3 hours ago
9
With a small flurry of compact film cameras launched in the last couple of years, I was hoping to fall in love with the Lomography MC-A. It’s beautiful and satisfying to use, but a couple of annoying flaws leave me both disappointed and frustrated.
The Lomography MC-A launched last October, further heralding a renewed love of everything analog in the world of photography. This is a compact camera that arguably takes inspiration from Contax: small and packed with automation but with lots of manual control when you need it.
New-to-market film cameras in the last couple of years have fallen into two categories: plastic fantastics such as the Kodak Ektar H35N, and two premium options that go crazy and give you different apertures and exposure control: the Pentax 17 and the Rollei 35AF. Given that the industry spent multiple decades making compact film cameras, you’d expect us to have some solid offerings, but the MC-A adds its flaws to a lineup that’s already rife with problems.
The Details
- 32mm fixed lens
- f/2.8 to f/16
- Automatic shutter from 20 seconds to 1/500 s
- Manual shutter from 1 second to 1/500 s, plus Bulb
- Built-in flash
- PC-sync socket
- DX code recognition and manual override
- 1 × CR2 (3 V) or rechargeable CR2
- 11.7 oz (332 g) without battery
- Silver and black, or black
- $549 price tag
Aperture control sits on the lens, offering automatic, aperture-priority, and full manual modes. For the shutter speed, the top dial contains all options, including automatic and Bulb modes. A dedicated multiple-exposure button sits alongside, as does the exposure compensation dial.
The top plate also features an on/off switch that doubles as a selector between manual and autofocus, and an LCD whose beauty is somewhat undermined by the slightly saccharine aphorism that sits alongside. This engraving is a brave choice given that this is not a cheap camera, so if a cheesy quote permanently etched into the camera isn’t for you, Lomo loses a sale. Leave the quote off, and you’re not forcing people to confront this decision.
The remaining buttons are the self-timer, which cycles through 2-, 10-, and 30-second options, flash, and ISO selection for when you load a roll that lacks a DX code. The rewind crank sits flush against the bottom plate, alongside the release button, a very off-center tripod socket, and the battery compartment.
The battery is ingenious. Lomography ships the camera with a CR2 that features a USB-C port for charging. This means convenient charging and the option to carry a regular CR2 as a spare for emergencies.
On the back, you have a tiny viewfinder, the film advance lever, and a window to show whichever film you have loaded.
On the front, the lens extends when you power up. Turning the aperture ring sets the aperture, albeit with a worrying amount of wiggle to the lens. Alongside the lens is the zone-focusing selector, measured in meters (Lomography is Austrian, so you’ll have to convert to imperial), with five options from 0.4 m (1.3 feet) through to infinity. I never tested the minimum focusing distance, either manually or using the LiDAR autofocus.
First Impressions
Lomography shipped this camera to me on loan, kindly letting me play around over the course of the summer and allowing me to put a total of four rolls through it while on my travels.
Sadly, I didn’t get the rather swanky box or any of the accessories, as I guess my review unit has been circulating among reviewers for almost a year and stuff has slowly disappeared along the way. I did receive the very nice protective wrap, however, which also features the “before the lens” quote.
The first thing to notice is the weight. Having put a fair few rolls through the Pentax 17 over the last two years, I was expecting something similarly underwhelming. Instead, this has a reassuring heft to it that gives it a genuinely premium feel. Lomography describes the body as metal; the top and bottom plates certainly feel like bead-blasted aluminum, while other exterior sections feel more like plastic. The rest of the body is plastic but with a texture that definitely doesn’t feel cheap. If you can get past the quote, this camera both looks and feels beautiful.
Loading the Camera
In short, putting film in the MC-A is a nightmare. First, the door doesn’t open past 90 degrees, making access a challenge. Second, the take-up spool rotates freely in both directions. Third, the slots on the spool are incredibly shallow; combined with the freely spinning spool, it’s incredibly difficult to push the leader into the spool’s slot and use the tension against the spool to extend the film across the gate. Try the opposite approach and the leader just keeps popping out.
Perhaps I just never found a good technique, but my partner soon got fed up with me shouting abuse at this camera every time I tried. On one occasion, I got through 10 shots before eventually the advance lever jammed because it had only partially taken up my film.
