Analog film photography and cameras

I can't imagine things like that are "getting people into film photography", to be honest.
I think it's pretty hard to take satisfying photos with a piece of plastic like this thing,
it costs money (and time), and the average novice will think "fuck it, I can do better with my iPhone" after the first roll of film.
I think, if anything, it's proper high quality cameras that may be getting people "into film".

Meh, if every second or third hipster on the planet bought one and a single roll of film to put through it, that'd be a lot of sales of film which can only be a good thing.

Getting someone into a 'proper' camera would probably generate a more sustained string of film purchases (which would be better) but new film cameras are few and far between and in the case of Leica, Fuji Klasse/Natura etc are prohibitively expensive narrowing their appeal.

I wonder how many people in here are buying new film though? People buying that kit are probably doing more good for the industry

(I rarely buy new film)

Meh, if every second or third hipster on the planet bought one and a single roll of film to put through it, that'd be a lot of sales of film which can only be a good thing.

Fair enough.

Getting someone into a 'proper' camera would probably generate a more sustained string of film purchases (which would be better)

Excacly.

but new film cameras are few

There are myriads of good, used 35mm film cameras avaiable on this planet.
For the price of the "Konstruktor" kit you can get a used, say, Canon FD body & prime in good condition,
which surely is far superior in every aspect (but for the fact you can't assemble it yourself like a Kinder Überraschung).

Nothing wrong with the whole lomography concept if like is suggested is getting people into film , sorry " analogue lifestyle " again .
That's a bit like most people on lfgss who are saying no to carbon and DI2 , and on the watch forum on here people rightly covet swiss and mechanical . Lomo website got me into film , bought a Zenit 11 and some b+w film with no clue how , am learning . And having fun .

There are myriads of good, used 35mm film cameras avaiable on this planet.
For the price of the "Konstruktor" kit you can get a used, say, Canon FD body & prime in good condition,
which surely is far superior in every aspect (but for the fact you can't assemble it yourself like a Kinder Überraschung).

Absolutely. But how do you market/advertise/sell used cameras to hipsters?

Also, buying a used camera is dead easy, there's thousands on ebay, buying a half decent used camera is a little harder, it requires a little knowledge and/or research. Buying a diy lomo thing is as easy as walking into urban outfitters and picking one up off the shelf.

I went to Mr Cad today on Tachbrook Street. Best 20 minute escape from the office EVAR. Send the hipsters there. Actually bursting at the seams with camera pr0n.

hmmm... Anyone know anywhere in Oxford I can pick up a point and shoot?
Or APS (yeah.....) film? I was going to borrow my parents ixus, but forgot to check about film size...
Stupid.

My twin just alerted me to this site: http://japancamerahunter.com/

I'd never heard of it. Its luscious.

My twin just alerted me to this site: http://japancamerahunter.com/

I'd never heard of it. Its luscious.

JCH was a daily visit for me for a year or so but Igot a bit bored of it after a while.

There's also Tokyo Camera Style which is good for camera porn.

All these new lomography kits for hipsters (slash babboons) can gtfo >>>

while plenty of the lomo offerings are pretty cringey, they've been around 10+ years, always for hipsters, but overall are a good thing for film photography.

some people get bored and frustrated with over-priced toys, some people get the bug and go get a decent camera. I'd been using an good SLR (Nikon FE2, as it happens, seeing that lovely photo upthread, but it died) and using the darkroom since school, loved it but it was an occasional thing. 12 years ago I got an LCA and seemed to singlehandedly keep the local film dev shop afloat for about a year, the camera never left my side. I haven't touched it in years, I couldn't stand the image quality after a while, but I still have huge fondness for it.

I'm not into lomo but this guy's shots def don't look like they're shot on a "toy"
http://hogwong.tumblr.com/

JCH was a daily visit for me for a year or so but Igot a bit bored of it after a while.

There's also Tokyo Camera Style which is good for camera porn.

Cheers, and I'll let my twin know too!

Has anybody discussed MOD54 yet? My twin does large format (I don't), and it certainly impresses him.

