Lubitel (cyrillic: Любитель) means "amateur" in Russian. The Lubitel 2 was made in great numbers by the Leningrad GOMZ (later LOMO) factory. More than two million were produced between 1954 and 1980. There are versions with a cyrillic name plate or with one in latin script as the one shown, and it was rebadged for various other markets as Kalimar TLR100, Amatör II and Global 676[1]. It was also produced as a stereo version and sold as the Спутник (Sputnik). The camera body is made of plastic, possibly bakelite. The waist level finder and focusing rings are made of metal. These cameras were delivered with a case and strap made of artificial leather. There is a stepless aperture scale under the taking lens with apertures from 4.5 to 22. Winding the film is done by a black knob on the right side of the camera. This does not cock the shutter.
The most exceptional feature of the Lubitel that its focusable reflex finder has no simple matte screen but a big viewing lens which makes it looking like a brilliant finder. Inside the finder that lens has a small round plane matte screen spot for exact focusing. A collapsible loupe helps focusing exactly. This very clear finder helps you to compose your picture in dim light situations. The focusing is done on the small center spot. Four wedges help you orientate the picture. While very bright, this finder gives a "dancing" picture. This happens especially when the camera is hanging on your belly and you look down into the finder. This is rather strange, since this is the position you're supposed to look through it. When you look onto the glass from closer by, you often get a "tunnel" vision; the edges become darker (light falloff?). The finder hood can be folded partially so that front and back of the hood serve as sports finder.
The Lubitel has a LOMO T-22 75/4.5 taking lens. It is actually a little wider than the normal 80mm medium format standard lens. The shutter is cocked with a red-dotted lever. The aperture and the shutter button are all positioned around the taking lens.
The Lubitel-2 has no framecounter. When you turn the knob in the direction of the little white arrow, frame numbers on the back of the 120 film become visible through the little red window.
Esta fotografia é do exemplar que possuo. Características Twin lens reflex medium format camera, two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective and the other is used for viewfinder system. The two objectives are connected, so that the focus shown on the focusing screen will be exactly the same as on the film. Uses 120 roll film with square 6x6 images. Shutter speeds from 1/250 to 1/15 and a bulb setting, aperture from f/4.5 to f/22, and focuses close at just over a meter. Fonte: Camerapedia
Lomo made this plastic-bodied Twin lens reflex medium format camera beginning circa 1980. It was a small revision to the 1976 Lubitel 166, adding a self-timer. Of its two lenses, the lower one, with the shutter, exposes the film, while the other serves the viewfinder. The two lenses both screw in and out for focusing (rather than being mounted in a racking front-plate as in many TLR cameras); each lens has gear-teeth around the edge, and the two are meshed to couple their focus. There is a focus scale on the viewing lens. Like the earlier Lubitel models, the 166B's viewfinder has a condenser lens rather than a ground-glass screen, with only a small central spot ground for focusing. This (it is a design copied from the focusing model of the Voigtländer Brillant) requires some care in focusing, but gives a much brighter view for framing than would a full-frame ground-glass screen.
The Lubitel 166B uses 120 roll film and exposes 6x6cm square images. Shutter speeds are from 1/250 to 1/15 and a bulb setting; the shutter is synchronised for flash, with a PC socket on the lens barrel, and a cold shoe on the left side of the camera. The lens is a coated 75 mm f/4.5 T-22 triplet lens, with aperture down to f/22, and the close-focus limit is at just over a meter. This accepts 40.5 mm threaded hood and filters.
The camera was sold with a synthetic leather strap, a vinyl case, a push-fit lens cap and a cable release.
The Lubitel is a Russian-made twin lens medium format camera that uses 120 roll film. The camera has a long history and there are many models available. Mine is the fairly recent 166B which takes twelve 6cm square pictures on a roll of 120. If I had to buy it again, I'd probably try to get the 166U which does 6x4.5 (16 rectangular shots per roll) as well as 6x6.
Sadly the Lubitel is no longer in production, but since they are not 'collectible' cameras second-hand Lubitels are cheap, and come up fairly regularly at reasonable prices on Internet auctions. You can even find them new in their boxes at some camera shops if you are prepared to hunt around.
'Twin-lens' means that the lens used for looking through and focusing is separate from the actual lens used to take the shot. The focusing lens on the Lubitel is set above the shooting lens. The Lubitel manages the problem of keeping the viewing lens and shooting lens focused on the same thing using a simple cog mechanism. As you turn the viewing lens, so turns the shooting lens.
The lenses and focusing screen are glass, the mechanics metal, and the body a rather cheap plastic. The thinness of the body plastic makes this a wonderfully lightweight camera (approximately half a kilo). The disadvantage is that even on a secure tripod, the bottom of the camera is still slightly flexible and the whole thing will shudder if tapped or knocked. I've fixed this on mine by gluing a cut up cork coaster to the bottom, between the raised feet, so that I have a larger flat surface making contact with the tripod head.
Focusing can be a little tricky - a little magnifier flips up above the focusing screen, which enlarges the image on a small ground glass circle in the center of the focusing screen. Framing is also a bit hit and miss, particularly at close range due the distortion of the focusing screen, and the viewfinder and shooting lenses being in different places (parallax).
The Lubitel 166B has all the standard manual features: shutter speeds from 1/250 to 1/15 and a bulb setting, aperture from 4.5 to 22, and focuses close at just over a meter. It has a hot shoe on the side of the body, a socket for a mechanical shutter release, and a flip down section in the front of the focusing hood that provides a framing window designed for framing a moving subject (tracking a moving subject on the glass focusing screen can be a bit disorientating). There's no built-in metering, and hence no need for batteries. This is a fully mechanical camera.
The process of taking a shot is roughly as follows:
1. Take a light reading with a hand-held light meter or guestimate the exposure
2. Set the shutter speed and aperture with the dials around the shooting lens
3. Frame using the flip down framing window in the hood
4. Focus using the magnifier to view the ground glass screen
5. Cock the shutter with the cocking lever
6. Trip the shutter using the release lever or a shutter release
The Holga is often said to be a good inexpensive way to get into medium format photography, but personally I'd recommend the Lubitel. The Holga's funky blur and dark edges are charming for many types of picture, but if you want more sharpness in your edges, and more importantly, control over exposure, then the Lubitel is a better choice. Mounted on a tripod the Lubitel can give some very respectable pictures, and even hand-held it is capable of good results. Comparing the picture quality with my other medium format cameras, it comes somewhere between the Holga and the Kiev - closer to the Kiev than to the Holga.
Some would argue that you'd be better off getting a used Japanese twin lens like the Yashicamat or Ricohflex. Certainly the Japanese cameras probably have better optics and will give you sharper pictures, but I you'd have to pay more, and you'd have a heavier camera to carry. If you get the Lubitel 166U, you also have the flexibility to take both 6x6 and 6x4.5. I'm certainly glad I have my Lubitel, and I get a lot of use out of it.
This is a Lubitel 166B. Introduced in around 1980, the Lubitel 166B is a simplified version of the Lubitel 166 and indeed is effectively a Lubitel 2 with a thermoplastic body. Unfortunately the Lubitel 166B retains the use of spindles for both film and takeup spools as introduced with the Lubitel 166. It also retains the Lubitel 166 back catch. Both features which have proved to be weak in actual use.
