Lomography
Lomo started out as a russian company making a copy of a japanese Cosina camera, resulting in the LC-A. It was a fun little thing, sharp in the middle but serious light fall-off at the edges, and the shutter would stay open long enough to get an exposure no matter how dark it was - so if it needed a half hour, it would stay open that long. The results were fun, blurry, bright. Some westerners "discovered" it in the early 90's (this is all coming from this timeline and did some serious marketing to the hip and trendy and "lomography" was born. I had one, it was fun - lots of bright streaky colors.
Then they started producing their own versions of older fun funky toy cameras starting with the Action Sampler which takes four pictures in rapid succession. The original cost a couple of dollars... the lomography version sells for $30. They were onto something.
Then there was a cheap plastic fisheye camera ($40 - $80) - remember, these are the kinds of cameras you would find in blister-paks in toy stores for a couple of bucks and the joy was you never knew what would come out - light leaks, distortion, etc. Now, though, the junkiness was quality-controlled to be just-so.
They started selling the Holga, created in Hong Kong as an inexpensive family camera for chinese people but it was SO cheaply made that again, you never knew what you'd get. There's a well-known image of Al Gore in 2001 taken with a Holga:
They they copied the Diana and that's when I couldn't forgive them.
Cheap chinese cameras from the 60s, these had more variability than Holgas and produced some wonderful dreamy images. This is one of mine:
You'd find them at tag sales and swap meets and then when eBay came along you could find them there.
The Lomo version? Interchangeable lenses. Again, just-so quality control. With flash, $95, with all sorts of kits and special editions available up into the hundreds of dollars. They do the same thing with the Lubitel, and you can find that crappy reproduction for $350 in the lomo store.
I suppose they wouldn't do it if people didn't buy them but it's SUCH a ripoff and is like (I'm going to date myself) a rich socialite buying very expensive clothes made of torn up material and safety pins so she could look "punk".
HOWEVER (we finally get there) they came out with something I think is quite cool. It's a 35mm panoramic that looks like an old bakelite Falcon.
It takes a wide image across a width of 35mm film. I don't know that anyone could print them and even scanning requires a special piece of equipment, but they're fun.
They didn't copy something exactly but they made something unique. Still ridiculously priced but it keeps people using film which is good.
There's just something about the commodification of what used to be random happy accidents that is just so _hipster_. And if someone sees me with one of my original Dianas they will think that I'm one of them. Maybe that's what really bothers me.
Then they started producing their own versions of older fun funky toy cameras starting with the Action Sampler which takes four pictures in rapid succession. The original cost a couple of dollars... the lomography version sells for $30. They were onto something.
Then there was a cheap plastic fisheye camera ($40 - $80) - remember, these are the kinds of cameras you would find in blister-paks in toy stores for a couple of bucks and the joy was you never knew what would come out - light leaks, distortion, etc. Now, though, the junkiness was quality-controlled to be just-so.
They started selling the Holga, created in Hong Kong as an inexpensive family camera for chinese people but it was SO cheaply made that again, you never knew what you'd get. There's a well-known image of Al Gore in 2001 taken with a Holga:
They they copied the Diana and that's when I couldn't forgive them.
Cheap chinese cameras from the 60s, these had more variability than Holgas and produced some wonderful dreamy images. This is one of mine:
You'd find them at tag sales and swap meets and then when eBay came along you could find them there.
The Lomo version? Interchangeable lenses. Again, just-so quality control. With flash, $95, with all sorts of kits and special editions available up into the hundreds of dollars. They do the same thing with the Lubitel, and you can find that crappy reproduction for $350 in the lomo store.
I suppose they wouldn't do it if people didn't buy them but it's SUCH a ripoff and is like (I'm going to date myself) a rich socialite buying very expensive clothes made of torn up material and safety pins so she could look "punk".
HOWEVER (we finally get there) they came out with something I think is quite cool. It's a 35mm panoramic that looks like an old bakelite Falcon.
It takes a wide image across a width of 35mm film. I don't know that anyone could print them and even scanning requires a special piece of equipment, but they're fun.
They didn't copy something exactly but they made something unique. Still ridiculously priced but it keeps people using film which is good.
There's just something about the commodification of what used to be random happy accidents that is just so _hipster_. And if someone sees me with one of my original Dianas they will think that I'm one of them. Maybe that's what really bothers me.