Ask the Culture Coach
The Book that Changed My Life
Perfectly Imperfect
Low-fidelity film cameras earn a cult following in a digital era
By: Les Shu; Photographs: Mitch Mandel
Published: October 2008 [ Updated: Oct 31, 2008 - 6:48:45 PM ]
Shortly after the wall fell, Austrian backpackers Matthias Fiegl and Wolfgang Stranzinger got their hands on a Lomo LC-A, a 35 mm camera mass-produced in the USSR. The snapshots it yielded were often blurry with oversaturated colors, yet they conveyed a unique warmth and in-the-moment quality that impressed every Westerner who saw them. In the years since, despite the advent of digital photography and the meteoric rise in megapixels, Fiegl and Stranzinger's Lomographic Society International (lomography.com) has become famous for preserving and selling quirky, low-tech cameras that may have otherwise vanished. The company's niche is resolute: Film has a charm that digital can't replicate.
Diana+ When the Great Wall Plastics Factory in Hong Kong first created this plastic camera in the 1960s, many considered it a cheap novelty. But with its vignette effect and slightly out-of-focus feel, the Diana+ ultimately became so popular that it spawned some 30-plus clones. At $50, Lomographic's update, which features a removable lens for taking pinhole and panoramic shots, still produces soft images similar to those faded photos in your family album.
Lomo LC-A+ It's hard not to feel creative with this camera. Every photo comes out looking like art. Which is to say that not every one comes out a polished trophy, but that's sort of the point. Some photos will be blurry, others will contain streaks of light that provide a sense of motion, and the vast majority of them will have beautifully oversaturated colors, a credit to the camera's metering and exposure system. Although this Soviet-era cam is now made in a different communist country (China), it features the same high-quality Lomo Minatar lens found in the original and costs a respectable $250.
Holga The name Holga is a European take on the Chinese moniker ho gwong, which means "very bright." And that's what the Holga has been known for ever since its invention in Hong Kong in 1982: bright, idyllic shots. The $70 camera, which is made entirely of plastic and weighs almost nothing, couldn't be any simpler: There are two light settings, two shutter speeds, and four focusing modes (denoted by silhouettes of heads). Though it requires medium-format 120 film and has been known to leak light (owners often tape its cracks with electrical tape), it does have a built-in flash that you can cover with special gels to tint your photos red, blue, or yellow.
Horizon Perfekt Of the cameras in Lomographic's lineup, the 35 mm Perfekt is one of the more advanced (and, at $500, expensive). Built in a Russian factory since 1967, its unique feature is its swing-lens technology, which takes sharp panoramic photographs. It does this by keeping the shutter open for the designated aperture to let the glass lens rotate from left to right. You can adjust the settings manually, so you can shoot your extended family in the same frame, turn the lens on yourself for a distorted self-portrait, or capture a fish-eye view of a scenic vista.
ActionSampler In a low-tech action sequence, this four-lens camera takes four photos on one frame, each a fraction of a second apart. In other words, imagine a photo booth on speed. Based on an extinct Chinese model, the ActionSampler was redesigned internally, renamed, and then reissued. "We came across the camera, developed new ideas for it, and decided to bring it back," says Ulli Barta, CEO of Lomographic Society USA. Despite its Fisher Price-like feel, Barta insists the $30 shooter is anything but a toy. "There's quite a community behind it," says Barta. "People combine the prints sequentially to create movie-like stills."
