Flashback Friday: The Lomo LCA And A Question For You!

Good morning you awesome war torn camera geeks! For your Flashback Friday here is a camera I was surprised to find out recently that some people consider “one of the most important cameras in film camera history.” It’s the Lomo LCA from 1984.

I’ve had this camera for about five years and you guys know I do my research before buying any camera. I’ve never heard anyone call it one of the “most important cameras” until recently when I came across this in Dpreview and from reading the forums there, it seems that other people were surprised too!

Now it’s a cool, funky little Soviet era camera that takes decent pics, at best, but one of the most important cameras? Am I missing something guys? I respect the people who wrote the original article and as I’ve said, I don’t claim to know everything so I’m looking to you guys to fill in the blanks! 🙏🙏

This camera is based off the Cosina CX-1 which I don’t think is considered one of the most important cameras in history. I’m guessing maybe it’s because the LCA might have started the Lomography thing? This is really a curiosity for me! You tell me guys!! I’d be very grateful to learn what made this camera so important! Thanks! 😎🙏🏻👍🏻

PS: For you hardcore camera geeks, I got the wide angle adapter on it! 😍👍🏻

BONUS

For Flashback Friday, Travis is back! And today he gives you the dish on government cheese and GE digital cameras! 😂👍🏻

Photo Of The Day: “The Apple Tree” Lomo ‘Instant Wide Camera And “Film Is Cheap”

Well it’s that time of the year. You’ve probably seen a bit of this recently but here’s one more.

It’s apple picking time! And if you haven’t picked your apples yet, maybe it’s time to go before the season is over.

They say the apple is a perfect fruit in many ways. Nutrients, fiber, etc. However, I’ve always thought…isn’t this the fruit that God tried to forbid Adam & Eve from eating? If so, is there something God knows about it that us mere mortals don’t? Is there magic in it? Is it a sin today to eat apples? Don’t mind me, just food for thought!

I used a Lomography ‘Instant Wide with the standard 90mm f/8 and Fuji Instax Wide for this shot.

Here’s more food for thought. It may be a “sin” for me to say this, but even though I love instant photography, especially for its organic nature, it has always been a “supplemental” form of photography for me.

The images usually don’t deliver the same technical quality as 35mm, medium format or heck even modern digital. And that’s part of the charm I guess, but does it have to be this way?

And don’t get me started on the cost of Instant film! Back in the day I always heard people say something like “Keep shooting. Film is cheap!”

And my answer always was (and still is)…Film’s cheap but it ain’t THAT cheap! 😀

When you factor in the cost of development, the time required to process the images, the possibility of having to do reshoots…No, it ain’t that cheap!

However, as many of you will agree results from film is usually most satisfying in a way that’s hard to duplicate digitally.

As for that old “Film is cheap” slogan, I know they were mostly referring to standard 35mm or 120 film and not really instant film. As you know, Instant Film is NOT a financially cheap form of photography!

That said, I don’t always find instant prints all that satisfying. Even when sharp, the details are not all that apparent unless you’re using a loupe to look for them. A lot has to do with the cameras and lenses themselves I guess. Many are cheap, plastic cameras with cheap, plastic lenses.

Many instant cameras such as the Lomo I used here rely on guesstimating focus and that’s part of the reason why the lenses are so slow like f/8 it f/12, so that the majority of the time images could be decently sharp. The slow lenses also help keep costs down but also forces you to use flash or a tripod in low lighting conditions.

I’m still waiting for someone to come out with a high quality Instax Wide Camera with a decently fast lens for $500 or under. I’m thinking I’ll probably wait an eternity for that one! 😊

Even worse, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fuji discontinues Instax Wide film before that happens.

Mind you I know about the high quality Instant Cameras of yore such as the Polaroid 600se or the Polaroid 180 that I reviewed here a couple of years ago. As you might know, I loved those Camera Legends but with the end of packfilm they’re just living on borrowed time. What I’d like to see is someone come out with a great Instant Wide Camera with a great lens for the masses.

It may be a hard sell, but I’d bet if someone could make ten of them and sell them for $500 each, they’d all sell out.

I like the concept of Mint’s TL70, the TLR that takes Instax Mini film but I’m just not a big fan of those tiny card sized prints. I want BIG baby, BIG prints!!

