Lomo film

SparkUK

SparkUK

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Anyone any experiences with Lomo film, I've just had my first roll developed and I'm pretty disapointed with it, it's seriously grainy even for a 400asa film, I'll try and post an example later on or at least a 100% crop.
 
What lomo film is it?

T-Max 400 has very very fine grain, it's madness to think that an ISO400 film should be at all grainy in this day and age.
 
What made you move away from not using Tri-X? Yeah, would be good to see how bad it is.
 
Oh Tri-x is brilliant, I just fancied some colour and I like the look of some of the lomo style colours, just not the normally crappy optics it's shot through.
 
Apologies, didn't notice you were talking about colour. You want Lomo colours, with the shift and all that? Just get some Superia 400 and leave it in a warm place for a while so that the colour shifts, or maybe think about cross-processing instead?
 
I've never done any C41 processing, maybe I should have a look.
 
SparkUK said:
Anyone any experiences with Lomo film, I've just had my first roll developed and I'm pretty disapointed with it, it's seriously grainy even for a 400asa film, I'll try and post an example later on or at least a 100% crop.
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This is the iso 100 film.



Stream on the Beach by [Scott], on Flickr

I think its luck of the draw on how good the film is tbh, its all out of date film so who knows how it was stored before it was relabled.
 
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just buy any old OOD film, stick it on the dashboard of the car, parked in the sun for a couple of afternoons before you use it and it'll be suitably munged, ready to give that authentically overpriced lomo look-and-feel :naughty:
 
So do we reckon they just rebrand/repackage OOD film then? I figured they'd be creating a repeatable process.
 
SparkUK said:
So do we reckon they just rebrand/repackage OOD film then? I figured they'd be creating a repeatable process.
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I thought the whole point of lomo was randomness and unrepeatability.. :)
 
SparkUK said:
So do we reckon they just rebrand/repackage OOD film then? I figured they'd be creating a repeatable process.
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Yes its definitley repackaged. As for out of date I would say yes, I have had a few packs. In a box there is three films. The c41 I shot one roll was pretty good which is the photo I posted above. the other two however I managed to get one or two photos that could actually be seen.
 
Alastair said:
I thought the whole point of lomo was randomness and unrepeatability.. :)
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LOL Alastair.... if you're shooting straightforward OOD film then yeah but if you're buying commercially available film with a particular 'look' then maybe not.
 
If you want a repeatable look, then you'll need a repeatable process.. maybe Fuji 400H and over-expose by three stops in a sixty year old folder with a with an uncoated lens? Probably cheaper than the branded Lomo route :D
 
Are people stupid enough to pay the film prices at lomography.com?
If so I'm in wrong business....
 
fixedimage said:
The film's not the worst, you can pick these up on ebay for about £3.
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And their 'Russian Deluxe Kit' for £50 (!) extra gets you a plasticy flash with some colours on it and a cable release, wow.

But their real daylight robbery - one roll of 35mm Velvia 100 was £9. Velvia is not cheap stuff, but at 7dayshop? £5.65. And that's not even taking into account that the Lomo shop charges... £12 for delivery!

Pulling out a £20 note isn't enough for one roll of Velvia, wow :bang:
 
fixedimage said:
The film's not the worst, you can pick these up on ebay for about £3.
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Or you could pick up a vintage British camera with the same principal features (triplet lens, manual controls) for a tenner.. anyone know the cyrillic for Ross-Ensign? :bang:
 
IMHO the whole LOMO experience is a complete rip off.

You might just as well rip the light seal out of a cheap 35mm camera daub the lens with some blue paint and take shots into the light and use cheap 35mm film for the same effect.
 
You could try 'redshifting' any old colour film. Basically you re spool the film the other way round so you are shooting through the red film base. I'm half way through a roll of boots 200ASA finest which I'm shooting at 100 and slightly over exposing to compensate for the red filter effect. I've also got a reel of kodak vericolour slide film which is a C41 designed to do slide copies of kodak film, so very low sensitivity to red as it take into account the red base of the film your copying. only downer is its very slow, ISO in the single figures so that will be log exposure landscape stuff (but should look very cold).
 
