GOMZ: Lubitel 166 B (V)

[squarcina]

bought one on 26th September 2011, in good working conditions, for 33$

[diser]

Thanks for info!

[bill339]

Just some info on the camera. Gomz (1932-1965) (Gosularstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod - State Optical-Mechanical Factory) (LOMO (1965- today) Leningradskoe Optiko Mekhanichesko Obedinenie – Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Union) 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 as 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 that is marked 1.4m to infinity. 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 with a flip up lens for focusing using that spot. 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 1/15 to 1/250 of a second and a bulb setting; the manually loaded shutter is synchronized 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. Other features are an eye level viewfinder frame, a frame count red view window in the back cover with an internal cover that operated by a knob on the outside of the back cover, ASA/DIN dial on the side of the camera (not connected to any operation), and a ¼ inch 20 thread tripod socket.