Winding and Rewinding
This never felt smooth, but from the outset, it never felt like the throw on the lever was taking the film far enough. I’ve used more than enough film cameras over the years to have a sense of what advancing a frame should feel like, and this felt worryingly short. As you’ll see, that was not paranoia.
Rewinding is not smooth to the point of being disconcerting. On my travels, I had to resort to opening the back of the camera inside a sleeping bag because I was terrified that the release of tension while rewinding was not the film disengaging from the take-up spool but was instead the film popping off the sprockets halfway through.
In Use
This is a wonderfully simple camera to use. A point-and-shoot should allow you to take photos in the moment without having to think about anything beyond pushing the shutter. This is where the Pentax 17 falls so woefully short; before every shot, you have to check the mode dial to check that it hasn’t been bumped accidentally. Every. Single. Shot. By contrast, the MC-A is instant. One small bugbear would be to modify the on/off button, as you have to be quite delicate to ensure that you’re putting it in autofocus mode rather than pushing the dial too hard and going to manual.
The combination of automation with manual overrides is magnificent; choose “P” on the lens and then on the shutter speed dial, and you’re fully automatic. Set either to anything else and you have priority mode or full manual. Refreshingly simple and effective.
The limited amount of time I had with this camera meant that I didn’t stray out of fully automatic mode, and I think this is where the MC-A shines. I love having the manual options when I want (and my beloved Olympus XA Mark I will tell you that I’m not shy of giving up automation), but a point-and-shoot should give you ease of use that makes photographing instant and thought-free.
The viewfinder was fine. Of course, it could be bigger and brighter, but the frame lines did the job and images ended up where expected.
Exposures were consistently a bit brighter than I’m used to, but if a film camera is to lean in either direction, this is the right one. Oddly, fully automatic seemed to prefer faster shutter speeds and larger apertures rather than the opposite. Given the focusing issues I experienced (see below), I wonder if I would have achieved far more keepers had the camera given me 1/125 s at f/11 rather than 1/500 s at f/5.6.
The Autofocus
Newly built film cameras that aren’t borderline disposable are rare, and until recently, newly built film cameras that feature autofocus were like rocking horse poop. All of a sudden, there are two.
Both the Rollei 35AF and the MC-A sport LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging); half-press the MC-A and you’ll hear the lens twitch (fairly noisily) into position. My luck with the LiDAR was not great, unfortunately, as infinity was frequently a problem. Had I realized how many were out of focus, I would have happily switched to zone focusing.
The Lens
Not amazing. Sharp enough for a point-and-shoot, but I would say that the Pentax 17 is definitely sharper, despite its half-frame format. Sharpness aside, contrast and color rendition seemed solid, distortion is quite strong, and flaring is pretty much what you’d expect. Vignetting is there, but it’s not something that bothers me.
The Flash
I wish I’d played with this more. The few images I had friends capture using auto look great, and there’s a rear-curtain sync setting that I really should have explored. I believe there are some color gels in the box.
Frame Spacing
This is a genuine issue. I’m not sure how I’m going to trim my negatives, as gaps are typically very slim and several frames on every roll overlap. My nagging sense that the film advance lever never quite went far enough turned out to be spot on.
What I Liked
- Compact
- Automatic and manual options
- Quick and easy to use
- Premium feel
What I Didn’t Like
- Autofocus is hit and miss
- Loading film drove me insane
- Frame spacing is all over the place
- Rewinding feels like stirring a bag of rusty bolts
- Cheesetastic aphorism
The Verdict
The world needs more film cameras, and seeing Pentax, MiNT Rollei, and Lomography giving us a diversity of options is fantastic. It’s a bit frustrating that each of these came to market (note, I’ve not tried the Rollei) without some fundamental flaws being addressed. The Mark IIs of each of these should be excellent, and I really hope that sales justify further generations, but right now it’s hard to recommend any of these, especially to someone looking for their first film camera.
In short, it’s great that the Lomography MC-A exists, and the premium look and feel make it a desirable item, but the results don’t quite match expectations or the $549 price tag.
English (US) ·