Also remember it's not just the style of the pictures but you're paying for the experience of shooting with a Holga. I would gladly pay for a Holga Camera in fact I'm planning on getting one quite soon.

It's like those who buy Leica's, why buy something that a Canon 5D Mark II can do better? well you don't, you're paying for the experience of shooting with the camera.

Like everything in life, it's a preference thing. some constantly shoot Holga and others can't stand it...
 
mastertrinity said:
Also remember it's not just the style of the pictures but you're paying for the experience of shooting with a Holga. I would gladly pay for a Holga Camera in fact I'm planning on getting one quite soon.

It's like those who buy Leica's, why buy something that a Canon 5D Mark II can do better? well you don't, you're paying for the experience of shooting with the camera.

Like everything in life, it's a preference thing. some constantly shoot Holga and others can't stand it...
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That's all fair enough but how do you explain paying £80 for a camera that can be had for £3? Or Upwards of £20 per roll of film?
A lot of it isn't about the experience of shooting with a Holga, Uomo etc but more the experience of being seen carrying and using one or shopping on the Lomo website. And if the camera comes in bright colours so that more people notice you carrying/using it well that's a good enough reason to inflate the price right? Wrong.
 
mastertrinity said:
Also remember it's not just the style of the pictures but you're paying for the experience of shooting with a Holga. I would gladly pay for a Holga Camera in fact I'm planning on getting one quite soon.

It's like those who buy Leica's, why buy something that a Canon 5D Mark II can do better? well you don't, you're paying for the experience of shooting with the camera.

Like everything in life, it's a preference thing. some constantly shoot Holga and others can't stand it...
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By all means buy a Holga, if that's your bag man! But ferchrisake, shop around, and find a bit more sensible price...


£16 from ebay or £45 from lomoshop ??? Ludicrous :cuckoo:
 
fixedimage said:
That's all fair enough but how do you explain paying £80 for a camera that can be had for £3? Or Upwards of £20 per roll of film?
A lot of it isn't about the experience of shooting with a Holga, Uomo etc but more the experience of being seen carrying and using one or shopping on the Lomo website. And if the camera comes in bright colours so that more people notice you carrying/using it well that's a good enough reason to inflate the price right? Wrong.
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It's not though, it's £30 for a Holga 120/135 from eBay and you can even use the rolls of film from Poundland ;)
 
TheBigYin said:
By all means buy a Holga, if that's your bag man! But ferchrisake, shop around, and find a bit more sensible price...


£16 from ebay or £45 from lomoshop ??? Ludicrous :cuckoo:
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Of course that's the only thing I'm not happy with is that it's £45 from the Lomo shop whereas you can get it cheaper if you shop around but is that not the same with everything?
 
mastertrinity said:
It's not though, it's £30 for a Holga 120/135 from eBay and you can even use the rolls of film from Poundland ;)
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That's what I mean. The objections here seemed to be at aimed the prices charged on the Lomo site and that's what I was referring to.
I have no problem with low tech photography and actually (to a degree) practice this myself.
 
I went to the lomo shop in London at the weekend. I was collecting a lens for my camera from a Leica shop nearby and we decided to pop in. My friend always uses the 'toy camera' effect on his phone and expressed an interest in a film camera spurred on by the fact I said I could develop and scan his negs (might regret saying that)

The shop is pretty cool, some of their accessories are really nice (like the gatefold photo albums, picture clips, tins for film etc) and the guy in the shop seemed nice enough.

My friend ended up paying something like £60 for a white Diana Mini and 3 rolls of film (I wasn't with him when he bought the film, as I have some Velvia he could have had!).

Now I know that's more expensive than the internet but I let him go for it because A) he gets paid more than I do so it's like payback and B) I doubt he would have bought one from the net otherwise; part of what made him buy the camera, weather he admits it or not, is the fashion/trend towards lomo photography, and we all know what it's like when you go to a really nice shop and start browsing. I almost bought something myself before I remembered I had my R-D1 on me and that I wasn't as stupid as I look.

Fair play to Lomography shop if they can sell the stuff (and they seem to be doing well..) I just wish I had thought of it. I guess us more experienced photographers will baulk at their nerve to sell stuff at these prices but I should think that many a film user has entered the 'inner circle' of enlightened shooters via an overpriced lomo camera, so I think universal balance is restored.

