Ideal conditions to take pictures with this film?

[woosang]

Actually the 135 film is ferrania the 400 īs a different manufacturer again and The 120 i didnt know. :-) so i'll write that one down. :-)

[elammm]

taken new batch of pics, will take to get developed tomorrow, should get results by monday, third time lucky.......lets hope.

[eddym]

taken new batch of pics, will take to get developed tomorrow, should get results by monday, third time lucky.......lets hope.

Hate to break this to you, but luck has nothing to do with it.

[eddie]

Lomos are really not the right way to start out in photography. You'd be better off with a solid, consistent, manual 35mm SLR (Pentax K1000, for example). Lomos just don't have the controls necessary to get the hang of it. I'm not knocking Lomography- I own about 10 Dianas and about 7 Holgas, a Lubitel, as well as other simple cameras/lenses, and use them often (I have some recent ones posted in the Gallery). I just don't think of them as proper learning tools. One of the problems is the simple spring shutter. With use, the spring stretches, and a 1/100 speed can slow to 1/50, and even slower. The few ( and inconsistent) f-stop settings are inconsistent too. There doesn't seem to be a lot of quality control to their builds. As such, gleaning any useful information about how light effects film is haphazard at best.
Better to learn on a fully functioning manual camera before delving into cameras which offer erratic results.

[mr rusty]

If you want good pix rather than Lomo pix why not e.g.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Minolta-X3...item3a68e88ebe

[holmburgers]

Guys, elammm is experimenting with and enjoying the Lomo. Although encouraging better cameras is certainly noble, it's also beginning to sound like a broken record.... one that drives people out of rooms.

Lomos are a bit about luck, a lot about whimsy, and all about not giving a hoot about anything other than pointing it at a subject and hitting a crappy plastic button. That's the beauty, that's the fun, and it has brought someone to APUG.

Do you tell your kid that his training wheels make it "not a real bike"? No, you encourage them until they're ready to take them off. I think elammm is exploring the film world, and I bet if it strikes his fancy he'll step up to a more sophisticated tool on his own accord.

[Monito]

Do you tell your kid that his training wheels make it "not a real bike"? No, you encourage them until they're ready to take them off. I think elammm is exploring the film world, and I bet if it strikes his fancy he'll step up to a more sophisticated tool on his own accord.

You make a bit of a point, but miss the real analogy. It's more like if someone is getting their feet wet with snorkeling, you don't take them on a 60 meter scuba dive in shark waters. If a life-long classical musician finally wants to begin exploring the world of rock and roll, you don't throw them into a death-punk-metal mosh pit.

The OP should step down to a less sophisticated tool than a Lomo. A consistent, reliable, dependable camera. Even if it has fewer controls or less range for the controls. I started in film years ago with a Kodak Instamatic and a Polaroid Big Swinger. The former had one shutter speed and one aperture but it advanced the film reliably, didn't leak light, and could take a clear picture in daylight or with a blue flash cube.

[railwayman3]

Guys, elammm is experimenting with and enjoying the Lomo. Although encouraging better cameras is certainly noble, it's also beginning to sound like a broken record.... one that drives people out of rooms.

Lomos are a bit about luck, a lot about whimsy, and all about not giving a hoot about anything other than pointing it at a subject and hitting a crappy plastic button. That's the beauty, that's the fun, and it has brought someone to APUG.

Yes, fair enough. But elammm has said himself that he is wasting film and getting no pictures.....the problem being, I suggest, the limitations of a very simple Lomo-type camera and (possibly poor quality) film. Do the suppliers of Lomo cameras give any instructions on the use and limitations? Even disposable cameras state the conditions and distances needed to get a good picture....

If I hadn't had some guidance from my Dad when I got my first Brownie 127 (with Verichrome Pan!), I'd have soon lost interest if I'd failed to get any pictures at all . After these first good (to me, at that time!) shots in bright outdoor lighting, I experimented....some worked, some didn't, and I soon started to understand the need for films of different speeds and an adjustable camera.

[holmburgers]

I don't disagree, but perhaps we should focus on what he's working with for the moment.

So this Lomo camera only has a shutter speed of a 100th of a second and an aperture (f-stop) of f/8; that puts you at EV 13 for ISO100 film, ev = exposure value. On wikipedia there is a chart for different EV's and the typical brigthness of a given scene.

Film speeds range from ISO (or ASA) 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, etc: with many films fitting "in the gaps", like 64, 125, 320, etc. Each doubling of speed equals 1-stop. This would be the same as changing the aperture by one-stop, or changing the shutter speed. These 3 things, film speed, aperture and shutter speed, determine the exposure. They're are laid out in such a manner that the adjacent setting is a doubling or havling of exposure, depending which way you go. In photography, we generally pick our exposures by doubling or halving. A bit more control can be had with 1/2 and 1/3 stops, but this is not important at the moment.

You can buy any 35mm and put it in your camera; Lomo's film is generally considered to be a rip-off anyways. Kodak, Fuji, Ilford; that's the good stuff. This will give you more options with speed as well.

Since this camera has barely any control over the two most important things that a camera can do, f/stop and shutter speed, you have to pick your film to suit the environment you'll be shooting in.

If you're interested in understanding this better, just ask.

[elammm]

Guys, elammm is experimenting with and enjoying the Lomo. Although encouraging better cameras is certainly noble, it's also beginning to sound like a broken record.... one that drives people out of rooms.

Lomos are a bit about luck, a lot about whimsy, and all about not giving a hoot about anything other than pointing it at a subject and hitting a crappy plastic button. That's the beauty, that's the fun, and it has brought someone to APUG.

Do you tell your kid that his training wheels make it "not a real bike"? No, you encourage them until they're ready to take them off. I think elammm is exploring the film world, and I bet if it strikes his fancy he'll step up to a more sophisticated tool on his own accord.

Thanks , I do appreciate all the help and encourage ment guys but I really only got into film cameras because of the lomography idea that is really the only sort of film I wanna get into I think its good, some of you might not like the idea of that but just trying to have a whacky bit of fun with some lomo