Two lenses, the lower one, with the shutter, exposes the film, while the other serves the viewfinder.The lens is a coated 75 mm f/4.5 T-22 triplet lens, with aperture down to f/22, and the close-focus limit is at just over a meter.

The viewfinder has a condenser lens rather than a ground-glass screen, with only a small central spot ground for focusing. This design requires some care in focusing, but gives a much brighter view for framing than would a full-frame ground-glass screen.

The Lubitel 166B uses 120 roll film and exposes 6x6cm square images.

Lomo made this plastic-bodied Twin lens reflex medium format camera beginning circa 1980. It was a small revision to the 1976 Lubitel 166, adding a self-timer.