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Lomo sovieticus?

Typical Lomo shotMany of you will have heard of the Lomo, the charmingly cheesy Russian-manufactured film camera that has become the god of its own lo-fi cult in the decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Like other less well-organized cheap-camera cults (there’s one that swears by the Chinese-made Holga), the Lomographers counterintuitively embrace the Lomo’s lens vignetting, its oversaturated colours, and even the light leaks in its plastic body. But how many of them know about the role of Vladimir Putin in saving their strange hobby from oblivion?

Meanwhile, Metafilter recently had an entry on that camera collector’s treat, the Soviets’ FED (ФЭД) knockoff of the legendary Leica 35mm rangefinder. Some Eastern Europeans may still be shooting with cameras stamped FED, little suspecting what the initials stand for.

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Comments (1)

Lomos do not have plastic bodies. I had one, it was solid metal. I had some problems with the teeny screws coming out. Sort of like eyeglass screws coming undone.

It eventually gave up electronically. If I had known that Lomography rebuilds them I would have kept it and sent it in.

The number one kulest thing about the Lomo is that it keeps the shutter open AS LONG AS IT TAKES to get an exposure, no matter how dark. Seconds long exposures with 100 speed film does amazing things.

What it doesn't do is focus; it has manual distance settings.

Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Organization.

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