Engineering the Lubitel+

Engineering the Lubitel+ was a true and honest-to-God labor of love. This massive effort consisted of pulling apart the original Lubitel, recreating its finest parts, improving some nagging issues, like that tough focusing screen, and adding in new features such as the 35mm kit.

Original technical drawings from the 70s, courtesy of our friends at LOMO PLC, guided us every step of the way, and after many late nights, many plane flights, and many pots of strong coffee our Lubitel+ became a reality.

Technical

As one of the most beloved analog cameras in the world, we were careful to preserve and faithfully reproduce its most crucial features.

Lubitel2

The Lubitel Glass Lens

This is quite literally the beating heart of every Lubitel camera and is directly responsible for the signature Lubitel Look of tack-sharp, contrasty, colorful, and soulful images. Like the original, the Lubitel+ features a multicoated glass lens that delivers all of these famous effects.

Glass lens

Plastic Body

The original Lubitel was cast in plastic to .1 keep the price affordable and .2 allow this amateur camera to be easily carried around by eager tourists and photography students. This nod to frugality gave the Lubitel one of its most important distinctions - it’s one of the world’s only truly portable and lightweight pro-quality 120 cameras. Carry a Rolleiflex around all day, and you’re in for one hell of a sore neck. With the Lubitel, you can carry it day in and day out with nary a care.

Plastic

Manual Controls

Things are wide open. For every shot, you can choose your own aperture, shutter speed, and focus. This is truly "auto-nothing." This affords you total control over everything that happens. Want to blur a moving subject? Want to take a shallow depth-of-field portrait? No problemo. And for you greenhorns, working your way around a manual muchacho like the Lubitel+ is a great way to learn the basics of proper photography exposures.

Manual

Top Down Viewer

The Lubitel+’s viewfinder is on the top of the camera and enclosed by a pop-up metal hood. You compose your image by peering down into this and adjusting the focus knob. This has the triple bonus of (1) making your composition & shooting a bit slower and more thoughtful, (2) giving you a large surface to compose your image on (rather than a tiny viewfinder), and (3) allowing you to shoot all sorts of candid shots. When you’re staring at your feet, most folks don’t even realize you’re pointing the camera at them.

Viewer

Standard Cable Release & Tripod Thread

Long exposures are a treasured commodity by Lomographers. But an unsteady camera can lead to shaky, blurry pics. To that end, the Lubitel+ accepts a standard cable release – allowing you to open the shutter without any danger of shaking the camera with your itchy shutter finger. Pair it with a tripod (screwed into its handy tripod thread) for extra stability.

Cable

Specifications

  • Type:TLR

  • Manufacturer:Lomography

  • Full-frame ground glass viewfinder

  • Film:120 and 35mm

  • Frame Size:6x6, 6x4.5, 35mm, and endless panorama shooting formats

  • Lens:Triplet-22 f/4.5 75mm lens

  • Shutter:Leaf, manually cocked

  • Shutter speeds from 1/15 sec to 1/250 sec and Bulb for long exposures

  • Apertures from f4.5 to f22

  • Focus from 0.8m-infinity

  • Hot shoe for external flash - syncs at any shutter speed

  • Film transport:manual

  • Frame counter:One on the side for 35mm Film, two windows at the back for controlling frame numbers of all three frame sizes

  • Double exposure safety:false

  • On-camera exposure guide