Ah well, I’ll just keep dreaming cause I know it’s not going to happen any time soon. I know it won’t! PS: Sometimes I like tempting fate by saying this stuff so I can be proven wrong and get my dream instant camera sooner 🙂

If someone comes out with that killer Instax Wide Camera I’m all for it. I just realized I didn’t say enough about the Lomo used in this article! It’s a decent enough camera at a good price point, I’ll probably review it someday. It’s just not the instant camera I’ve been dreaming of. Ah anyway, sorry for my rambling today I thank you all for reading one man’s random thoughts 😊

Photo Of The Day: “The Wacky Bunch”

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“The Wacky Bunch” 2016. Lomo’Instant Wide, 90mm f/8 lens.

This is a recent photo from the Lomography ‘Instant Wide camera. I reached out to Lomography to see if I could get a sample camera for review, but I never heard back from them. I didn’t expect to, but it would’ve been nice. Fortunately, when you love cameras you usually have friends who do too 🙂

Just some brief general impressions: the camera looks great, but feels less great than it looks. I’ll reserve judgement on its build and durability until I can have more time with it.

The camera relies on zone focusing which isn’t really my thing, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the shots I got. The lens is slowish at f/8 and you will be using the built-in flash a lot, but these factors also help to keep the shots sharp.

The lens cap which doubles as a self-timer/remote control is a brilliant touch! That’s what I used to take the shot above after placing the camera on a tripod.

Lomography Instant Wide Camera

The main thing about the Lomo’Instant Wide that appeals to many people (and to me) is that it takes the widely available and larger sized Fuji Instax Wide film, plus it offers a bit more manual control over the picture taking process than any Fuji Instax camera to date.

I have read some reviews on this camera on the net and read many comments about its image quality. I think I have a good idea now of what the lens quality is and I have some thoughts about the Lomo’s overall image quality, but to be fair I’ll save them until I can take further test shots.

It’s one of the more interesting instant film cameras to have come out in recent years and I hope to get one for a longer period of time. Heck, I might even get one of my own! 🙂

The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim Film Camera

The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim and its virtual clone, the Superheadz Yellow Peace. Cult camera favorites of toy camera fanatics.

The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim is 35mm point and shoot film camera made by Sunpet Industries of China and distributed by Vivitar under their own name. The camera has an almost exact clone from Superheadz in different colors and different nicknames.

The actual year of manufacture is unknown or undocumented. At least, I cannot find it in my research. I suspect it was made in the 1990s or late 1980s.

The Ultra Wide & Slim is an all plastic camera with a plastic lens and low quality build. However, the camera has achieved cult camera popularity primarily due to its 22mm f/11 “Ultra Wide” lens which is unusual for a fixed focus point and shoot, even today.

As a camera, the Vivitar “UWS” has only one aperture, f/11 and only one shutter speed, 1/125. This makes it primarily usable as a daylight camera using higher speed film.

This was and is intended to be a cheap camera. However, the camera has become very popular with the toy camera, Holga, Lomography, etc, crowd for whom lens distortion, light leaks, and imperfect photos are much desired.

If you love cameras as much as I do, you’re bound to collect some cameras that you have yet to use. This is one (or two) of them!

Actually, I did get a roll of film through the Superheadz but when I developed the film the whole roll came out black. I’m not ashamed to admit that it was probably my mistake in development. I added too much water to Ilford ID-11 which is not a developer I use often, though some say D76 (which I have used often) is the same. However, I’m can’t be 100 percent sure if it was me or the camera so I will try again.

Any camera with a 22mm lens is bound to give you some very dynamic looking photos and I don’t mind the flaws, especially for the price. If you know what to expect, you won’t be disappointed.

If seeking one of these, prices used to be very cheap, but now is trending at $25-50 for the Vivitar in used condition, and from $24-60 for the Superheadz version, price dependent on the model and seller. For example, the black version called the “Slim Devil” runs near $40 from most sellers. You may find a good selection of the Superheadz version HERE.

