La 0.7 Ca 0.3 MnO 3 (LCMO) films grown on (001) surfaces of various (pseudo-) cubic substrates, MgO, SrTiO 3 , LaSrGaO 4 and YAlO 3 , were studied by means of transmission electron microscopy. In all cases, the (001) plane of LCMO perovskite primitive cell is parallel to the substrate surface. The film on SrTiO 3 showed the single-variant structure with many twin boundaries while the films on other substrates had the three-variant structure where three [010] axes of the orthorhombic unit cell are perpendicular to each other. The LCMO cell on SrTiO 3 was expanded by about 1% in the film plane and shrank by about 1% out of the plane. Many planar defects and intergrown grains were observed in the film on MgO. They originated at the substrate surface.