Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Lo-Fi Decision


A few months ago I downloaded the Hipstamatic app for my iPhone. I absolutely love it! It takes the most amazing looking pics (as you'll see throughout this post).

It takes the pictures digitally in my phone, but adds filters to them to make them look much more analog.
The best part is that you can play around with how the pictures are going to turn out by (fake) changing around the camera lenses, flashes and film. Each have their own unique properties and it's really fun to mix and match them and see what you get.
One of my favourite things to do is actually randomize the settings and then just see what kind of picture I get afterwards.
As much as I love being able to just whip my phone out of my pocket and take these awesome pics, I always thought it would be fun to be able to do it with a real camera as well. Well lucky me, because a Lomography store opened just around the corner from my house.
Lomography cameras are modled after very old school cameras, but are new and made of plastic. They are almost as analog as you can get in terms of a camera. I wouldn't want it for everyday use, but I think it would be fun to bring one out on occasions.
The first day I saw the store I walked in right away and started looking around. My eye was immediately drawn towards a big box on the wall. The box was Diana F+ kit. It caught my eye because the kit came with the Diana camera plus a whole bunch of accessories. I was most excited about the multiple lenses it came with. But I didn't buy it.
I decided to go home and think about it. And I thought about it and I still want it. I was pretty much prepared to go and buy the kit this week, until yesterday.
Yesterday a friend said to me that maybe the Diana isn't the place to start, but rather I should start with a Holga (another type of lomography camera). He said that this camera has less options to play around with and would probably be better for a beginner.
Never the one to let me hold myself back I decided to do a little research on the subject. I started looking up comparisons of the Diana F+ and the Holga. The problem is, people who love lomography seem to love both the cameras. It was no help to me.
I'm going to go back to the store this week and talk to the people who work there to help me make a decision, but I figured I could also ask you sweet people of the interweb.
If you've ever played around with any of the lomography cameras I'd love to get your opinion. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
Now, take a look at some more pictures that were taken from my iPhone (as were the ones above):







So, what do you think? Should I go with the Holga or the Diana F+?? Let me know.

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