True Lomographers?

<p>Let's get one thing straight, Lomography is a made up marketing thing to sell Toy Cameras or other cheap, flawed cameras. Good for them for making money on it! Toy cameras have been around almost as long as photography, but it wasn't until the 1970s that they were starting to be used by fine art photographers for serious work. The real toy camera craze started in the late 1990s and then got co-opted by the Lomography guys. I was using Holgas and Dianas back around 2000 for a couple of years. (frankly I got bored and now that's it's every where, I find the aesthetic overdone) I was published a couple of times in magazines and was a contributor to The Toy Camera Handbook back in 2006. It was fun to rise against the onslaught of digital with the lowest low tech cameras out there. I had a pretty good collection of cameras that I sold off but you really don't need to spend a lot of money on cameras to get that really good toy camera look. Probably the cheapest camera out there that gives Holga like images is the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. But I still like to use the Holga occasionally but people just think I'm posting something from my Instagram account these days! That's how ubiquitous those fuzzy, out of focus toy camera images have become. 13 years ago people thought we were nuts and now look at it...</p>

<p>"I suppose the if a person has more money than brains then they are these hucksters legal prey. Yes sir, step right up folks, still plenty of room at the front."<br />Hasn't the traditional film camera market always traditionally been led by companies that sell overpriced items? Couldn't we always have done better than buying a new Leica, Hasselblad, Voigtlander or Nikon in terms of value in the used market?<br />A camera is a box with a hole in it. How do you sell a box with a hole in it to someone who's already got a box with a hole in it?<br />Mystique, romance, excitement, fun and adventure. Sure, there are those who believe in technological advances--faster lenses, quicker shutters, better glass. But that's still mystery and romance.<br />Lomography is doing the same thing and selling a lot of cameras. No one is in the market for super expensive film cameras anymore--at least not enough to make film a growth market that will support the construction of brick and mortar stores that offer classes, film processing and photo finishing services.<br />But Lomography is doing just that by selling new film cameras to young people at a profit that keeps us all going at high retail prices that, honestly, are not so out of line. Leica isn't doing that. Hasselblad isn't doing that. No one else that I can think of is doing that except maybe Fuji, which has a huge following in Japan. But not as many people are going to buy a new GF670 and even a GF670 can be faulted along the same lines. It's an old fancy 1950s folder with a TTL meter. It's great! I love mine. It's still overpriced and I could do almost the same with used.<br />So, by all means, recommend your used stuff. If you like cameras, you'll get there. Trust me. I know.<br />Just don't dismiss Lomography without trying them out first. Beyond making decent cameras, and some really neat and innovative ones, they contribute a lot by growing themselves. Anyone can see that they give back to the film community in many wonderful ways.</p>