Newbie's guide to Lomography?

[sonick]

So I stumbled upon a friend's facebook note and she mentioned something about Lomography. Curious, I googled it and found it to be pretty cool!

So I'm just wondering if there's anybody here who knows anything about it. I was reading and it looks like the Lomo Smena models are a good cheap place to start.

However, when I googled up sample pics, they don't seem as 'unique' looking as some other lomo pics I've seen. Not much oversaturation, dark edges, etc.

Can anybody recommend a cheap camera to play around with lomography?

 

[LabelKing]

I was under the impression that Lomo cameras were all very cheap--Holga, etc.

 

[sonick]

Yeah, I looked into Holga but they don't take standard 35mm, and I'm wary of possibly higher prices to develop those photos.

I'm not sure, I've seen some Lomo cameras selling for a few hundred; though those may possibly be vintage/deadstock "authentic" cameras.

 

[LabelKing]

120 film isn't that much expensive to process; however, their prints tend to be more expensive if you have them processed at a store. This site sells a fair amount of new Lomo cameras for cheap: http://www.freestylephoto.biz

 

[caelte]

Google "junk camera", "toy camera".

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by caelte

Google "junk camera", "toy camera".
Indeed, very poor quality.

For a toy camera not of poor quality, the Minox, Robot, and Tessina are at the other extreme.

 

[Brian SD]

Toy camera indeed, but that doesn't mean it's not fun.

 

[caelte]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

Indeed, very poor quality.

For a toy camera not of poor quality, the Minox, Robot, and Tessina are at the other extreme.

I have a quite few junk cameras that I've found over the years.
It's their lack of technical sophistication giving them a randomness of expression that makes them so popular.
The image they produce has the look of the authentic, although it isn't viewed as such.

I'm interested in Polaroids as well. The last camera that tells the truth.

 

[tundrafour]

At the risk of offending someone, I hate "Lomography." Mostly because it doesn't mean anything. All "The Lomographic Society" (what a name!) has done is make itself the sole distributor for a whole bunch of cheap, ****** cameras, invent this empty phrase and create a pseudo-hip marketing campaign that basically implies that any photo taken with said cameras is automatically brilliant, and subsequently raise the cameras' prices enormously (a big reason people liked the LC-A, Diana, Holga, etc., to begin with was that they were cheap!).

If you want to get into photography using a plastic/toy camera, like the ones The Lomographic Society sells, at least don't buy it from them. There are lots of low-quality plastic cameras you can get without going through Lomo. Try eBay, Goodwill, flea markets, etc. You might not get the same quirks in constrast, saturation, etc., you're looking for in the first camera you find, but if you're paying a few bucks, as opposed to in excess of $100, for each camera, you can afford to keep trying pretty easily.

Consider also, if you want weird colors, shooting with expired or no-name film and finding a photo developing place that will cross-process your film.

Oh, and as a side note, you can use both 35mm and medium format film with the Holga. Here's a little tutorial on using 35mm film: http://shop.lomography.com/holga-backup/35.html.

 

[caelte]

Originally Posted by tundrafour

At the risk of offending someone, I hate "Lomography." Mostly because it doesn't mean anything. All "The Lomographic Society" (what a name!) has done is make itself the sole distributor for a whole bunch of cheap, ****** cameras, invent this empty phrase and create a pseudo-hip marketing campaign that basically implies that any photo taken with said cameras is automatically brilliant, and subsequently raise the cameras' prices enormously (a big reason people liked the LC-A, Diana, Holga, etc., to begin with was that they were cheap!).

If you want to get into photography using a plastic/toy camera, like the ones The Lomographic Society sells, at least don't buy it from them. There are lots of low-quality plastic cameras you can get without going through Lomo. Try eBay, Goodwill, flea markets, etc. You might not get the same quirks in constrast, saturation, etc., you're looking for in the first camera you find, but if you're paying a few bucks, as opposed to in excess of $100, for each camera, you can afford to keep trying pretty easily.

Consider also, if you want weird colors, shooting with expired or no-name film and finding a photo developing place that will cross-process your film.

Oh, and as a side note, you can use both 35mm and medium format film with the Holga. Here's a little tutorial on using 35mm film: http://shop.lomography.com/holga-backup/35.html.

I agree and don't think you are offensive at all.
You are correct in what you are saying.

Lensless photography is another way to go.
There are pinhole cameras available in the 2-3 hundred dollar range but, why?
Half the fun of is making the camera yourself.

You can always buy a very high quality film camera from the 1930's with an uncoated lens, medium format, for almost nothing on EBay.
They give surprising results.

There are really lots of cameras lying around now that you can hack and do something truly personal with .

 

[stevo4]

I believe one of the mottos of Lomography is "Don't Think, (just) Shoot"

Stevo

 

[dkzzzz]

Originally Posted by tundrafour

At the risk of offending someone, I hate "Lomography." Mostly because it doesn't mean anything. All "The Lomographic Society" (what a name!) has done is make itself the sole distributor for a whole bunch of cheap, ****** cameras, invent this empty phrase and create a pseudo-hip marketing campaign that basically implies that any photo taken with said cameras is automatically brilliant, and subsequently raise the cameras' prices enormously (a big reason people liked the LC-A, Diana, Holga, etc., to begin with was that they were cheap!).

If you want to get into photography using a plastic/toy camera, like the ones The Lomographic Society sells, at least don't buy it from them. There are lots of low-quality plastic cameras you can get without going through Lomo. Try eBay, Goodwill, flea markets, etc. You might not get the same quirks in constrast, saturation, etc., you're looking for in the first camera you find, but if you're paying a few bucks, as opposed to in excess of $100, for each camera, you can afford to keep trying pretty easily.

Consider also, if you want weird colors, shooting with expired or no-name film and finding a photo developing place that will cross-process your film.

Oh, and as a side note, you can use both 35mm and medium format film with the Holga. Here's a little tutorial on using 35mm film: http://shop.lomography.com/holga-backup/35.html.

Your statement might be 100% correct when it comes to that society that calls themselves Lomo-something and sells cheap cameras, but it is 100% incorrect when it comes to origins of Lomography and LOMO camera itself.
I owned the original Lomo camera in 1980s. It was made 100% of metal and had Carl Zeiss lens. It had auto focusing and manual operation. It was heavy and sturdy. While being pretty heavy it was a size of modern portable digital cameras (pack of cigarettes).
Lomography originated due to unique shortcoming of the lens that created whimsically distorted images that were always an unexpected surprise and very fun to develop on paper.