Just some thoughts/ramblings.

ped

Ps if you also want a laugh try looking for a USA shop selling Polaroid pack cameras for about $350. Luckily I can look back at the time I nearly bought one and laugh. But I'm sure in other areas of my purchasing affairs I have had the wool pulled over my eyes in mych the same way!
 
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ped said:
Fair play to Lomography shop if they can sell the stuff (and they seem to be doing well..) I just wish I had thought of it. I guess us more experienced photographers will baulk at their nerve to sell stuff at these prices but I should think that many a film user has entered the 'inner circle' of enlightened shooters via an overpriced lomo camera, so I think universal balance is restored.
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I probably would have never gotten into film photography if I hadnt bought a diana. I dont shoot much of the crap stuff any more apart from the LC-A which isnt that bad. I even sold my DSLR as I was using film more.
 
walsh said:
I probably would have never gotten into film photography if I hadnt bought a diana. I dont shoot much of the crap stuff any more apart from the LC-A which isnt that bad. I even sold my DSLR as I was using film more.
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Now this is something I had considered, I was going to sell my gear and get an LX3 or similar for £200 just as a digital camera and then get some more film gear. How are you finding it? is it a PITA shooting film all the time or do you have a Digital camera tucked away?
 
only digitial I have is the LX5. TBH I dont miss the dslr at all. Its not a pain at all, I develop all my own B&W and I have just ordered a C-41 kit to do all my colour stuff as well. If you find you are shooting a lot of film then go for it I say!
 
As I posted here: (in regards to Lomo/Holga/in general)

"it keeps 120 film being bought and processed, and film in general having a continued interest sought in it, which can only be a good thing regardless of whether you like the cameras and the look of the photos"

and I think that stands true. Sure, it probably annoys people that they can charge so much, but if people are willing to put their hard earned cash into what is film photography (just a certain take on it), why not? It keeps Fuji, Kodak and Ilford in the film making business, and especially with the price of silver rising so much, any sales are good sales.
/stepsoffsoapbox
 
I bought some Lomography.com stuff when it was on Groupon a little while ago, it wasn't super cheap but wasn't so painful either, I'd probably be better off shooting it digital and giving it the lomo look judging by the graininess of it.
 
SparkUK said:
I bought some Lomography.com stuff when it was on Groupon a little while ago, it wasn't super cheap but wasn't so painful either, I'd probably be better off shooting it digital and giving it the lomo look judging by the graininess of it.
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I do the same with Photoshop but I think it just lacks that "feel" of a lomo picture...
 
mastertrinity said:
I do the same with Photoshop but I think it just lacks that "feel" of a lomo picture...
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I shoot film for that very reason, maybe I expect too much from Lomo film as I really like the colour side of it but not the grainy crappy bit.
 
Never been a fan of making digital images look like they were shot on film or vice versa. I sometimes play with the colours n stuff of my digital images which in some peoples minds might make them look Lomoish but I don't do it for that reason.
 
This is a crop...

5685011850_c75b18523f_o.jpg
 
I did a photo workshop collaboration with the Lomo Shop here in London - the whole thing is about the experience. Which is god because none of the pictures I took with the LC-A came out very well at all ;)
I'm unsure of the film too, some I used recently came out very over-exposed. I do buy expired film at boot fairs (haha 5 films for £1) but that's for the experimental quality of them. I hope Lomo aren't intentionally buggering up their film, at £5ish a roll.
 
Well today I decided to go out and shoot at f8, 1/100th sec, ISO 200,400,800 with my DSLR just to see how well the Holga would cope in sunny conditions. Very dissapointed as all the images came out overexposed, out of about five images, two of them I could imagine as Lomo photos but the rest were really overexposed.
 
mastertrinity said:
Well today I decided to go out and shoot at f8, 1/100th sec, ISO 200,400,800 with my DSLR just to see how well the Holga would cope in sunny conditions. Very dissapointed as all the images came out overexposed, out of about five images, two of them I could imagine as Lomo photos but the rest were really overexposed.
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Huh? Is there a Holga that's fixed at f8 1/100th sec?
 
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