Finding the Good In Crap: Tips and Techniques for the Lubitel 166U

February 9, 2009

After explaining the limitations of the Lubitel 166U I thought I would take some time to explain why I still use the camera and my tips for getting good, usable negatives out of it.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Winter

After dishing out the harshness I went out to the Botanical Garden in the below freezing temperatures to give my battered and beaten Lubitel a spin.   I remembered a seminar I took my last year in college which was taught by a recent Yale grad in the religion department.  She said one of the most difficult things she had to do as a PhD candidate was praise works she was reviewing.  Critical thinking generally teaches us to find the flaws in something but perhaps our own innate mean spiritedness makes it much more challenging to find the good.

I’d like to take some time to point out where the Lubitel 166U can give you a satisfying photo.

The most important point I hope I made in my last article was that focusing is a guessing game.  The Lubitel offers some reliable controls for exposure but focusing is extremely problematic.  The lack of quality control in manufacturing the Lubitel does account for a certain amount of variation between individual models (and as they are typically purchased used wear and tear must be accounted for as well).

I come from the school of thought that there’s nothing wrong with out of focus areas.  Selective focus is a great compositional tool that can help the photographer guide the viewer’s eye where you want it to go on the print.   The eye is drawn to light areas, contrast, and areas of sharp focus before it wanders off to your out of focus areas.  The key word in “selective focus” is selective.   The Lubitel does not give you the capacity to accurately select where you will place your focal point.

According to the handy dandy Depth of Field Calculator your field of focus at 10 feet for the lens wide open (f/4.5) is 2 feet.   At 6 feet which would be more reasonable for a portrait you only have a single foot of focal depth.    Even at f/22 your focal range is 4.5 feet to about 9 feet.  There is just not a large margin for error in close focusing ranges and with.

Angel, 2008

This is about as close as you’re going to get.

The lack of precise focusing controls (unless you have an infaliable ability to judge distance and use scale focusing) discourages you from taking close up portraits, compositions where an object must be precisely placed in a narrow focal range, and of course, any thing closer than 3 feet.  The Lubitel is perfectly usable for portraits as long as you place the subject about 10 feet away from the camera and choose situations where a you can get a small enough f/stop to scale focus with confidence.   The Lubitel has an odd way of rendering out of focus areas which can b e quite attractice.  As long as you’re confident that your subject will be in focus (or decided you don’t care if they are) its perfectly usable for portraiture.

Where the Lubitel excels are in two areas, lo-fi landscapes and street photography.

The most common approach to landscape photography follows in Ansel Adams’ steps.  Maximum depth of field for maximum detail.  Complete tonal range from Zone I to X.  Previsualization.  That kinda stuff.   Most landscape photographer believe in the Big Negative as it captures as much detail as your poor eyes can bear.  And why not?  Nature is a complex creature and demands that we allow the viewer to appreciate the full range of tones and detail that any scene has to offer.

Or not.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Spring

There’s something to be said about the power of suggestion.  Give an impression of a scene rather than the details.  A wisp of what’s there.  Offer blur, haze, and out of focus areas.  The lens of the Lubitel can’t resolve detail very well most of the time but it can surprise you from time to time. This was a very lucky close focus situation taken under a bush of a thin stalk of a flower just poking out of the ground.  I took a few others of the same scene but moving just a bit one way or another threw it out of focus.   There’s some great bokeh here and you can really see the strange swirling pattern than the Lubitel’s lens gives to your out of focus areas which can be quite lovely.

The above photo of Brighton Beach during the off season is an excellent example of what the Lubitel can do for street photography.  Its a very discrete camera and most people don’t know what a Twin Lens Reflex looks like anymore.   More often than not if people do notice its a great way to start a conversation rather than get into an arguement.  Its best for wide angle scenes which with the very slightly wider than normal 75mm lens (80mm is normal on a 6×6 format) you’ll need to stand back from the scene a bit.   This works to your advantage as we’ve discussed the poor close focusing ability of the Lubitel.   Keeping your subject 10-20 feet away is just going to make getting what you want in focus that much easier as your margin of error will be much larger.

In the end the problem with cheap cameras is that they require more work.  They do the same thing as expensive cameras at the cost of reliability and resolution.   Still, its a light tight box with a hole in one end and a piece of film at the other.  You point it what you want to take a picture of, twirl some dials, and hit the shutter.  Wind, repeat, develop.

Your negatives will require more care in scanning or printing.  Your exposures will be uncertain.  Your development will need to take into account more variables.  Your framing needs to respect certain tricks of the light and lens.  A better made camera will allow you to frame, focus, and exposure confidently knowing that the camera will do what you tell it to do (and any problems are your own damn fault).   They can also cost you a pretty penny and for the amateur just dipping their toes into the wonderful world of film this can be more of a commitment than you might like to make.  For a more experienced photographer they can be annoying but managable.  If you have a few tricks up your sleeve for dealing with flat negatives, out of focus subjects, and flare then you’ll find the shortcomings easier to handle with and possibly even charming at times.

Just play the strengths of the camera, avoid the weaknesses, and you’ll have a great working relationship.

I haven’t thrown mine under the subway yet after all.

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