Last month Lomography announced what appears to be the most sophisticated camera it has ever produced – the new LOMO MC-A compact.
The arrival of the LOMO MC-A, a camera which looks most like the premium compact many film photographers have been waiting for, has come at a very interesting point in film camera development. Ricoh kicked off a mini renaissance last with the Pentax 17, the first half-frame 35mm camera to bear the famous camera maker’s name and their first film model in nearly two decades.
MiNT Camera, the Hong Kong company best known for their range of classically inspired instant cameras, meanwhile sought inspiration from one of the most iconic compact film cameras of all time: the Rollei 35 to create the Rollei 35AF, which was also released last year.
Upstart Amsterdam outfit Analogue then unveiled its aF-1 camera earlier this year, an autofocus compact with a sliding cover just like cult compacts of yesteryear like the Olympus Mju-II and XA.
Lomography’s new 35mm compact camera is a world away from simpler cameras like the LomoApparat or the Fisheye No. 2. It also appears to be an equally giant leap forward from the Soviet LOMO LC-A compact which kicked off the company’s adventures 33 years ago.
Can it really have created a premium compact camera whole everyone was looking at what other camera makers were doing?
The LOMO MC-A is the Austrian photography brand’s first autofocus 35mm camera, and also the first to offer manually selectable shutter speeds across the full range. It also appears to be (please correct me if I’m wrong) the only 35mm autofocus compact to also come with zone focusing as a back-up.
Lomography were kind enough to let me borrow one of the cameras to review for Kosmo Foto. The camera came in its complete kit, including all the accessories. A full review of the camera will appear in January after I have put as many rolls as possible through it – this really is a camera worth spending some time with, and it represents a genuinely exciting moment in modern film camera development whether it meets its expectations or not.
I also thought it was worth noting down a few first impressions of the LOMO MC-A after a few days with the camera, plus some all-important example shots taken on the first few rolls.
Build quality: The LOMO MC-A’s launch mentioned its metal frame as a virtue. Without a battery, the camera weighs around 330g, which isn’t exactly overweight. But it feels far more robust than your average compact.
The on/off switch (which also selects the autofocus or zone focus selector) needs a pretty strong movement to operate, which means it’s less likely to be moved by accident when in a bag or a pocket.
The shutter speed and exposure compensation dials move smoothly and have pleasing clicks as they move from setting to setting.
The advance lever feels robust. I’ve found, however, that it doesn’t always completely wind on to the next frame with what I thought was a full movement: it’s a very long advance. I missed a few shots because the camera wouldn’t fire. If this happens to you, just advance the winder a little and it should complete the movement.
The accessory wrist strap which can be attached to either of the strap lugs is of very good quality, and comes with a leather patch which stops the strap’s O-ring scraping paint off camera’s side.
Flash and shooting modes: The camera’s LCD screen shows the frame number, battery level, which focus mode is selected and flash mode is currently chosen.
That big number is the film’s frame count. Wind the film on and the number counts up.
The three buttons underneath the panel allow you to select flash, self-timer and ISO.
The flash modes are off, on, front-curtain sync with long exposure and rear-curtain sync with long exposure (called L1 and L2). The flash takes only a few seconds to recharge – much faster than most film compacts.
Helpfully, the default flash setting is off.
The self-timer has three modes: 2s, 10s or 30s.
Film ISO speeds from 12 to 3200 can be chosen. If the film has a DX code, the LOMO MC-A will automatically select it, but it can be overwritten manually. The ISO is then set until you either change it manually or open the camera’s back.
I shot two rolls at box speed – with one roll of Kodak Gold 200 the camera automatically chose the ISO from the canister’s DX code. With a roll of Lomography’s new LomoChrome ClassiColor 200 (which had been rolled into a blank cassette) I had to choose the ISO myself. I’m partway through a roll of Kosmo Foto Agent Shadow that I’ve pushed to ISO 1600, and the camera has remained on ISO 1600 despite the camera being turned off several times.
For simplicity’s sake, I’ve kept the camera in both AF (autofocus) and Auto mode on the shutter dial. The camera’s auto-exposure mode is aperture priority: choose your preferred aperture on the lens, and the camera will choose the right shutter speed to expose properly. This is obviously different to the LOMO LC-A/LC-A+ auto mode, where the camera chose both aperture and shutter speed and left you none the wiser til you got your photos developed.
