plastikcam.com                LomoApparat 21mm

The LomoApparat 21mm is a stylish, but technically a Lomo Style camera for 135 film. It is a basic plastic camera with a stylish shell, a plastic ultra wide angle lens and only basic features. It comes with some accessories.

The main features of the camera are:

21mm plastic ultra wide angle lens, only F10, focus free
Shutter ~1/100, B
Size 110 x 67 x 52mm
Weight: 140g
Features: frame counter, double exposure prevention, shutter cocked via film advance, multi exposure, built-in flash with filters

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The box.

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What's in the box. Camera with cap, splitzer, close-up and caleidoscope lens, a nicely made book, but instead of instructions you only have a card with a QR code.

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There is a little pouch for the accessories.

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Camera with cap.

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Camera front. The shade is fixed. Main switch with N and B setting. Switching the camera on charges the flash. The flash ready lamp is also a button. A push on the button switches the flash off. You have to remember to do so. The flash has colour filters.

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Camera back. Viewer, film presence window, multi exposure switch and film advance. In the little white frame there is a pouch with more colour filters.

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Camera top. Rewind, tiny film counter and shutter release.

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Camera bottom. Battery compartment. Takes one AA battery. Tripod socket.

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A little slider on the right edge pushed the filters away. The upper 2 can be changed, the third is a fixed ND filter for close-ups with flash. You must always remember that have to push it up for a neutral flash. Otherwise you photos will be tainted. Or you take the upper filter out of the frame...

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Close-up lens installed, it slides over the shade. You can take photos from 20 to 50cm. Remember that there is no parallax indication, so framing is a guess.

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Caleidoscope lens installed. It works best on distances between 1 and 2m and on contrasty items with a distinct pattern.

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Film compartment.

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Splitzer installed.

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The splitze reduced to a quarter image.

The LomoApparat 21mm is a basic plastic camera with a very wide lens. It has a stylish housing. It has only one speed and only one aperture, no automatic exposure, no automatic film advance, it's focus free (no autofocus, not even a rangefinder) and has a 2-element lens that produces results that are OK. As for other Lomo cameras, I don't think about exposure, I try and hope for the best. Modern colour film helps. If you choose the right film, ISO 400 in general and ISO 200 on very sunny days, you can shoot outside photos that look OK. The rest will be "Lomo" style, but you can use flash for interior photos. Night photos are possible as well, as there is a B mode. So for me the camera is a nice find. The accessories are nice and fun.

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 very good. 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 office 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.

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