Lomography Konstruktor - BUILD your own SLR!

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CliveC

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I came across the Lomography Konstruktor camera today and for $35, it seems like a reasonable sum for a toy project.

I think I will order one and give it a shot. If it's of reasonable quality, it may be something of interest to my nephews. Too bad it's only a f/10 lens and a single speed shutter, but maybe it can be hacked at some point for a bit more flexibility.
 
It's cheap enough to have a pop at, and the way some of the parts come on their sprues reminds me of my dim and distant youth making Airfix kits.

If the name had a few umlauts, it'd sound like something from IKEA!

Might wait for some reviews before I put down any hard earned, though.
 
Looks like a like possibly fun toy, although for $35 I wouldn't expect anything resembling a usable camera. Maybe cool just to play with though.
 
Well, I was also about to pop $15 for the Recesky 35mm TLR camera off eBay. Could be an interesting comparison.
 
Oops, guess I waited too long. Was trying to get a friend to buy in to save on shipping, but it's out of stock now.
 
CliveC said:
Oops, guess I waited too long. Was trying to get a friend to buy in to save on shipping, but it's out of stock now.
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the lomography website doesn’t show it being out of stock. how could they be out of stock, when it just launched like today? for 35 dollars, its cheap enough in my opinion to give it a try. it seems pretty small, even for a 35, so being all plastic I bet its incredibly light. would make a great travel snapshot camera, with the typical lomo look to the photos I’m sure.
 
séamuis said:
the lomography website doesn’t show it being out of stock. how could they be out of stock, when it just launched like today? for 35 dollars, its cheap enough in my opinion to give it a try. it seems pretty small, even for a 35, so being all plastic I bet its incredibly light. would make a great travel snapshot camera, with the typical lomo look to the photos I’m sure.
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Maybe it's a glitch. On the Canadian Lomography site, it was out of stock for a few minutes there, but when I refreshed just now, it's back. Then when I went to check out, it's OOS again.

Odd.
 
I have one on order myself. I thought the same as the above comments, it's cheap enough to give it a whirl. I own quite a few of their cameras and I've spent more on junk cameras before so what the heck.

The two major limitations to me are what are going to make it fun to play with and try to master.
1) One aperture
2) One shutter speed (plus Bulb)

I figure that it will need to be taped or glued to keep it from falling apart completely, but even if it does, its cheap and therefore should be a fun project.
 
alienmeatsack said:
The two major limitations to me are what are going to make it fun to play with and try to master.
1) One aperture
2) One shutter speed (plus Bulb)
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It's funny that you put it that way. I had exactly the same thought after putting the first roll through my Brownie Hawkeye a couple weeks ago. Fixed speed (plus B) and fixed aperture means all you've got to work with is film speed and composition, and only the latter shot-to-shot - pretty good for practicing the basics, I think.
 
Bargain ... that's fifteen dollars less than I paid for my OM-2 and 50mm f1.8 Zuiko! :D

I like the idea actually ... this is what Lomo are very good at IMO. :)
 
I ordered one a couple of hours after they launched, thought they would run out of the first batch fast. They are probably checking interest and will produce a larger run since these sold out so fast.

Now all they need is a 35mm f11 two element retro focus wide angle and a 100mm f11 two element telephoto to complement the 50mm f10, and of course, a "Joe tested and approved" camera bag to complete the kit.

By the way, I bought both a Fujica ST605n body, and a Sears KS 500 (Ricoh KR-5) with 50mm f2 lens, both clean and working, for less than this camera......but I still wanted it.
 
You toy camera folks also know you can buy the Diana Mini, a 35mm viewfinder camera that can switch between 18X24mm and 24X24mm, has an 1/100 and 'B' shutter, 35mm FL focusing lens, tripod bush and threaded for standard cable release. It is available from Freestyle Photo for 34.99 plus shipping. Just FYI if you are into this sort of photography.

That is $25 less than the lomography store wants for it.
 
F10 is going to be pretty miserable for focusing. They could have at least gotten to F8 even with a single element lens. Although since the lens is removable, I assume they plan to add additional lenses to the "system".
 
I have one ordered! It's just a $35 toy, what do you expect other than "fun" XD? Can't wait to enjoy the assembly process..
 
tunalegs said:
F10 is going to be pretty miserable for focusing. They could have at least gotten to F8 even with a single element lens. Although since the lens is removable, I assume they plan to add additional lenses to the "system".
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From what I've seen the shutter is in the body, and it is a small shutter at that. I would imagine the f/stop is dictated by that rather than anything to do with the lens itself.
 
pdexposures said:
From what I've seen the shutter is in the body, and it is a small shutter at that. I would imagine the f/stop is dictated by that rather than anything to do with the lens itself.
Click to expand...

I doubt it from what I've seen of the mirror box. It looks like the shutter aperture is a lot larger than that of say the Argus C3, and the Argus still managed an F3.5 lens albeit with minimal vignetting wide open.

On the other hand I suspect it will run into the same problem the Exa cameras had with long lenses vignetting.

edit: upon inspection the shutter aperture is actually much smaller than it first appeared to be. The shutter itself is extremely unorthodox.
 
I got the notice from FedEx that mine has shipped and I'm expecting it mid-late week next week. So I will see what's what soon enough. :D
 
Well, I managed to get my order in. Added a pack of Lomography 100 120 Color Negative film while I was at it, since I didn't have any colour 120 film for my Yashica.

As a new user to lomography's site, I was gifted 10 points, which basically meant free shipping.
 
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