C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The LOMO Smena 35 is a 35mm compact camera produced at LOMO (Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Association) from approximately 1990 as one of the last members of the Smena family - one of the longest-running and highest-volume camera lines in Soviet photographic history. The body is lightweight injection-moulded plastic, continuing the construction approach established with the Smena 32 in the mid-1980s. The camera uses the T-43 43mm f/4 triplet lens - the same optical formula carried through the Smena 8M, Symbol, and 32 - with a zone-focus system using pictographic distance symbols. Exposure is entirely manual: aperture and shutter speed are set by the user with no meter assistance. No battery is required. The Smena 35 represents the terminus of the Smena development line, produced in the turbulent period surrounding the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Kodak UltraMax 400 is a versatile consumer-grade ISO 400 daylight-balanced color negative film with T-grain emulsion, delivering warm Kodak colors, fine-for-speed grain (PGI 46), and wide exposure latitude. Currently in production and available globally as a single-roll and multi-pack.
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About this camera
The last Smena - the long-running Soviet compact line's final plastic-body, battery-free manual variant.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Lens | T-43 43mm f/4 triplet (fixed) |
| Focus | Zone focus, pictographic symbols |
| Years | ~1990 - ~1995 |
| Shutter | ~1/15s - 1/250s + B, leaf |
| Flash sync | ~ |
| Meter | None |
| Modes | Manual (aperture + shutter) |
| Battery | None required |
| Weight | ~220 g |
The Smena line was established in 1953 as LOMO's mass-market entry-level 35mm product. Through the 1950s and 1960s the line progressed through Bakelite-body numbered variants; the Smena 8M (1970) established the definitive plastic-body format that would persist through the rest of the line's production life. The Smena 8M ran for two decades as one of the cheapest mass-market cameras in the world. During the 1980s LOMO introduced variants including the Smena 32 (1985) with updated plastic tooling and minor ergonomic changes.
The Smena 35 emerged at the end of this progression, introduced around 1990 as the Smena line's final new model. Its arrival coincided with LOMO's increasing attention to the LC-A, which had been in production since 1984 and would become the foundation of the international Lomography movement in the early 1990s following its adoption by Austrian students. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the economic disruption that followed ended normal state-directed camera production at LOMO; the Smena 35 was produced under these difficult conditions and did not establish a successor. The Smena line effectively ended with it.
The Smena 35 is significant primarily as a terminal point: the last Smena in a line that began in 1953 and produced tens of millions of cameras across approximately forty years. The T-43 triplet lens it carries is the same optical formula that made the Smena 8M a cult camera for lo-fi photography practitioners - modest central sharpness at stopped-down apertures, characteristic softness wide open, and an image quality loosely described as "Lomographic." The Smena 35 produces essentially the same image character as the 8M despite the later production date; the meaningful differences are in body ergonomics and plastic tooling rather than optical or mechanical performance.
As a fully manual, battery-free camera requiring the user to estimate or measure exposure independently, the Smena 35 represents the end of a tradition in Soviet mass-market photography - the entirely self-contained manual camera without metering. The LC-A that replaced it in LOMO's commercial focus was automatic; the Smena 35 was the last product in LOMO's compact line that made no concession to automation.
C41
Kodak ColorPlus 200 is an affordable, consumer-oriented daylight-balanced color negative film at ISO 200. Known for warm, slightly muted color rendition, fine grain, and wide exposure latitude, it is currently in production and widely available in Asia and select global markets.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →LOMO Smena 35
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