(Update: The camera also has a “P” mode where it will choose the aperture and shutter speed. You chose this by selecting the P next to the 2.8 on the aperture ring on the front of the camera – the printing is very small and it’s hard to miss. If you’ve ever shot a Minox 35mm camera like the 35 ML, you’ll know what I’m talking about.)
(For the full review I’ll obviously check how accurate the zone focusing is and work out how to shoot the camera manually.)
Loading/unloading the film: This has been one of the only aspects of the camera that has given me pause so far, though I’m also aware the most glaring issue was probably my own fault.
The first roll I loaded I ended up sacrificing as it was high-speed black-and-white, I’d only shot a few frames and suddenly found myself with a bright, sunny Sunday to test the camera on. I loaded a roll of expired Fujifilm Provia 100F slide film and shot it around the Isle of Dogs near Greenwich, and then found the film getting to frame 40, and still moving. Sure enough, I had pulled all of the film out of the canister with those extra advances, and it now sat wrapped around the take-up spool. I didn’t have a dark bag to rescue it so had to dump this roll (with who knows how many “bangers”) into the nearest bin. I may have inadvertently wound the rewind handle the wrong way when trying to get the film out, to add insult to injury.
Thankfully, the next roll – a 36-frame roll of Kodak Gold 200 – fared much better, and you can see examples from it below. I was careful not to hit frame 36 so had a few blank frames towards the end of the film. Better than the alternative!
The third roll also had issues, but as this was a bulk-rolled Lomography test roll of their new LomoChrome Classicolor 200 film, I can’t be sure it was 100% anyway. When developed, many of the shots had stress marks on the top and bottom of the frame showing that it had been too tightly wound. Thankfully, I have a factory-finished roll of this film waiting to load into the LOMO MC-A. A few pics from this roll which are OK are included below.
Shooting the LOMO MC-A: Tech specs and build quality are one thing, but the proof is obviously how good the results are – especially when the camera is selling for £450.
The example shots included for the camera’s launch were certainly eye-catching. I wanted to make the most of a sunny day for shooting colour film, and shot three rolls around the Isle of Dogs, the City of London and Whitechapel before the provided CR-2 battery gave up the ghost.
Here are some of the shots from the first roll of Kodak Gold 200:
All of these shots were taken on Auto mode, with the flash off. The camera’s auto exposure system has been consistently good. Only a few of these images needed a little tweak in Photoshop to deepen the shadows, some of which exhibited purplish tones before tweaking the contrast. The five-element lens is sharp and contrasty with a touch of vignetting in the corners more visible in the uncropped shots. It’s certainly not as dramatic as you’d find on the LOMO LC-A and more in keeping what you’d see on compacts like the Canon Sure Shot M or Olympus Mju-I.
Here are a few images I managed to salvage from the roll of LomoChrome Classicolor 200:
The LOMO MC-A is certainly an impressive camera, and the results from the first successful roll show some real promise. Check back on Kosmo Foto in January to see if it is something that should be on your shopping list in 2026…
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
[…] I mentioned the Lomography LOMO MC-A recently. Kosmo Foto has had the privilege to shoot with one for a while and now have their first impressions of the Lomography LOMO MC-A. […]
I bought one and just shipped to me before I fought to uk. But I test about 5 in Hong Kong and none of that work. The first one has overlapped frame (and hence your trick of doing it again does not work sadly). The next four all have stress marked. 2 are bulk loaded. But two are Kentmere 100. ( I used another 10 in my class across f6, f75, fm1, fe1, voiglandsr bessa and Pentax 17. Hence I could not blame on the firm or the camera. Not to mention the class of 20 use another 20 of the same firm across nikon f, canon, … But this one killed two. On top of my bulk loaded one. Then I tried the sixth and it stopped in between. I do multiple exp and also the bottom and then release it and continue shooting. Totally lost confidence. Now get my mother in law canon 38-105 1992 old camera plus getting just two more ps in Torquay today to tried this 35mm thing. Not done that mostly as I do hassey and p67, 4×5 digital etc. May now get a hexar af to cut this thread off … just crazy this is a very very enjoyable to shoot camera. Otherwise I would not keep on trying. Such a shame.
[…] Steve’s first impressions on Kosmo Foto here […]
Some premium compacts had auto-focus and zone focus – at least the Contax TVS, Contax T3 (inconvenient via menu), Nikon 35, Ricoh GR (limited to 2 distances but quick – able to set infinity and mid distance), also less compact but submersible Nikon 35ALW
You mentioned that the battery only lasted for 3 rolls. That is crazy low number. Was it near death when you were given it?