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 Smena E (1967) is a Soviet 35mm scale-focus compact produced by LOMO in Leningrad. It is a variant of the Smena 8 / Smena 8M formula with the defining addition of an X-sync electronic flash synchronization socket, replacing or supplementing the M-sync of earlier Smena models that was designed for slower flashbulbs. The camera uses the same T-43 40mm f/4 triplet taking lens found across the entire Smena family. Body is moulded Bakelite. No meter, no rangefinder, manual shutter and aperture control. Entirely mechanical except for the sync circuit contact; no battery required for shutter operation.
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.
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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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Before you buy used
About this camera
A Smena 8 with electronic flash sync: LOMO's 1967 Bakelite compact updated for the age of electronic strobes.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Lens | LOMO T-43 40mm f/4 (triplet, fixed) |
| Focus | Scale focus |
| Shutter speeds | ~1/15s, 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s, 1/250s + B |
| Flash sync | X-sync (electronic flash) |
| Meter | None |
| Modes | Manual aperture + manual shutter |
| Body material | Bakelite |
| Weight | ~195 g |
| Battery | None required for shutter |
The Smena line was established in 1953 and LOMO iterated through numbered variants into the 1960s. By the mid-1960s, electronic flash units were displacing the older expendable flashbulb technology in consumer photography worldwide, and the existing Smena sync contacts (M-sync, designed for flashbulbs with a small delay) were poorly matched to zero-delay electronic strobes. The Smena E addressed this directly by providing X-sync contacts - triggering at shutter opening with no delay, the correct timing for electronic flash.
The Smena E was produced from approximately 1967 and superseded within a few years as the Smena line continued to evolve. The Smena 8M, which arrived in refined form and went on to 17 million units, incorporated X-sync as standard. The Smena E is therefore historically a transitional variant: it solved the electronic sync problem on the existing Bakelite body before the more successful successor models normalized the feature.
The Smena E occupies a specific niche in Smena family history as the earliest variant to prioritize electronic flash compatibility. For contemporary shooters, this matters not at all - any modern flash trigger uses X-sync, and all later Smena bodies (including the ubiquitous 8M) support it. The Smena E is therefore primarily of interest to collectors documenting the Smena line's technical evolution.
As a shooter, the Smena E is functionally equivalent to any Smena 8M: T-43 optics, scale focus, fully manual exposure, no battery required. The T-43's characteristic rendering - adequate center sharpness, soft and vignetted corners at f/4, improved significantly at f/8 - is the same in every camera that uses it. The Bakelite body is slightly more fragile than the later polystyrene-bodied 8M. Prices are similar to or slightly above the Smena 8M because the E is less common, despite offering no optical or functional advantages over the later model.
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 E
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