Found this at the market today, got it for £25 in the end with the 28mm lens, manual and very tatty case. Cleaned it up and it seems to be in pretty good condition, looking forward to getting some film through it.

Has anybody discussed MOD54 yet? My twin does large format (I don't), and it certainly impresses him.

For 4x5 the best manual solution I know is to do dip-and-dunk with a series of Combiplan tanks.. For machine processing the Jobo Expert drums are the best. In between are loads of reel based solutions.. but I only really consider them for small desktop machines like the Durst Filmetta and Jobo ATL1000/1500 machines. The Mod54 looks like an update on the sheet film reel for my Filmetta--- which is Paterson dimensioned--- so might be interesting to see if it is suitable...

I think it's pretty hard to take satisfying photos with a piece of plastic like this thing,
it costs money (and time), and the average novice will think "fuck it, I can do better with my iPhone" after the first roll of film.

Bollocks.

It appeals to those who don't mind experimenting and might find the unpredictability fun.

It's actually super-easy to get a good photo with a toy camera vs a mechanical 35mm slr.

“I fear for organizations such as the Chicago Sun-Times, which last month laid off all of its camera pros in favour of cheaper, crowd-sourced iPhonography. They will get what they pay for.

This spring, I was an adjudicator of the 2013 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival photography competition. This week, my three fellow judges – all professional photographers and curators – and I announced that we couldn’t find a winner, and won’t be awarding a prize for the first time in 18 years. There isn’t even a runner-up.”

“Our jury gazed upon any number of beautiful images: astonishing pictures of the aurora borealis, climbers in Peru, mountains in China, of bears and bobcats and birds both here and abroad. We saw technically brilliant photographs, superbly (or, more often, overly) Photoshopped. But none of them managed to tell the simplest of stories.”

Humanity takes millions of photos every day. Why are most so forgettable? Ian Brown / The Globe and Mail

http://strange.rs/blog/?i=post/53693250085/i-fear-for-organizations-such-as-the-chicago

It appeals to those who don't mind experimenting and might find the unpredictability fun.

No need to go out of the way to spend money on cheap plastic cameras with bad quality control and light leaks out of the box.. There are literally millions of old cameras out there.. Used camera prices are still quite low.. For the price of any of those toy thingees one can get much more interesting cameras and a pile of film.. Look to the boom post-war years.. Have something for plastic? There are loads of interesting bakelit cameras to be found.. for 5-10 Quid.. They were, however, designed to try to take good pictures. The bokeh and image quality of some of these are quite interesting.. also look at some of the portrait objectives from the 1920s .. and some of the 35mm cameras from the 1930s and 40s..

I know.

The fact is, if you know nothing about photography, stumble upon lomo, buy a camera and have fun with it - it's not exactly a bad thing.

You could say the exact same thing about buying a bike. If you don't know much about bikes you're probably going to buy something overpriced and inappropriate rather than a more suitable and better priced 2nd hand item. But someone buying a bike and getting into cycling isn't a bad thing, regardless of how bad their first purchase is.

Everyone seems to be having a go at people buying lomos because they don't share the same knowledge as them, weren't we all clueless beginners once?

I have a tatty Olympus Mju 2 and a Holga for sale if anyone's interested?

I'd be interested in the Mju 2

PM?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/insidemyeyelids/9110142462/

PM if you want further details.

http://strange.rs/blog/?i=post/53693250085/i-fear-for-organizations-such-as-the-chicago

That is mostly cobblers. He dribbles on about Magnum but Martin Parr would have nothing do with his sneering, condescending view of photography.
"This isn’t to say all digital photographers are forgettable" What a snobby idiot.
When were the majority of photographs not 'forgettable'. People taking photos of their families, their holidays, their bikes, aren't taking them to produce great photographs. They are interested in the subject matter. And if he thinks film was a golden age he should flip through a few old copies of Amateur Photographer and discover there's always been a mass of banal and unambitious pictures produced by technically adept enthusiasts.
He comes across as resentful that people have the temerity to take photos for reasons other than his own, and for purposes different to his, and that they, oh, they're just so vulgar! So common!