Aaaah, the ?L? word causes another bout of (slightly-and-in-a-friendly-way) raised blood pressure on Filmwasters...who?d have thunk it? ?
Hi bfreunds, I?m afraid you've become the latest unfortunate victim of the ?Lomo-effect? which occasionally haunts this forum (to be honest, I usually have a hand in it, but am interested to see that Cmdrray jumped in ahead of me this time). The ?Lomo-effect? is similar to the ?Steve Jobs reality distortion field? (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field) that IT geeks are familiar with, except that in this case it makes wholly rational and friendly people go all twitchy and exasperated whenever anyone on the forum says anything nice about the Lomographic lot or their cameras. I?m really sorry, but that?s the way it is. You shouldn?t have to do this ? and I feel bad even suggesting it ? but it?s probably wise to qualify and contextualize any 'Lomo love' that one dishes out on this forum to prevent the Lomo-effect from hitting someone full on, thereby causing them to pen a caustic rejoinder to your original message. You more or less supplied the qualification in your 2nd post.
Given Cmdrray's profession I suspect he has a fairly realistic take on the value of the LC-A in relation to its romantic image and marketing hype. Personally, I was shocked to learn that they sell for USD250 new. That quite literally blows my mind considering their well-publicised failure rate.
On the other hand, I can see why you were excited about using one for the first time; they do have something about them, don't they? And I really enjoyed using mine for a year or so before leaving it on the shelf when I went off in search of toycamera glory and swapped glass for plastic.
The usual disclosure: I used to own an LC-A. I bought it new from the Lomographic Confabulation Society in 2000 and it worked just fine until the day it was stolen. Prior to that I?d bought a Super Sampler from them (it broke), an Action Sampler (it broke too) and I have a feeling that I even bought my first Holga from them in 2001. Not bought anything from them since.
On the basis that virtually anything that keeps people buying film is a good thing, I don?t really hate them, but through their pricing policy and OTT marketing they?ve turned themselves into an easy target and it?s hard to let the opportunity for a little dig in their direction pass by.
