Are some Lomography cameras scams?

[David A. Goldfarb]

I thought Leicas were free. You put down your "deposit" to obtain an M3 and a lens from eBay or your preferred used camera source, put it back on the market a year later, and you get back about what you paid for it.

[holmburgers]

As a noob to APUG, i'm sorry if this view has been expressed a million times before, but glancing at this thread i didn't see to much of it.

Yes, Lomography cameras are over priced for the individual items, that is almost undeniable. However they are doing several things that I think help justify the cost.

Firstly they are pretty much the only company in the world making new film cameras, with new lenses, bodies, winding mechanisms; from scratch. Just look at the new LC-Wide. This take a considerable amount of R&D which is not cheap.

Secondly, they are genuinely bringing many new people, myself included, into film photography. I started with a Diana and now have several other Lomo cameras, but also shoot lots with an olympus OM-2n and an old Agilux folding range finder. Lomography has helped develop and sustain my interest to the point where I have broadened out from the lomo style and tried to learn a lot more about photography generally.

Finally, you don't need to spend anything to get Lomography's cameras or anything else in their store. They literally give money away (and lots of it) with there piggy points scheme. In the last 6-8 months i've earned/won/was just given, enough piggy points to get £487 worth of cameras and film from their site. All i've done is write a few short articles, enter a few 'everyone wins' competitions and keep an eye on their facebook page.

Their cameras might be expensive, but they're not when they are completely free! If a few of the serious photographers around here started writing articles and sharing their experience around here, they'd never have to pay for film again.

Now i'm off to decide what to do with the last £150 in piggies i've received in two months.

A well put viewpoint.

Oh.. and welcome to APUG!

[David A. Goldfarb]

Yesterday outside the Empire State Building I saw a hipster who looked to be of retirement age sporting a DSLR and a Lomo Spinner. Is a plastic, rubber band driven version of a Globuscope worth $100? Why not? It's not as if there's some "prosumer" or AE-1/Nikkormat 360-degree camera in between the Spinner and the Globuscope. Spinner shots I've seen have a lot of banding and other artifacts,but it's more about having fun than perfection.

[Gerald C Koch]

A tip of the hat to Lewis Carroll, lomography is unphotography.

[Discoman]

I find not only the cameras, but their film really expensive. I got a holga as a gift, before they became the 'thing' to have. For what it does and what it cost me, I couldn't be happier with it. I have stuff that is much higher quality, much better results, and are better in every way. The holga leaks light, is fuzzy, has awful vingetting that I can't really eliminate, etc. But take a holga out and nobody is going to steal it. Your 4x5 might get stolen, cuz and old camera like that may just be a colectible. Digital? Worth quite a bit, depending on model.
But seriously, I made an account with lomography, thinking it would be a way to easily get any other bits I may want for the holga. They send along those piggy points every so often, about $5 worth, and they expire quickly. Except that much can barely even buy a single roll of film from them.
I wish I had thought of lomography, I don't mind overpricing stuff and convincing hipsters to buy it. After all, they always have to nave the newest Mac and the most complicated Starbucks order. It would benefit everyone if I could separate them from more of their money. Joke.

[PtJudeRI]

I have been a lurker on this site as I have been fiddling with some large format photography fun. I also have a few "lomo" cameras, and I feel that this is just a tool that gets me excited about photography... I started out, as many did, with a nikon and a 50mm lens... Well that gave way to a N80, an F2, a few Mamiyas, etc. etc. etc.

But after a while, I found my cameras sitting on the shelf, as I ebbed and flowed with my hobbies, and they really wern't getting any use. Enter Lomography... while not new ideas, they were new to me, and they were fun, and sometimes experimental, and quirky and different from the multitude of cellphone and digi P&S shots I see on facebook 100 times a day. They caught my eye and got me shooting again.

As far as the price of the cameras, sure, they are getting a hefty markup, and I personally look at the Lomo website like I do Williams Sonoma. I go there for the ideas, and then I shop around and get what I need at a price I feel comfortable with. That said, I did buy one of the limited edition Diana kits because I really wanted it, and I think the Instax back is a LOAD of FUN! I get more questions on that damn plastic camera than I do with my Speed Graphic and AeroEktar lens....

[Stuggi]

Yep they are overpriced but so are Leicas and Hasselblads.

Oh, I don't know, I just paid the same for a Hasselblad 500C/M body in full working condition as what a LOMO LC-A+ costs at lomography.com And I have bought abouts 5 Smenas for 1/16th of the price that they are selling for on the same site.

[CGW]

I don't think lo-fi cameras are bucking for lamestream status but the whole "lomography" branding thing is trite. Just another hipster chum slick that happens to not to be doing film photography much good.