Sold between 1982-86, the LOMO Almaz (Diamond in Russian) 103 is a rare beast, and came standard with the MC Volna 50mm f1.8 with Pentax K bayonet mount. My version is in the subtle Chameleon type paint that looks near black until under bright light where you can see it is more a brown colour. Only 9508 103’s were made with this one being fairly late from 1985.

It is a typically solid Russian build with all the features you would expect, plus the Nikon F2 inspired removable prism allowing for top down viewing - which I used for most of the shots I took.

Loaded with a roll of the newly released Kosmo Foto Direktor, I spent an afternoon aimlessly wandering the streets of London with no plan other than enjoying my new Almaz…

Having bought the camera just an hour earlier, plus the first roll of Kosmo Foto’s brand new Direktor film, and the first time I had used my new TTArtisan Lightmeter II - I did not make things easy! To be honest the only fiddly bit was the Almaz does not have a flash shoe to mount the meter, so it took a bit of juggling.

I really like the look of the Kosmo film which is essentially Kodak Double-X re-spooled with some cool artwork on the canister, but I wanted to try it out and support Kosmo, as he is a really nice bloke!

My only criticism of the Almaz is the focusing - It may be just my aging eyes, but it was a case of a best guess, rather than a confirmed exact focus! I found the top down view with the prism removed was a nicer experience, but even so felt like a fitted waist level finder would have been better. You cannot fault the image quality though from the Volna lens.

Easily my favourite image from the day is this shot on the Underground, shot wide open at 1/15th or 1/30th (I can’t remember exactly) it captures the scene I envisioned perfectly. I love everything about it - the grittyness, the somehow nailed focus, the motion of the train emerging from the darkness and the halation from the overhead lights. All this from a completely new setup, stabilized by the arm of a bench.

So final thoughts on the Almaz - it is not the best camera to come out of the Soviet Union, but it was enjoyable to shoot. It does not have the quality of a Japanese camera, but it is the roughness that we love about Soviet cameras - they have a certain charm that no-one else can provide. It can sit next to others like the KMZ Start and Zenit 4 in my collection with it’s head held high.

Soviet Diamond - Almaz 103…

The Chinon Holy Grail(s)…