This payday saw a few extra pounds (and I mean a few) in my bank account. I decided to celebrate by buying a Yashica 124, a camera I’ve always wanted but never quite got around to. To help fund it, I decided to sell a couple of other cameras and my Lubitel was one of them.

It’s a 1993 Universal model that has sat unloved on the shelf for a while. I took it down to dust off ready to sell and realised that there was a film in it. So I headed out to burn it up…

I was reminded what fun it is to shoot with a TLR, and how seeing the world through a ground glass at waist level really does make one think about framing. Unfortunately, what I didn’t think about was the setting the frame counter correctly.

The Lubi Universal has a window in the back of the camera and a disc that rotates to select either 12 shots at 6×6 or 16 at 6×4.5 (you need to change a plastic frame as you load the film too). At some point in the year that the film had been in the camera, I’d manged to rotate that disc and so shot most of the roll at the wrong setting, meaning that the pictures overlap.

I’ve cropped them where it got too distracting, but overall, the Lubitel gave some good results. Lomography want £400 or more for a lens that gives swirly bokeh – the Lubitel does it for a whole lot less.

I’d had so much fun finishing the roll that I decided to treat it to another – this time, my favourite Fuji Neopan.

A mile or so away from home we have a preserved steam railway and a station full of characters happy to be photographed. It’s always felt a little too obvious to shoot, but for the first time in the eight years of living here, I did just that. I’d still not spotted that frame counter issue though, so this film had the same overlapping problem.

For a 25 quid camera, the Lubitel gives some great results and I’ll miss it, but I guess the Yashica will be even better.

Entertainingly, I spoke to the guy that has bought the Lubitel and I asked him why he wanted another and he said that he didn’t have a Universal model, and wanted one because it can shoot at 6×4.5!

Week 3: Lomo Lubitel 166U

Ilford HP5+ and Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100

Ilfotec HC for 6:15 and 5:00 respectively

Epson v500 and a bit of Lightroom cropping and dust removal