I got my Vivitar on eBay for under $10 and paid $25 new for my “Yellow Peace” Superheadz clone. These cameras probably cost a few bucks to make, so even buying it for $25 is probably too much in principle. But since we don’t make these cameras (and no one else does) we have no choice 🙂

Don’t go too crazy with these cameras. As I said, they were intended to be cheap and fun cameras, but now some may argue that they are Camera Legends in the toy camera department. Take that out of your head, they ARE cheap cameras. Try to find one cheap! 🙂

***DEAL ALERT***

One great thing about Spring, other than the weather, are all the photographic deals going on. Some great deals and savings on Nikon Lenses are going on right now. If you’re going to buy, please buy through the link and help support this site. I greatly appreciate it, thanks!

Fujifilm Instax Mini Instant Film, 10 Sheets x 5 packs

Olympus has a very cool Trade Up program where you can trade in virtually any used camera and get monetary value towards the purchase of new Olympus gear including the OM-D series and the awesome new Pen cameras.

The Best Camera I Never Knew Part II: The Rollei A110

The Rollei A110. One of the Best Cameras I Never Knew 🙂

I will have more from this year’s PhotoPlus Expo I promise you, but today I’m going back to the core of this site, which is classic, collectible, and interesting cameras.

The first in this series was a camera from Rollei called the Rolleimatic. It was a camera designed by Rollei camera design legend, Heinz Waaske.

Today’s “best camera I never knew” is also…a Rollei! And also designed by Mr. Waaske and his design team 🙂

It is called the A110 and it is a super cool looking miniature, pocket camera that takes 110 film. I know a lot of people who think 110 film is extinct, but you can still readily get it through Lomography or Amazon.

Lomography will also do the developing if you send the film to them or drop it off in one of their stores.

THE CAMERA

The Rollei A110 was introduced by Rollei in 1975.

The camera is a funky little thing. The camera relies on scale focusing and has a focus range of about 3.2 ft to infinity. There is an orange focusing slide below the 23mm f/2.8 Tessar lens. In the viewfinder are symbols to give you an idea of what you should choose to focus on depending on how far away your subject is. The symbols include one person, a group of people, and a mountain (infinity).

Pulling the camera “apart” and closing it advances the film and cocks the shutter. This is definitely a Waaske design trademark!

The camera is auto exposure only and originally took a 5.6v PX27 battery. The modern day replacement for the battery is a S27PX silver battery that is 6 volts. This small difference could effect the exposure, but with the wide dynamic range of most films you should still, in theory, get a usable shot.

WHY IT DIDN’T JIVE WITH ME?

Why? Why you ask? I got two of them from eBay. Both didn’t work! 🙂

The sellers swear they were working, but I suspect both sellers did not know much about the camera. Many are probably found in their parents or grandparents camera collection and being auctioned off by people who have no idea what they are selling.

Fortunately, I got both of them cheap. First one for ten dollars, second one fifteen. If seeking an A110, they usually run from $10-50, with an average of around $30. They usually come with a presentation case and a cool chain. If you’re lucky, you can get the whole shebang with presentation case, leather case, chain, and flash.

WHY BOTHER?

With the exception of hardcore film lovers, and I do count myself as one, this camera doesn’t make a lot of sense.

It takes 110 film which is not widely available and of which development is only available in select speciality stores.

The image quality will not exceed what you can get with 35mm film or even today’s higher end cell phones.

So why did I want one? First, I am a camera hunter and I love old, classic cameras, and even more so if I can find them cheap. The A110 fits that bill. The very first camera I ever used was my Mom’s Kodak 110 camera from the 70s, so there’s a bit of nostalgia in it too.

Secondly, I’m a fan of Tessar lenses, so again, the A110 fits that bill. And lastly, even if the image quality would be less than 35mm, the A110 could possibly give me a unique film look, which is something I’m always after.

So guess what? I’m on my third A110, which I got for $30 and this one IS working! Got film in it now, but it is unfinished. Then when the film is done, I still have to send it out for developing and that might take a while.

So until that day when I can see the results from the quirky, eccentric, classic camera, the Rollei A110 will remain…The Best Camera I Never Knew 🙂

Note: If you want to see a great review of a WORKING sample of this camera, please check out this review at DOWN THE ROAD a great blog by Jim Grey who also reviews classic cameras with excellent photo samples, as well as elegantly and honestly sharing his personal life experiences. It’s a great blog worth checking out!