

Film 120

Focusing distance 0.6m-infinity

Flash Hotshoe

Viewfinder Optical

Tripod mount Yes

Battery 3 x LR44

RRP £339

Contact microsites.lomography.com/lca-120

MEDIUM FORMAT

The LC-A 120 captures images on

square medium-format film

Once you’ve

assembled the

camera, the

Konstruktor accepts

any 35mm film

‘Th e lens captures images that are pretty sharp

(by Lomo standards) especially towards the

centre, along with the strong vignetting

many toy camera fans crave.’

take multiple exposures too. It’s

surprisingly small for a medium

format device and it’s also very

easy to use. You just set the ISO

(100-1600) and focusing distance

(0.6m, 1m, 2.5m, infinity) and

the camera will tell you if there’s

enough light for a good shot

with its basic in-built light meter.

For those wishing to pursue a

more considered, less carefree

approach to photography, the

camera can oblige with a tripod

mount, cable release socket and

flash hotshoe.

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