As the days of the film are numbered, some white knights (also yellow and black and red knights, to name a few) coming to its rescue.
Because of them, it is not yet the time to sound the death knell for the film era.
Along with these Lomo cameras on the shelf are a wide array of expensive films. Take the Fujifilm Reala 100 for example. It is known for rendering images in good tonal values and edge sharpness, and sold for HK$45 per roll (about US$6 or UK£4). A roll of Fujifilm 100 Superia costs HK$18 per roll, as a reference.
The charm of Lomo cameras is in the possibility and necessity to combine light, exposure and photography in a single entity, which is more or less the soul of film photography. In this light, Lomo cameras cannot be digitalised up to now.
A very important member of Lomography, the Holga camera, was originated in Hong Kong. Holga is actually the Cantonese pronunciation for the words, "very bright". It was a nickname to mock its final images which were overexposed (thus, "very bright"). Holga was first made to sate the thirst for cameras of the poor cousins in the then backward Mainland China around the time when it opened up the bamboo curtain to the world. It was designed to be a plastic toy camera on the mind of its maker.
A new member of Lomo cameras is the Diana Mini. It allows half-film exposure, making it possible to do 72 shots with a roll of film for 36 exposures. It can also do images in square format on the 35mm negatives.
The Diana Mini features a 24mm lens capable of a minimum focusing distance at 0.6m.
The accessories for Diana Mini are as complete as those for a regular DSLR. As we all know it, lots of serious compact users have purchased and mounted some of these accessories on their cameras.
The greatest fun of Lomography, as in film photography, I think is in the waiting for the final images to appear before you. The film is sort of given a new lease of life by Lomography. The remaining film photographers (I shot a miserable number of films last year, which was two rolls) are certainly glad to see the film departments of Kodak and Fujifilm to stay afloat for as long as they can.
By the way, if you tweak the WB correction function in the Ricoh serious compacts, the final images will be tinged with some lomo feel. If you're using other brands of serious compact, play with the white balance functions or adjustable colour functions and see what you may end up with.
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