Topic: light fuse, stand well back....did lomo save film?

[This-is-damion]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20434270




Sent from my RM-821_eu_euro1_342 using Board Express

[This-is-damion]

The best bit, which might raise a few hackles, suggests lomo have been around more than ilford - as ilford went under.

Sent from my RM-821_eu_euro1_342 using Board Express

[Sandeha Lynch]

If it had been in the Mail the headline might have read, "Putin Saved Ilford" ... 

But he has a point. 

I'm taking part in a Lomo and Toy Camera exhibition in Uruguay again this year.  They get a ton of entries.

[charles binns]

Not quite the whole story I fear, was the piece written by Lomography's marketing director? 

Lomography certainly haven't harmed film photography and I think  their presence in the market has been positive for the whole lo fi genre. 

I'm no great fan of theirs as I think they overcharge but hey ho if people want to buy their products good for them.

[Photo_Utopia]

I like the story overall it was positive and to those who don't use film it at least paints it in a good light. Of course it wasn't written by a photographer, probably a Soviet agent in the style of an 'Adfeature' I especially liked this:

"As former giants like Kodak and Agfa's film ranges have dwindled, Lomography has also rescued old emulsions from extinction or created new ones".

As someone who bought a Lubitel 166 in the early 1980's for £12, I can truly say I was ahead of the curve...

Gotta love that spin...

[Late Developer]

The question may use the false premise of assuming that if the Lomo camera hadn't have been available, those who use it wouldn't have used film. I doubt anyone could prove the point conclusively but I suspect that most people who like film would continue to use film.

When Kodachrome disappeared, I was disappointed. However, it would have been a bit extreme to say "sod it, then, I'll do exclusively digital". With a few exceptions (perhaps) I imagine the vast majority of Kodachrome fans have started using and adapting to other film stock.

My guess is that film users saved film. Still, the article makes an interesting read.

[charles binns]

"As former giants like Kodak and Agfa's film ranges have dwindled, Lomography has also rescued old emulsions from extinction or created new ones".

Or have repackaged cheap film and sold it on at four times the price! I'm still smarting from the price they charge for their b&w film which is just Shanghai GP3.

[mcduff]

I agree with the above comments about it sounding like Lomo ad copy, and that ilford point seemed like a bit of a dig.

However, I think there are some valid points about how lomo has really helped out. As a 110 user, I was stuck using a depleting quantity of expired film. Also, I had always (since I was a kid in the 70's) wanted to shoot black and white with a 110, and I REALLY have to thank lomo for finally giving me an easier option than trying film splitting. This one act can let me ignore a lot of goofball actions on there part.

I am going to shoot some E6 (and to be crazy I am NOT going to Xpro it, haha) and I was thinking that the Lomo movement (and their store) has resulted in lot more E6 being sold (granted, as most of it is going C-41, they are not propping up E6 processing, but that at least has home dev options).

I think their new 120 camera could have a nice blip for that format, too.

I have never really been enamoured with most of their cameras tho. Their new 120 is the one that i am most interested in (I need to see it in real life — I hope it would be a  good camera to take on canoe trips). This might be my  "light fuse" (albeit OT) comment: I am even ambivalent about the LC-A. It is a fine little camera. I don't have a problem with it costing $250 (as that is likely not out of line with what the Cosina CX cameras would have cost in real dollar terms). My problem with it is that are so many awesome little cameras out there — the XA family, the Chinon Belami, etc — that usually can be found for a song (even on Ebay). Even used the LCA seem to sell for more than $100, which goes pretty far in the used camera world. I know there is the 'new vs used' argument, but knock on wood most of the little gems I have bought used seem to be A-OK

[astrobeck]

I can appreciate Lomo's vibrant (their word) promotion of film and film cameras, but their fluffy ideal of "just shoot don't think" has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Good for them for staying in business for 20 years too....will be interesting to see what the next 20 roll out.


 

[charles binns]

I can appreciate Lomo's vibrant (their word) promotion of film and film cameras, but their fluffy ideal of "just shoot don't think" has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Don't get me started! Photography should be about thinking - not wandering around like a mindless idiot clicking away with a camera. 

Thinking is what separates us from baboons! (most of us anyway)

[SLVR]

"Dont think just shoot" in marketing language translates almost exactly to "waste film and keep buying it."

So i pose a question, what IS a filmwaster? Someone who literally wastes film like Trendy Lomographers with deep pockets, or someone who shoots film for fun or as a hobby and they experiment with different films, processes, cameras, lenses etc?

In essence I have to agree with charles, but I like to think the baboons make up a good portion of film sales when they are brainwashed into not thinking and clicking plastic boxes in the direction of anything and everything.

