Camera Information: Lomography Konstruktor
Here's stuff about the film camera I use, the Lomography Konstruktor!
The Lomography Konstruktor is a 35mm SLR camera you assemble from a kit (because I am Like This, of course I went for a DIY camera). Everything except the lightbox and the lens itself is something you have to put together, including the film advance mechanism and the overall lens assembly.
It's reasonably capable in terms of what it can do: you get a top-down viewfinder with a magnification lens, a variable-focus lens that can go from 0.5m to infinity, a bulb long-exposure mode (in addition to the normal shooting mode), and it even supports flash with a PC connector. There isn't any exposure length or apeture adjustment, so you have to abide by the speed of your film. Fortunately, most of the film I use (from Kodak Gold to Ilford XP2 to Lomography's own color-shift films) is very forgiving in terms of exposure, even the films that have a single specific rating. As long as I'm outside and the sun hasn't set, it's usually fine.
My main issues with it are that the top-down viewfinder can be awkward sometimes (although I'm still very glad I have it instead of a rangefinder or nothing), the film counter is very easy to bump and lose position, and sometimes the shutter can be a bit sticky (although never when held portrait, for some reason). It also has a little bit of light leak, but that's standard for Lomography cameras and I honestly like the look a lot.
Previously, I had a sentence on this page complaining about how the extra lens kit was difficult to find anywhere, and it was... but I found it! I now have up-close and macro lenses for the Konstruktor, allowing me to take photos much well... closer up. Interestingly, these don't replace the standard lens and instead just slide on top.
