Lomo Kompakt Automat 35mm Camera

by Lomographic

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004S9WR
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,563 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 10, 2000

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The unique Lomo opens up a whole new world of creative photography. Built as sturdy as a tank, the black retro-looking Lomo was originally designed by a top-secret military optics factory in the Soviet Union and is still made by hand in the St. Petersburg factory. It's easy to use, takes normal 35mm film, and gives you brilliant colors and superb night photos.

But the Lomo is more than just a cool camera--it's part of a worldwide community and a refreshingly new artistic movement, Lomography, that encourages even nonartists to be creative. The philosophy is to be quick, don't think, be open to your surroundings, absorb everything, and enjoy communicating. The Lomo craze started in the Viennese underground scene and rapidly expanded until all across the globe people became armed with Lomos, recording everything in bright colors and strange shapes. There are major Lomo exhibitions and events around the world. And famous folks such as David Byrne, The Verve, and Yassir Arafat own Lomos.

When we first heard of the Lomo, the hype and über-hipness made us quite skeptical. How could this little Soviet camera create such a stir? But we fell for the Lomo as soon as we got the package, which includes a little German hardbound book of Lomographs (plus the English translation) and two rolls of Lomo brand film--along with the "What the hell is Lomo?" instruction manual.

After we used the Lomo for a week or so, it became quite obvious why folks were raving about it--the Lomo allows for an unprecedented amount of creativity, and (most importantly) it makes photography inexpensive and easy.

The secret to the Lomo is its superb light meter and its exposure method--it exposes film for however long is necessary. This results in amazing night photographs, with glowing neon, streaking lights, ghostly people, and a real sense of motion. Daytime shots are equally interesting, filled with color and accentuated by the Lomo's slight distortion and tendency to darken photos towards the edges. The Lomo has no flash, so you won't get photos of people with red eyes and pasty skin tones or pictures with underexposed backgrounds. The Lomo lens has a coating that renders both day and night with incredible richness and brilliance. Our skies were a deep blue, our yellows scintillating, and our night scenes alive with the colors of city lights. (Click on the "More Pictures" link at the top of this page to see sample photos that were taken with the Lomo.)

Another major advantage to the camera is that the Lomo works best with cheap 100-speed 35mm film, which is readily available anywhere and is easy to process. ISO 100 film is actually best at capturing brilliant colors and enhances the Lomo's natural tendency for producing color-rich photos.

Most importantly, the Lomo is wonderfully simple to use--the only adjustments you have to make are to set the film speed and to set the focus lever (marked with four distances from 0.8 meters to infinity). All you do is point the Lomo, set the distance, press the button, and the camera decides how long to expose the picture.

The viewfinder and lens open at the same time with a single lever--a good design that makes it impossible to mistakenly leave the lens cover on. You can easily slip the Lomo into your pocket without worrying about a case. Film loading, advance, and rewind are all manual--after using these features once, you'll get the hang of loading film quickly. The distance lever is also self-explanatory, and the distance markings show up inside the viewfinder as well.

If you want a modern point-and-shoot with autofocus, auto film winding, a zoom lens, and a flash, the Lomo is not for you. You won't get perfect, always-sharp photos with the Lomo, and many of your pictures will be blurred, streaked, and bizarre looking. But that's the whole point--with the Lomo, you'll get striking, unique, artistic results. You probably can achieve these results with a normal SLR camera, but it would require much more work and money.

Overall, we felt the Lomo lived up to its global reputation. With its simplicity, inexpensiveness, and striking results, it's an easy-to-use tool for creative fun photography. --Holly Blumenthal

SPECIAL CAVEAT: The Lomo Kompakt Automat is for the steady-handed and the artistically fearless. It is not the same thing as using a typical, modern point-and-shoot camera. Even though you may be buying it brand-spanking new, you might think of the Lomo as a clever camera you discovered in the back room of a dusty old second-hand shop during your travels through Eastern Europe. Handle it with care until you get the hang of its quirks. For example, loading the film is slightly tricky. Make sure it is properly winding around the spool before closing the back of the camera. If you have trouble getting the shutter to click, check to see if the lever that opens the lens cover has been pushed all the way to the right side. Even if the lens cover remains just slightly ajar, the shutter button won't respond when you press on it. Also, when you finish a roll of film, make certain you push in the rewind button on the bottom of the camera before you manually rewind the film. Otherwise, you will damage your film. If any of this sounds daunting, it really isn't. It's all just part of the fun of going Lomo.

