The Lomography Konstruktor ($35 direct)($39.90 at B&H Photo Video) is just one of many cameras that the decidedly non-digital company offers. It sets itself apart from the others by shipping unassembled—you get a box with a number of gears, levers, covers, and other various components, all on plastic trees. Depending on how handy you are, putting it together can be an exercise in frustration akin to assembling your newest piece of IKEA furniture, or a fun project that you masterfully execute. Either way, the Konstruktor provides insight into how a mechanical SLR functions, and once assembled, it's a fully functional SLR, just not the most refined one in the world.
To say that I'm not the handiest person in the world is putting things lightly. I was able to assemble the Konstruktor in about two hours, but that time included some puzzled looks at the instructions, some disassembling and reassembling, and lots of fumbling. You can see how I managed by watching the time lapse video embedded in this review. You'll need some tools—I was working with a small Phillips head screwdriver and a pair of needle-nose pliers, but probably would have been well-served to have a pair of tweezers available.
The instructions are sometimes difficult to follow; I wasn't always sure which screw to use, and ended up stripping a few of them during the construction process. There's also a matter of a spring that is part of the shutter mechanism. Two are included, and the instructions aren't that clear as to how to connect it to the shutter release. Lomo does have instructional videos online if you run into a question; I referred to them more than a few times during the assembly process.
Once I had gotten the camera put together, a sense of accomplishment washed over me. I picked up the camera, cocked the shutter, and went to fire off a blank shot. I was greeted with a mirror slap that was slow and lumbering. Pointing the camera straight down at the ground and firing a shot fixed everything; gravity was working against me. Obviously I had done something to the spring during assembly; I think I simply stretched it out too far, so it lost its tensile strength and wasn't up to its designed task.
I took the camera apart a few times, trying to get it to work right, and after a couple hours of frustration, reassembled it and did the only logical thing: I emailed my contact at Lomography and begged them to send a Konstruktor over that had been put together by more competent hands. That's the body I used to take the images in this review; my attempt looks fine on a shelf, but isn't that useful for actual photography. Lomography is likely aware of this—it sells a transparent special edition for $59 that shows off the inner workings of the camera, but isn't useable as a working camera.
Once you've got it put together, the Konstruktor becomes a compact, lightweight 35mm SLR. It measures 2.6 by 4.8 by 1.3 inches (HWD) and weighs just 6.7 ounces. It has a flat black color scheme, but there are stickers included to add color to the body if you'd like; I adorned the unit I constructed in red and white to match the PCMag logo. The lens is, naturally, a manual focus design, and aside from the shutter, film advance knob, and film rewind knob, there are only a couple of controls on the body. There's a toggle switch on the front to change between standard and bulb shutter modes, and another lever to cock the shutter after an exposure. It's as simple as simple gets.
But even with a fairly minimal design, using the Konstruktor can be frustrating. The lens is a fixed 50mm prime with an f/10 aperture, so the focusing screen is extremely dim. The viewfinder is waist-level; you're looking down at it rather than bringing it to your eye. There's a small flip-up magnifying loupe that gives you a better view of the center of the frame to confirm focus. But even on a bright day, the edges of the viewfinder are very dim; when I got my film back I found that I had misframed several shots, and my thoughts are that the dim viewfinder takes part of the blame for that.
There is an accessory chimney finder available ($14.90). It provides a magnified view for easier focusing. Its enclosed design prevents light from hitting the focusing screen, so the edge dimness is somewhat ameliorated. There are also a pair of add-on lenses available; the close-up and macro lens are sold together as a kit ($19.90) and allow for much closer focus than is normally possible. As you'd expect, the chimney finder and both add-on lenses require assembly.
You'll need to take care in which film you select. The shutter can only be set to fire at 1/80-second or in bulb mode (which keeps it open as long as you hold the button down). I opted for Kodak TMax 100 due to its wide exposure latitude, and was generally happy with the results on bright days. The narrow aperture and lack of a flash make indoor use questionable, even when loaded with a high-speed stock like Ilford Delta 3200.
The film advance mechanism is another issue. There's a frame counter, but it turns so freely that it's, for all intents and purposes, useless. You'll have to rely on your memory and the amount of tension you feel when turning the film advance to determine how far along you are in a roll. I also found the advance mechanism itself to be sporadic; there were times when it would turn beyond its normal stopping point, which resulted in uneven spacing between film frames. I scan negatives at home and was able to work around that by cutting strips into shorter frame lengths and moving them around in the negative carrier between frames, but if you get prints or scans at a lab it could prove to be an issue.
As a DIY project to do by yourself or with a child as a photography teaching project, the Lomography Konstruktor is a winner. It's inexpensive, a challenge to assemble, and if you manage to put it together it delivers a sense of accomplishment. But as a camera, it's frustrating. I usually have a lot of fun with the toy cameras in Lomo's catalog, but this one was just a chore to use, to the point where I started a 24-exposure roll of TMax in November and didn't drop it off at the lab until late January. Your mileage may vary, and if you want to try your hand at putting the camera together there's no reason not to considering its price tag—just be aware that actually using it isn't as fun as assembling it.
The Lomography Konstruktor is an all-plastic 35mm SLR camera that you build yourself, but once you've put it together it's a bit frustrating to use.
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