The
Lomo Belair X 6-12 Instant is a basic Belair with an Instant back attached. The basic Belair is shown here. The Instant back takes Fuji Instax Wide film. Its main features are:
Size (mm): 205 x 120 x 64 body with instax back Weight: 770 g Lens: LOMO Plastic 8/58, 8/90, closest focus 1 m Shutter: electronic, B >1 - 1/125, F 8 or 16 Finder: 2 simple finders, 1 for each lens Film advance: crank handle
Here
are some photos of the camera with the Instax back is attached.
Front, with Instax back attached, no lens.
Back side with Instax back. Film presence window towards the top of the trap. Little counter window far right.
Top with Instax back: ejection slot, finder attached, hot shoe.
Left side with Instax back. Lever for film ejection.
Right side with instax back. Film ejection crank.
From Front. 90mm lens attached.
Just to give you an idea about the picture size and the black margins:
Roofs of a southern french village.
Village square in heat and glare at noon.
I
bought the Belair mainly for the Instax back. The Instax
format is bigger than the 6x12 format. So the photos
have unexposed black margins at the top and at the bottom. But
they are much better than the instax mini format. Attaching the Instax
back is easy, you swap it with the film back (except for the first
time, when an adaption is necessary). Instax film is 800 ISO.
Lomography advises to put an ND filter (furnished) between the lens and
the shutter and set ISO to 200. Instax film wants to be exposed to the
point. You can set ISO to 800 and not put the filter, but you loose
your margin to play with the ISO setting. I had to put mine on 1600 ISO
on bright sunny days. I plan to put a push-on variable filter on the
lens. Taking an Instax photo is just like the others. When it's done,
push the lever on the side first down and then all the way up. Turn the
crank (counter-clockwise) until the photo is ejected and turn the crank
further to the normal 6 o'clock position. The lever on the side springs
to it's intermediate position automatically. Cranking steadily, not to
fast, not to slow is important. It will easily become a habit.
The Lomo Belair X 6-12
is a nice, very light camera, easy to use. It does not fit
into a coat pocket with the Instax back. It's Lomo, so it should be
fun, no strive for quality. You should want and accept some surprise
results. I like it a lot.
Some
gereral words about Lomography and their service: There is a 2-year
warranty, at least in Europe. My personal experience with their service
is good so far. As most of their cameras are made of (cheap) plastic,
there is no repair, they just exchange your defective camera. You have
to send it in to their Vienna firm at your expenses, which is not cheap
if you are not based in Austria, but they try to compensate by adding
film or so to the return. You absolutely need a proof of purchase,
there was heavy abuse by fraudulent customers they told me. So if you
buy second hand or your camera is gift, be sure to put your hands on
the proof of purchase. After the 2-years warranty period it's over.
They will try to help for the expensive not-so-plastic cameras like the
LC series, but for the rest there is no repair. Keep this in mind for
the prices you pay for older gear.
