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 Elektra is a 35mm compact camera produced at LOMO (Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Association) from approximately 1968. The camera is notable within Soviet production for its electronic shutter: unlike the mechanical leaf shutters used across most Soviet compact cameras of the era, the Elektra uses an electronically controlled shutter mechanism in which shutter speed is determined steplessly by the selenium photocell reading rather than by a manually indexed mechanical cam. This design, broadly comparable to the approach used in cameras such as the Agfa Optima (1959) and various Japanese shutter-priority compacts, was unusual for LOMO output. The fixed lens is scale-focus; the selenium cell handles exposure automatically with no manual exposure override. The camera is not battery-dependent for the shutter in the traditional sense - the selenium cell generates its own current - but the electronic shutter circuit requires functional cell output to operate, meaning a degraded selenium cell results in incorrect exposure and a dead cell renders the shutter inoperable.
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 →BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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About this camera
A Soviet electronic-shutter compact from Leningrad - selenium auto-exposure and stepless speed control, ca. 1968.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Lens | LOMO fixed lens, ~45mm ~f/2.8 (triplet or tessar-type) |
| Focus | Scale focus |
| Years | ~1968 - ~1975 |
| Shutter | Electronic leaf, stepless ~1/30s - ~1/650s |
| Flash sync | ~1/30s |
| Meter | Selenium (auto-exposure) |
| Modes | Auto-only |
| Body material | Aluminum, plastic trim |
| Weight | ~360 g |
| Battery | None (selenium self-powered) |
LOMO's 35mm output in the 1960s was dominated by the Smena compact series, the Sokol automatic compact, and the Voskhod. The Sokol Automat (1966) introduced fully automatic program exposure at LOMO using a selenium cell and mechanical shutter coupling. The Elektra represented a development of this approach with an explicitly electronic shutter mechanism - a step beyond the mechanically coupled selenium systems common in Soviet production. The integration of electronic shutter control required more complex internal circuitry than the Sokol's mechanical exposure coupling, placing the Elektra at the more technically ambitious end of LOMO's compact output.
Production was not large by Soviet standards, and the Elektra did not establish a subsequent line at LOMO. The factory's compact development through the 1970s moved in other directions; the LC-A, introduced in 1984, used a different auto-exposure architecture with a CdS cell and electronic control. The Elektra therefore occupies a specific narrow window in LOMO's product history: after the Sokol Automat's mechanical selenium approach and before the CdS-based LC-A era.
The LOMO Elektra demonstrates that Soviet camera engineers were developing electronic shutter technology in parallel with Western and Japanese manufacturers during the late 1960s - the period when electronic shutter control was becoming commercially established globally. Most accounts of Soviet photographic equipment focus on the Zorki and FED rangefinder lines (Leica derivatives), the Zenit SLRs, and the Smena mass-market compacts; the Elektra sits outside all these narratives as a technically differentiated product from a factory better known for straightforward manual designs.
For a working photographer of 1968, the Elektra offered full automation: focus was set by distance estimate on the scale, the selenium cell set the shutter speed continuously within its range, and the photographer composed and released the shutter. This was a genuinely convenient approach that removed the mental arithmetic of Sunny-16 or manual metering for casual use. The absence of any manual override means the camera is entirely at the mercy of selenium cell condition today, which limits its practical utility for film use.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
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.
View profile →LOMO Elektra
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