Andy, my issue is with the whole lomography marketing scheme/aura. I've nothing good to say about them and my opinion won't change until their business model changes and they give honest value for the money they want to charge.
In your opinion they may not give honest value. But more than a million other photographers think different, otherwise they would not be customers of the Lomographic Society International (LSI) and buying their products.
I've already said it in another thread, but I think it is worth to think about it again:
Whether you like what the Lomographic Society International (LSI) is doing, or not. Fact is no other company has done so much for public awareness of film in the last years as the LSI.
Have you ever seen someone from Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Foma, Freestyle etc. promoting film use on
international TV?
The LSI is doing it, Lomography UK on
BBC World News:
http://www.lomography.com/magazine/n...bbc-world-news
The LSI is taking more efforts in marketing for film use than Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Foma, Freestyle etc. together. Sad, but true.
Of course they alone can not save film. As long as the others stay passive concerning marketing for film, the market situation remains difficult.
If you had been in the last years at the biggest worldwide photo fair, the Photokina in Cologne, you would have seen the excellent representation done at the LSI booths. Boothes often bigger than lots of the digital companies, and with very good and innovative ideas to present the products and to get lots of attention from visitors.
Those who criticise the higher prizes of their products should at least think about the following:
What is the LSI doing with the profits? Are they buying golden Rolls-Royce for their staff? No....
They are investing the earnings in
- the worldwide marketing
- in the construction of their worldwide Gallery and Embassy Stores; real, not virtual shops you can walk in, tests the cameras, and where you can join courses
- the design and production of new camera models like the Spinner, Sprocket Rocket, LomoKino, new 110 cams, Bel-Air etc.
All the above investments are very expensive. You don't get that for free. You simply have to sell your products at higher margins to be able to do such a worldwide growth strategy.
These customers that pay the higher prices enable LSI to do so. They therefore support the global marketing and film consumption.
They don't only pay for the camera or the film, they pay a company for marketing for film, for building the biggest global website for film photography, building real walk-in stores worldwide, for bringing new cameras to the market, for getting younger people in touch with film.
And they think it is right to pay for that and support activities increasing the film user base.
Best regards,
Henning
By the way: The LSI just has introduced a completely analogue printing service (no hybrid process involved):
http://www.lomography.com/magazine/...our-wall-new-printing-service-from-lomography