Lomo’Instant Square Review

I’m getting quite into instant photography. I really like the idea of producing a physical artefact when you take a picture. There are problems of course. From an ecological point of view it is a disastrous thing to do. The “films” are expensive and wasteful. The individual pictures are packed into a little plastic carrier which ends up being thrown away. The pictures themselves are a bit small and the quality is nowhere near as good as even an elderly smartphone can manage.

And yet I still like taking instant pictures. In the olden days (which I well remember) taking a picture was a bit of an occasion. People had to be positioned in the shot, readings had to be taken and transferred into settings on the camera. And the end result (which sometimes took ages to arrive) was often a disappointment. The good news was that when you ended up with a good photograph you felt that you had really made something. These days you can just tap the screen of your iPhone to get something that is perfectly focused and exposed. And exactly the same as the picture taken by the person stood next to you. Recent phone cameras let you use different focal lengths and will provide you with the right kind of blur if you ask for it. And you can apply filters to make your pictures look a bit different. But for me things are just a tad too easy and repeatable.

I got a Lomo’Instant Square as a Christmas present along with some film to get started. Now rather than asking for socks as gifts I can put in a request for more film. Number one son also ended up with one, so that we can compare results.

The Lomo is not easy to use. For a start the viewfinder is horrible. It is hard to see through and doesn’t always show you what the lens is actually seeing. You have to remember to remove the cap protecting the lens. Then you have to set the lens to focus on the right part of the scene. The exposure system (the thing that decides how much light to let onto the picture) is a more than a bit wayward. The camera has a flash with a very short range which will blow out the foreground and leave the background horribly dark. Pressing the shutter button feels you are like placing an expensive bet. The shot might look good, or it might not. It definitely won’t look like the picture taken by the person stood next to you.

You do have inputs though. You can ask the camera to brighten or darken the picture. You can do crazy things like just open the shutter for a while or take lots of exposures on the same frame. You have a remote control you can snap out of the camera and use to trigger shots or long exposures from a distance. With a bit of practice you start to learn to compensate for the viewfinder and the exposure and start getting interesting results.

The camera itself is an impressive lump of plastic with fabric covered panels and a bunch of buttons on the back. To take a photo you have to swing the lens open from its closed position and snap it into place. The camera feels well made although it would not stand up for long to “professional” levels of use. The lens is made of glass rather than plastic and really sharp. I’d call it a toy except for the fact that on a good day with a following wind it can produce fantastic results which would be impossible to get with any other device.

These are the first two test shots I took when the camera arrived. It had snowed the night before and some plants in the garden looked rather good. I like the pictures although a phone would have definitely done a better job.

I can’t recommend the Lomo as a camera you want to just grab and use. It will never replace your phone for just keeping a record of where you’ve been and what you’ve done. However, if you are prepared to put in the effort (and expense) of learning how to use it properly it can produce stunning results. It comes with a set of 25 “idea cards” which give a bit of inspiration.

For me the Lomo has put a sense of occasion back into photography which I really like. It was originally quite an expensive camera but if you keep an eye on the Lomography site you’ll find the price drops down every now and then. If you fancy breathing a bit of instant life into your photographic escapades it is worth taking a look at.

Scary Lifts at Campus Party EU

This is the last day of Campus Party down in London. Andy and the crew will be judging the Hackathon Entries and I’m back in Hull. Oh well. Good luck to everyone. And I hope that some of the things that I said on Tuesday (it seems such a long time ago) were useful.

One more story from the experience: We were carrying some stuff back to the “base camp” room with one of the O2 Dome security guys. As we were heading for the lifts the chap was talking about a science fiction film he saw ages ago about this futuristic society. Every year they took the brightest and best of their people and put them in a lift to “ascend to the next level”. Of course there was no next level, just a horrible fate. He finished his story just as he punched the button to close the lift doors.

I made the point that with me as one of the party, everyone was completely safe from anything like that…..

Campus Party EU Day two (for me)

For those of you who that aren’t convinced by the camera in the Lumia 1020 I say Ha! and Ha! again. I’m going to print out an A3 version of this, and I reckon it will look awesome.

I’ve got a confession to make. I’m surrounded by people working through the night, making things and talking tech. And last night at eight thirty in the evening I toddled off to the hotel to watch CSI: NY and turn in. I blame it on my advanced years and the fact I was up at 5:15am yesterday to catch the train here. A poor excuse I know, but I did have enough stamina left to figure out who the killer was A clue: It was mum.

Anyhoo, here are a few more pictures from the event..

A blimp giving some sound advice.

I bought these from a shop here. Sure takes you back..

Awesome quad copter with eyes that can follow you round the room. Literally.

Completely amazing steampunk retro computer.

Picture Puzzle: One of the people in this photograph is wearing a hideous wig. Using your skill and judgement draw a large X over them so that you can’t see them any more.

Rob at Campus Party EU

 
I call this photo “Down in the trainstation at 6:00 am”..

What do Rob and George Osbourne have in common? Well, not a lot as it turns out, which is definitely good news for him. But one thing we do share is that we are both at Campus Party EU today.

I don’t think George did a talk on Windows Phone development though, at least I didn’t see him at mine making notes. I had a great audience of folks who were all keen to have a go at writing something for Windows Phone. There was quite a wide spread of development experience in the audience, so I kind of went for the “broad comedy” approach that seemed to go well enough.

This is the audience being warmed up for me.

And this is Riaz doing the warming.

They have an Xbox one here, not sure what the game is though. The whole thing is great. Like the Hacked.io event I went to earlier this year, but much, much bigger and international. The clue is in the name I guess. A big chunk of the dome is full of people making things, doing stuff and sharing ideas. A lot of fun is being had and good done.

I found this drawn on one of the Whiteboards. Indeed.

For those of you who were at my talk, you can find my Windows Phone App Studio screencasts here. You can find App Studio here. And you can find me in the open area near the Xbox One sitting typing at my Skinned Surface.