Pros:

• Yields brilliant supersaturated colors
• Takes amazing night photos
• Sturdy, stylish retro construction
• Uses normal 35mm film
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Manual film loading, winding, and focusing
• Photos aren't always sharp

The Miscellany News, Vassar College

I have always had these ideas for night-time photos -- street scenes, snow scenes, photos in the movie theater. The night landscape or just a dark room can afford stunning images, yet they are images that are excessively difficult to capture on film with amateur equipment. Flash photography is often ruinous -- red eyes, oddly colored flesh, black background.

But I received the most wonderful gift this holiday season: a toy. Suddenly the prospect of night-time photography is not so daunting or impregnable.

The Lomo is an incredible device. In 1984, a top-secret military optics factory in the Soviet Union (Leningádskoje Optiko Mechanitschéskoje Objediniénie --LOMO) designed a pocket-size spy camera. As the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union collapsed, the camera somewhat disappeared from existence. But then, in 1991, an Austrian student living in Prague, Matthias Fiegl, purchased an old Lomo in an antique shop and suddenly, three years later, the Lomo camera is in such high demand that students in Prague convinced St. Petersburg associates to reopen the factory which had shut down in 1989. Today, nearly 70,000 people own a Lomo and there are 60 "Lomo Embassies" all over the world.

This little black wonder fits in the palm of your hand. Lomo literature tells its owner to take it with her everywhere. And though it looks like a miniature manual Nikon without the zoom lens, it does something quite different.

The shutter on a Lomo acts much like the B-setting on the shutter speed wheel of a manual camera. To accommodate dark conditions, the shutter stays open for as long as it is necessary in order to fully expose the film, no flash necessary. In very dark settings, the shutter may stay open for as long as three or four minutes. The only setting that the photographer alters is the distance lever. With the shutter open for this length of time the hand, or the subject is bound to move and the Lomo essentially captures that movement. The result is a gorgeous time lapse effect. Because there is no flash, the processed image shows not just the subject, but the background as well. Furthermore, by leaving the shutter open for the extended period of time, the film picks up hues and tones undetectable to the naked eye. For example, I took a picture of a friend's head on the side of a suburban street in the middle of the night. The shutter remained open for nearly three minutes. I assumed that the photo would not turn out, but instead the result was a beautiful hazy image in which the glare of the street lights swim into the hazy image of his face. The film had picked up the strangest colors in the background -- a green hue on the sidewalk, a deep blue in the street and violet in the midnight sky.

This camera is not just good for nighttime photography, however. Used in the daylight, Lomo captures brilliant color. Reds are redder, blues, yes, are bluer. The colors look almost artificial or computer- enhanced -- even more vivid than they are in actuality. And the camera takes regular 35 mm, 100 speed film. In fact, 100-speed film, though it is the cheapest, is really the best choice because its chemical make-up is optimal for capturing color.

What is perhaps most incredible about this camera, though, is that it is in relative economic reach. The camera currently sells for about 160 dollars while the next closest product that could produce similar results costs thousands. The investment is well worth the expense. Maybe even better is the special old camera/grandma's basement smell that each camera has.

Each roll of film is a complete surprise. I have taken numerous photos in excessively dark locations where I seriously doubted Lomo's ability -- the movie theater, for instance. I shot several photos of myself while in the theater. The red curtains on the wall to the side of me truly look like an oil painting. The haze of my head movement gives the photo a bizarre artistic appearance. --Meghann Curtis, A&E Editor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Know your metric system, January 15, 2002

By 

"alight" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lomo Kompakt Automat 35mm Camera (Electronics)

