Lomography Konstruktor Hands-On Preview

Do you want to know about a camera from the inside out, do you remember project kits like those from Airfix, do you want to give film cameras a try?



If you want to build your own camera or give a present to someone else to build theirs then this could be the perfect gift. For just under £30 you can order this kit, but it’s very much in demand. So much so that the London Shop has sold out and the website has back orders into July. Ferren here from the London gallery shop in Newburgh Street, London was holding one of the last in front of a range of cool example photos shot with the Konstruktor camera.



The first thing I noticed was that you look down from the top into the viewfinder, that took me a bit to get used to but it’s actually quite common for many pro, film and older cameras, this does mean you can shoot from the hip as well which may be super for discreet street photography.

For close up there is also a pop up magnifying glass as well.  The lens is a standard 50mm focal length so should be perfect for most shots. The aperture is f/10 which I think is quite small and the image in the morning light a little dark, though it has a tripod mount and bulb setting to compensate. With a normal shutter speed of 1/80s allowing multiple exposures you can be quite creative as well.

Also though the Konstruktor camera has a fully interchangeable lens system. It's a shame you don’t get a free film with the kit, so also budget around £9 for this unless you get the experiment pack with its extra 3 film rolls.

Its not meant to be too hard to build either – with build times said to range from around 2 hours for your first one, down to around 20 mins if you're more experienced. And with customisation stickers in the kit you know that 'pimping' your own camera will soon be a specialist pursuit and you’ll expect to see some wild modifications in the future. You even get your own screwdriver included in the kit.

So with the Konstruktor being a super way to understand analogue photography to its core you can head down to your local Lomography store or go look at their website for technical and ordering details etc.

Look closely and you will see a high speed assemble video too with the whole thing built and ready in less than 20 minutes.

Lomography provide a dedicated Konstruktor micro site - right down to the construction manual.

Article written by Stuart Fawcett (JackAllTog)