My Lubitel
I always wanted one of those old type, twin lens reflex cameras; the one where you peer
down the viewfinder on the top. I did some minor research and found that there was a wide
range of cameras, but they all took a medium format negative; 3x larger than 35mm.
First I looked on the auction sites, like Ebay, where I find lots of great deals, and many times
I got outbid.. I didn't want to spend too much. What I found out was that there was a
Russian made camera that was considered a toy camera because its' body was made of
plastic, but that it actually took very good pictures. The best part of course was that
they were only $40 new! I bought it from Freestyle. I ended up buying a used
old light meter on the auction sites, and have been snapping pictures ever since with it.
It's alot of fun, and because it's all manual, it takes some time to take a picture. The
result is more thoughtful pictures, and very composed pictures because of the large
viewfinder. The Lubitel is a bit hard to focus, so I try to take exposures at least
at f/8, if not f/16. The camera is really meant as a portrait camera; it isn't for action
shots really. You can be much more artistic with the camera because of it all being
manual; I can double expose film, and do real long exposures as well.
Lately I have been only taking Black and White photos. I have more of course, but
I don't think the web page will do many pictures justice. They are so sharp and clear
because of the bigger negative space. They are also square, not rectagular like 35mm,
which makes composing different. If you want to learn to love photography all over again,
get rid of that automatic everything camera. When's the last time you had fun taking a
picture? If you had a Lubitel, it'd be all the time; the camera is half the fun!
Lubitel Links
