Does this Lomo La Sardina has a problem?

[antmar]

Lomo La Sardina Eight Ball
This camera came to me as a gift for my name-day from my 10yo son 15 days ago and although it is not my most expensive camera it is the most precious of all the cameras that I have, including the Leicas of course.
I just developed my first three films that I took with this camera and I see that although the camera gives quite good images in close distance (about half a meter), images from long distances like party images or landscapes come very blurred. Of course I had adjusted the focusing ring to the proper position for long distance images which for this camera is the sketch of three persons. I am not very experienced with lomo cameras and I couldn't find help from Lomography support either but I have to say that they were very kind. All the images that I see in Lomography's website have very small size to judge.
So if you are more experienced than me with these cameras please help me. Do you think that these photos are typical for a Lomo La Sardina camera or my camera has a problem and needs to be replaced?
Thanks in advance
Antonis

 

[AgX]

I'm completely ignorant on the Sardina, and you did not give deatails on your photos, but the first question for me would be, is the seting of that fous ring affecting the lens at all?

However, with low grade lenses parts of the image with large image-scale benefit by this.

 

[darkosaric]

Pictures 4, 5, 6, 7 are looking great with out of focus, one could say even better if they were in focus and sharp .

 

[antmar]

I'm completely ignorant on the Sardina, and you did not give deatails on your photos, but the first question for me would be, is the seting of that fous ring affecting the lens at all?

However, with low grade lenses parts of the image with large image-scale benefit by this.

You are wright about the details, how did I miss that?
All shots are with TMY400 souped in ID11 and scanned from the negative with Canoscan 9950F scanner.

 

[antmar]

Pictures 4, 5, 6, 7 are looking great with out of focus, one could say even better if they were in focus and sharp .

Darko I couldn't agree more, I also like these very much. I guess I have to get used of the Lomo effect and start to enjoy it.

 

[ciniframe]

According to a Lomo site the Sardina has to focus settings. The 'close up' setting, .6 to 1 meter, an the 'infinity' setting, 1M to infinity. Looks like all those pictures were taken at the close up setting. Either that or the camera is broken.

 

[antmar]

All those pictures were taken at the infinity setting. Maybe it is defective but not broken cause it is new.

 

[AgX]

Maybe it is defective but not broken cause it is new.

A language issue I have to think about...

 

[wahiba]

I have just put my first film, colour in my case, through the same camera. I won mine in a Lomography competition. First competition I have ever won by the way.

The pictures look about right. Just remember the two position focussing.

I do like the arm length selfie though.

David
Dead Link Removed

 

[Joe VanCleave]

Keep in mind with these cameras that have two preset focus settings (near and far) that the focus will be sharpest at only one particular distance for each of the settings. They rely on depth-of-focus to cover the whole focus range of that zone. You will have to experiment with a roll of film and images of some sharply defined object at various distances to figure out the ideal setting for sharpest focus. It looks like at the far distance setting the lens is set to focus somewhat closer than infinity.

Keep in mind that when you're dealing with depth-of-focus there's always someone else's assumption (the camera designer's) about what's considered acceptably sharp. Technically, only at the exact focus distance of the lens is the image sharpest, with it getting softer the further away from that distance you focus. The aperture of the lens determines how soon it starts getting soft. Wide apertures have sudden falloff of sharpness, while small apertures have less. These Lomo cameras have a fixed aperture (or two) so the assumptions about DOF and the focus settings are built around those apertures.

 

[klownshed]

Mine (also a gift from family) is the same. It's hard to get anything in the distance in focus. When I say 'hard' I really mean impossible.

If you look at the samples on lonography's site you'll see that they pretty much all have subjects in the foreground

A landscape camera it is not.

It is Fun though. It's a camera with which you have to get close...