[mcduff]

Haha. But remember rule ten is don't worry about the rules

I am certainly not a lomo fanboi but I don't have a problem with their clearly tongue in cheek rules... If rule #10 did not exist, I might,haha.

The "don't think" is attributed to an instructor in design, so I think it is more of the (granted somewhat tired) "left brain / right brain", "Luke use the Force" type-statement. Maybe 'dont overthink' is more correct but that would not get you quoted He really did not invent the idea - when I was a fine arts student I was constantly being told that I was over thinking and killing my work, and usually they were right. There should be distinction between 'don't think' and 'spray and pray'

[KevinAllan]

If the question was "Has lomo saved the profit margins of manufacturers and resellers, who can now sell poor quality products with very limited functionality for ridiculous prices" ... then I would agree. 

[Late Developer]

So i pose a question, what IS a filmwaster? Someone who literally wastes film like Trendy Lomographers with deep pockets, or someone who shoots film for fun or as a hobby and they experiment with different films, processes, cameras, lenses etc?

It's a very valid question. Personally, I fit much better into the latter rather than the former - for two main reasons. First, financial conditioning. I started shooting film as a teenager from a working class family in the early/mid 1970s. Film was expensive for me so I had to make every shot count. Second, (linked to the first) because every shot had to count, I became a bit of a control freak and I find it very difficult to even contemplate buying a camera or lens that will not give me the best colour, contrast, edge-to-edge sharpness, etc.

Photographic hell, for me, is a toy camera full of expired redscale film in poor lighting conditions......and still I love virtually of the blurry stuff posted on here. Filmwaster by proxy?

[Sandeha Lynch]

An article by a journalist, of course.  But Stephen most certainly is a photographer - and a very experienced old hand with film.  He's been a Flickr contact of mine for many years and we've even had a few M42 trades between us.   



One little point that irks me from time to time ...  I remember on another well-known film forum some folks suggesting that Brit photographers, and especially the arty medium formatters were boosting the film resurgence.  Maybe, but only by a teeny margin if you consider the tonnage of film still being used regularly in South and South East Asia, and even South America.  Some of that appears to be fueled by Lomo's marketing presence where the style ideas have really cut in, and from what I can see those film users are actually a good bit too savvy to buy Lomo's film.

After all, if you want it, you can orchestrate just as much flare and vignette, and almost as many light leaks from a Canon AE-1 as an LC-A, as a number of young fashion photogs do. 

[moominsean]

I have little doubt that Lomography has helped push continued film sales a great deal. I think they are fighting a losing battle, and good on them. Sure we may think they are overpriced and a bit of a windbag, but it worked. It's kept them in business and allowed them to design brand new film cameras, one of the few that still designs and produces lower end film cameras. And sure they are part of a hipster paradise, but that's okay. Calling someone a hipster just means you are getting old and forget that you were once "too cool for school" with your bell bottom or mohawks or plaid shirts. I don't begrudge the youth their desire to be different and belong at the same time, it's part of life. And if they buy cameras and film, and this helps the market, more power. I'm betting that without them, film would be an entirely small niche market at this time, more so than it is.

[Late Developer]

I don't begrudge the youth their desire to be different and belong at the same time, it's part of life. And if they buy cameras and film, and this helps the market, more power. I'm betting that without them, film would be an entirely small niche market at this time, more so than it is.

Couldn't agree more. The more people buy and use film, in whatever way they choose, improves the situation for us all. It's a broad church and long may it continue that way...

[Ordinal]

I quite liked the article, given that it does talk about where the social movement that LomographyCo capitalises on comes from and what it is reacting to - a lot better than many pieces which talk about it as if it's simply some trendy hipster thing and a triumph of marketing and could really be about anything. Obviously there is a lot of marketing involved, but there are lots of deeper points about digital commodification, the way that traditional camera tech promotes over-intellectualisation of experience, and the sheer boringness of people banging on about megapixels and colour aberrations at different f stops. Seriously, who would you want to hang out with, the Lomo kids or regular contributors to DPReview forums?

[gary m]

Buy film, not megapixels

[Windy]

I shoot film, ride a fixed wheel bike and listen to vinyl - am I a hipster or a luddite 

[charles binns]

I shoot film, ride a fixed wheel bike and listen to vinyl - am I a hipster or a luddite 

Worse!! you are a hippy!

[Windy]

I shoot film, ride a fixed wheel bike and listen to vinyl - am I a hipster or a luddite 

Worse!! you are a hippy!

 

Oh s**t, I forgot about the flares 

[Francois]

Do you also secretly listen to "The Age of Aquarius" by 5th Dimension?

You know, there could be something there