So, how is the Konstruktor to shoot? It's actually kind of a blast. The secret is the viewfinder, which is a lot of fun to use; while the ghostly image is a little dim on the ground glass, it's clear enough to enable pinpoint focusing. This has historically not been an option with Lomography cameras, most of which offer basic zone-focusing controls or none at all. I also loved using the manual shutter cocking mechanism, where you flip a lever next to the lens in order to move the mirror into place. It's a tactile action that gives the camera even more of a hands-on feel.

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Despite its precise focusing and use of "full-frame" 35mm film, however, the Konstruktor isn't a great camera for anyone looking for extreme depth-of-field effects. The lens is a 50mm prime, which is a reasonably versatile focal length, but its fixed f/10 aperture limits the ability to blur backgrounds unless you're focusing on a close subject with a lot of space behind them. The decision was likely made because of the basic nature of the camera's shutter, which is also limited to a single, fairly slow speed of 1/80. Even with 100 ISO film, my photos turned out well-exposed on a cloudy day, so a wider aperture may have been impractical. Lomography tells me that the lens' specifications are matched to the mirrorbox, but the Konstruktor's mount allows for easy removal and attachment, and the company recently released a $19.90 pair of close-up and macro lenses. Lomography told me earlier that the question of additional lenses for the Konstruktor system was the company’s "best-kept secret," so it’s possible that more will follow.

Are more lenses coming? Lomography won't say

The Konstruktor is surprisingly solid for something that I "built" myself, but it's not without issues. Although the completed camera feels at least as sturdy as many other Lomography products, a lot of the moving parts are a little too stiff. Turning the focus ring would often twist the entire lens off its mount, and — more problematically — the film-winding knob sometimes fails to move the correct amount, leading to unintentionally overlapping photos. Some Lomography aficionados would argue that such accidents are all part of the fun, but for a camera that at least theoretically allows for greater precision than most of its peers, it's more of a bug than a feature.

Compounding this is the unreliable shot counter which, no matter how tightly I screwed it on, just would not move reliably with the film spool. If I put down the camera in the middle of shooting a roll, I'd have no idea how many pictures I had left — even if the film had wound on correctly. More oddly, there's no window on the back of the camera to indicate what type of film is loaded. Those planning to use the Konstruktor intermittently had better hope they remember the ISO they're shooting at.

But this is a $35 camera, after all, and knowing what I do about the way it was put together makes its flaws as charming as annoying. I remember the first time I got a roll developed on a Holga camera; the lack of electronics inside made me feel like I'd physically directed the light onto the film myself. The Konstruktor amplifies that feeling to infinity. Each frustrating twist of the film knob is rendered worthwhile when you see the results it brings. Perhaps more than any other camera, the Konstruktor embodies the spirit of Lomography's devil-may-care ethos.

As such, the excitement and trepidation before getting your photos back is stronger than ever with the Konstruktor. And the results, unsurprisingly, are mixed. I found that quite a few photos turned out blurry due to me accidentally flipping the flimsy bulb mode switch, and despite the smooth focusing mechanism, the plastic lens is rarely very sharp. But that's almost expected with most Lomography cameras — the unpredictable results are why you shoot this way, not a reason to be disappointed.

I got at least a few keepers on each roll I shot, which is par for the course with toy cameras. The Konstruktor does particularly well with black-and-white film, in my experience, producing soft tones that flatter the slow lens — otherwise, you'll want to shoot at ISO 100 in good light to get similarly clean pictures.