What Does "Lomo" Mean?

[takermaker]

I own several huge lomos from 300 mm to 600 mm and one is a f/6 or f/4.5 i also have a 760 mm apo nikon nikor and all my lomos produce sharper brighter picture on my green tinted focusing board

 

[AgX]

What lenses are you referring to? Those LOMO lenses of that focal length and large aperture I know of are astro-lenses. Will they cover ULF? (I admit I know nothing about astro-lenses...)

 

[StoneNYC]

What does "trolling" mean?


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I love when old guys use the term "hipster". It makes me think of my old neighbor who used to walk around in his boxer-shorts that were held up by suspenders, knee high socks with the two colored bands at the top, and an undershirt. He'd always come out to get the paper, grumble something about the 'damn kids' of the neighborhood, and then retreat to his recliner that had undoubtedly not seen the light of day since 1943. He must have lived a horrible, stale, lonely life in his old age. Poor guy.

 

[StoneNYC]

I love when old guys use the term "hipster". It makes me think of my old neighbor who used to walk around in his boxer-shorts that were held up by suspenders, knee high socks with the two colored bands at the top, and an undershirt. He'd always come out to get the paper, grumble something about the 'damn kids' of the neighborhood, and then retreat to his recliner that had undoubtedly not seen the light of day since 1943. He must have lived a horrible, stale, lonely life in his old age. Poor guy.

Hipsters in NY often dress like him now.... Lol


~Stone

The Noteworthy Ones - Mamiya: 7 II, RZ67 Pro II / Canon: 1V, AE-1 / Kodak: No 1 Pocket Autographic, No 1A Pocket Autographic

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Brian C. Miller]

Just out of curiosity, approximately how many of those images do you print and/or exhibit? I have exhibited some of my Holga images, and I have printed some up to 11x14. I average about 1 printable image per roll of 12. Which is only slightly less than with my Mamiya TLR.

Cheers,

-- Mark

Do you mean exposed-to-keeper ratio? I think that it's about the same as my other MF camras.

It really depends on the light. I usually take it out in optimal light for the camera/film combination, and I take the same care to frame and compose like I do with my other equipment. So by and large, I can print just about all of the exposures. As for "keepers," well, it depends on what I'm photographing. I've usually been taking it out when I've been going through alleyways, and those can be quite full of things to photograph.

 

[btaylor]

Huh. What a strange discussion. I have many very high quality LOMO motion picture lenses. I rent them to motion picture production companies in Hollywood. But I will not rent to "hipsters." Any runner that shows up in skinny jeans and a worn out plaid shirt is shown the door.

 

[MDR]

The many faces of Lomo: Superb optical manufacturer including spy satellites
Manufacturer of the LC-A that started the Lomography company
Lomography/Lomographer synonyme for toy camera user

The toy camera movement is often thrown in with lomography but did in fact start 20 years earlier.
Lomography cameras can and do produce superb pictures, the lomographic society's shoot from the hips thing is most definetly not what many Holga, Diana, LC-A users do. Most "toycamera" users know their cameras inside and out they know the results they will get with the camera they choose. Using Toycameras is often like using a LF camera AA-Style lots of previsulization and not mindless clicking.

Dominik

 

[paul ron]

Laughing On My Own?

 

[kevs]

<snipped> The idea that those who use "lomo" cameras are so ignorant and ill-informed that they are incapable of looking further than wacky colours and light leaks ... well, I think it's a false assumption based on limited evidence, shall we say ...

You've misrepresented my comment; I said 'the possible perception', though I suppose I might have added 'by some sections of the photo community'. Some folk actually believe that an omniscient, omnipotent supernatural being created the universe in seven days because that's what they've been taught from birth, and this is reinforced by their cultures and societies. Some of these folk don't seem to look beyond this idea, yet there doesn't seem to be *any* truth in it...

You know, I find it ironic that scientists spent 150-odd years perfecting sharp, grainless photographic materials and lenses only for some companies to produce plastic cameras with ghastly lenses and charge stupid sums of money for them. Still, each to their own - I stand by my earlier positive comments. I have a Dead Link Removed to try out some time. I can't wait to see whether "its 3-element glass Triplet lens is something to brag about, yielding eye-popping color saturation and contrast.", and to try out its "unique fully-manual settings" that "gives you total control of your shots" is really worth the £80 Lomography.com charges for it. Now that claim of uniqueness is an outright lie on Lomography.com's part even within their own range - someone is being hoodwinked here, and it ain't me...

Cheers,
kevs

 

[pdeeh]

I wasn't misrepresenting your comment inasmuch as I did not ascribe the sentiment to you personally.
Nevertheless the point stands - as you say "some sections ..." etc

 

[MartinP]

I followed the link a couple of posts above. Eighty pounds for an 8M is interesting. The current price for a checked-out-working version is around twelve euros (about eight or nine pounds), except for in the Lomography shop. I do agree that they are the only entity doing mass-market marketing at the moment, but am a little surprised at the 900% mark-up.

 

[welly]

I like lomography because it adds more film buyers into the mix. No one is denying in the hands of an expert consistently good quality creative work can be produced. But to claim that somehow using a $200 POS fixed aperture single shutter speed camera will make you take better pictures than a cheaper Elan 7NE setup is stretching things. Don't you think so? Only when it comes to "art" do people have these discussions.

