Lomo Cameras - What's the deal ?

MarcusGarvey

Lomo cameras seem to be pretty popular. Why ? Is it just good marketing or do they produce good quality shots ?

rob1891

don't buy them from the lomo website!! They are cool little cameras but all that marketing is there to push something that has <25 euro value up to 200 euro.

I got two for 20 euro each at a camera market in Warsaw, they'd be even cheaper in Russia. I might pick up a few more (I'm in Poland for the summer) if I get a chance. No guarantee they work perfectly, but they aren't supposed to work perfectly!!!

I think the key is that they over expose most pictures, so you end up will more saturated colours. They also have a pretty neat lens, by the specifications 3?mm f2.8 on a P.O.S. camera is pretty good. But it is made out of plastic :eek: and viginettes sometimes.

They are certainly not worth the price on lomography.com. And what that website stands for is pretty disgusting, basically milking people taken in by the 'spirit' & style of the camera and photos taken with it. I was one of them!! It was 180e when I got mine, I could have had 8 or 9 of them if I had waited to get to Warsaw!!! (well i only saw three on sale ... but you know what I mean).

Rob

rob1891

and I forget ...

do they produce good quality shots ?

no! overexposed, out of focus, blurred, viginetted ... etc

Mantel

200 euro for that peice of ****! Hell no. Whats worse is that paint can for 65 euro, all ya need is a paint can and a nail and your set.

Get a holga instead, none of this automatic pansyness, ya have to count the clicks on it when your winding the film.

DadaKopf

The lens on the Lomo LC-A isn't plastic. It's a coated glass lens. The Holga lens is plastic.

I got sucked in, too. Nearly immediately after I bought it, I copped on to what the 'Lomo Society' is all about. It's an ingenious branding strategy, but unless you like being ripped off and are happy to contribute to their form of world domination by feeding their marketing machine for free (free websites, competitions, word-of-mouth etc.), then sure, go ahead.

Holgas are fine, but, once again, way overpriced on from Lomo. I bought my Holga on e-Bay for half the price the LS charges.

I never use my Lomo anymore because I'm sick of the crap image quality. I liked it for a while but now I just really use my 1995 Canon EOS with a 50mm lens and a flash.

Unless there's something specific I want to get out of the quality of the LC-A or the Holga (I also have a Lubitel that I never use), then I'll really use my Canon.

Actually, I'd much rather save up now for an EOS 10D or a cheapy medium format camera.

rob1891

I never use my Lomo anymore because I'm sick of the crap image quality. I liked it for a while but now I just really use my 1995 Canon EOS with a 50mm lens and a flash.

I'd be the same, stop using it shortly after I bought it, stick to an old canon now. One of the friends I gave a warsaw lomo to uses it quite a bit though. It's nearly all party photos or odd stuff that he takes and they do come out nice but all the same style of mad lights and ghosts and what not. Probably easy to do if you decide to stop focusing and metering on a normal camera, and you can always try and take a good photo later in the day

MarcusGarvey

Jeez, sounds like pics I get when I use my camera phone !

Mantel

Holgas are fine, but, once again, way overpriced on from Lomo. I bought my Holga on e-Bay for half the price the LS charges.

Geez, didn't see the holga on that lomo site the first time around but 60 euro! and they don't even seal it for light leaks! At least holga-mods paint the inside matt black for you. A few friends said they've seen them in the blackrock market aswell and after haveing a quick look at ebay its cramed with them.

Now if only i could be arsed buying one.

Gyck

I've been palying around with a Holga for a few months now, and I'm getting better results from black and white than from colour so far. I'd have to say that in defense of the Lomo site they at least turned me on to using cheap cameras for potentially interesting results.

It's stirring my interest in going back into the darkroom again, and that's nice.

As for the light leaks from the Holga, well, you get what you pay for and their weaknesses (strengths?) well documented on the web.