No one said that.

 

[MDR]

You know, I find it ironic that scientists spent 150-odd years perfecting sharp, grainless photographic materials and lenses only for some companies to produce plastic cameras with ghastly lenses and charge stupid sums of money for them.
kevs

This only proves that scienctists can be misguided and or wrong The Chevalier lens for daguerreotypes was already sharp enought for the medium, damn slow though. If scientist were only after the sharpest lens things like the 1.5 Xenon and other early high speed lenses wouldn't exist. The Pictoralist used fuzzy lenses so did portrait photographers. 100 year old portraits lenses fetch a pretty penny on ebay and at camera stores. Grainlessnes in itself just like sharpness isn't a virtue but a tool, just like an overpriced plastic lens camera. Some pictures require super sharp lenses and some a coke bottle. So scientist only looking for the sharpest possible lens know nothing about the photographic medium and art.

Dominik
Holga and Zeiss lover

 

[JBrunner]

This only proves that scienctists can be misguided and or wrong The Chevalier lens for daguerreotypes was already sharp enought for the medium, damn slow though. If scientist were only after the sharpest lens things like the 1.5 Xenon and other early high speed lenses wouldn't exist. The Pictoralist used fuzzy lenses so did portrait photographers. 100 year old portraits lenses fetch a pretty penny on ebay and at camera stores. Grainlessnes in itself just like sharpness isn't a virtue but a tool, just like an overpriced plastic lens camera. Some pictures require super sharp lenses and some a coke bottle. So scientist only looking for the sharpest possible lens know nothing about the photographic medium and art.

Dominik
Holga and Zeiss lover

Things get pretty boring when engineers dictate aesthetics.

(Not that I don't love and revere engineers, but sometimes you need to get a net over them)

 

[Noble]

A lot of artists here that have trouble with the concept of gestalt.

I love when old guys use the term "hipster". It makes me think of my old neighbor who used to walk around in his boxer-shorts that were held up by suspenders, knee high socks with the two colored bands at the top, and an undershirt. He'd always come out to get the paper, grumble something about the 'damn kids' of the neighborhood, and then retreat to his recliner that had undoubtedly not seen the light of day since 1943. He must have lived a horrible, stale, lonely life in his old age. Poor guy.

It's gestalt thing. I had a vague notion of how the word "hipster" was used in the modern vernacular... until I went to NYC in the spring. Walk down the street especially in Brooklyn and Manhattan and you will know who we are talking about. If you are in Texas it will take some explaining and in the end you will probably not be satisfied. NYC though is brimming with these characters. A couple of hours on a nice Saturday afternoon strolling down the High Line and your curiosity will be satiated.

Ultimately if I read the OP correctly answering "what does 'Lomo' mean" requires an acceptance to some degree of the concept of gestalt. If every single person is going to rummage through their closet, collector's case, or vault; find an item that says "Lomo" on it; and then get offended with internet critiques of lomography or indeed the marketing department at big "L" Lomography.com you are never going to get closer to any real truths. There are those who say nothing good has every come out of a plastic camera. But that isn't what the majority of the people posting in this thread have said.

I think we can all agree lomography is not the marketing department at lomography.com. Lomography is not a big expensive movie lens. Lomography is not a big expensive telescope lens. We all agree on that, right? That's the easy part.

As to "what does 'Lomo' mean" I would say before nitpicking all the various aspects of what you think it means and getting offended consider the words of Justice Stewart when asked "what is porn."

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it

Frankly I would rather talk about porn than "Lomo." Less controversy.

 

[kevs]

<snipped>
I think we can all agree lomography is not the marketing department at lomography.com. Lomography is not a big expensive movie lens. Lomography is not a big expensive telescope lens. We all agree on that, right? That's the easy part.
<snipped>

Why not just call it 'neo-pictorialist photography', since it's in keeping with the spirit of that earlier movement?

 

[ChristopherCoy]

Just in case... I had to look it up.

ge·stalt noun \gə-ˈstält, -ˈshtält, -ˈstȯlt, -ˈshtȯlt\
plural ge·stalts also ge·stalt·en

Definition of GESTALT

ge·stalt noun \gə-ˈstält, -ˈshtält, -ˈstȯlt, -ˈshtȯlt\


: a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts


I still have no idea what that has to do with an old man in boxer shorts and suspenders.

 

[JBrunner]

: a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts[/B]

That sounds suspiciously like what I hear on the rare occasion when I'm trapped in a board room.

 

[mfohl]

I love this forum. I love this thread. No extra charge for the entertainment.

 

[removed account4]

I've seen this term used only in recent time, and wonder- what exactly does LOMO mean anyway? I think its in reference to using Holga type cameras, but haven't found anything to confirm that.

hey braxus ..

not sure if any of this thread has explained what LOMO means or not ..
i guess it means different things to different people.
and it has good and bad connotations.

in some circles it refers to carefree photography, art for art's sake, and having a good time ( no matter the camera used )
in other circles it refers to the over priced cameras and accessories that are being sold on the lomography website