I've had this adorable camera for a year, and take it with me wherever I go. While other reviews recommend this for experienced photographers, I'm not convinced that would make much of a difference.
No, it is not a point-and-shoot in the traditional respects, but it is vastly simple. I've gotten fantastic shots in dimly lit bars and sunny Hawaiian beaches, all on the same "automatic" light setting. The compact size allows me to tuck into wee little evening purses and pester my friends all night long; yet it has a wonderful solid weight that means business and provides a cool retro feel.
My big issue continues to be with focusing, but sometimes the blurry shots are actually the best ones on the roll. There are four focul lengths-- 0.8 meters, 1.5 meters, 3 meters, and infinite. I find it hard enough to estimate distance in feet; switch to meters and it's even trickier. As the camera style provides no way to verify your subject is precisely in focus, this may lead to some disapointing results if you badly misjudge the distance.
My favorite thing about the lomo is the unexpected qualities in each shot. You may think you've got a roll of normal me-and-the-guys shots, but they come back from the developer with beautifully rich colors, amazing light effects, and a remarkable (and most pleasing) improvement to everyone's skin tone. If your goal is plain and simple shots, save a few bucks and go for whatever point-and-shoot is in your price range. If you want something a little more unusual, something that doesn't always provide the expected,and something that makes your and yours look like superheros,the lomo's what you want.
A note: there are nine small screws that hold the various parts together. It's a good idea to check these over and tighten them before you use your lomo the first time, as at least one has been loose in every lomo I've seen. They tighten with a phillips eyeglass screwdriver.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A unique camera but not for everyone, August 26, 2001

By 

Mediahound (SF Bay Area, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lomo Kompakt Automat 35mm Camera (Electronics)

Pros: Unique, it's Russian-cool!
Cons: a lot of your shots will come out blurry.

The Lomo LC-A camera has quite a cult following. I guess you should try one out for yourself to see if you like it. I did and have not yet grown tired of the novelty. The Lomo takes some unique pictures which often have a glassy-like quality with saturated colors and sometimes blurry images. The Lomo also tends to vignette at the edges quite a bit. I guess that's the 'Lomo look'.

Since there is no flash, you have to press the shutter button down and hold it down until the camera gathers enough light for an exposure and closes the shutter. In low light situations, this proves difficult since it is hard to hold the camera steady for the necessary second or two. The result in low to medium light situations is often a blurry image. While some feel that the Lomo is an ideal camera in low light situations, I don't. It's difficult to get an image that is not blurry or a bit fuzzy in low light situations and this can really get old fast. I much prefer the Lomo look of photos taken in daylight. Also, I've played with a couple of different Lomo LCA's and noticed that the shutter button varies a bit from camera to camera. Some are quite smooth and are easier to shoot in low light with, while others seem to have more of a clunk when you press them. For instance, I have an older Lomo that is better in this respect than the newer one.

Most 'Lomographers' as Lomo users/fans are often referred to, like these unpredictable blurry-type images because they can at times be cool looking and different. One thing you have to give credit to Lomographers for is their work ethic. The Lomo ethic is to shoot snapshots everywhere and anywhere. Just carry the small camera everywhere you go and shoot shoot shoot! I agree with this ethic and anything that get's people out there, taking more pictures is a good thing. However, you can practice this ethic with just about any other cheaper point and shoot camera if you know how to set it properly.

I guess you just have to decide for yourself. If you want convenience and versatility, and sharpness that perhaps rivals the best topline 35mm cameras, go with another point and shoot camera like an Olympus Stylus Epic or Yashica T-4 Super which both have very nice and sharp lenses.. But if you are looking for a bit of an artsy, glassy, dreamy unique look, then the Lomo is it! The Lomo images usually look grass roots, gen-x and artsy for lack of better terms. Note that the pictures taken with a Lomo are more suited to small 4x6 prints. Don't expect to blow them up to poster size. The Lomo is just not sharp enough. But, simply as a unique piece of interesting Russian workmanship and history behind it, the Lomo LC-A is a marvel in design personality.

At full retail price, I don't feel the Lomo is a good value. It's been way over hyped by some Austrian guys who are buying the cameras cheap from the Russian factory and then marketing the heck out of the camera, charging an arm and a leg for the camera, bundled with some film and a flashy booklet. The camera itself is actually really only worth about half what they charge.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars spectacular - but be warned!, April 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Lomo Kompakt Automat 35mm Camera (Electronics)

First word of warning: if you want a point-and-click camera to take holiday pictures etc. get an Olympus Stylus. Second word of warning: if you are a serious photographer, get a good SLR camera. The LOMO is a joy, but it requires some patience, and most essentially some imagination. With low speed film (recommend Lucky film, often found for a mere 99¢) in daylight it can pull off some amazing shots - the color is vibrant, sometimes bizarre. At night the effects can also be staggering, but you need a steady hand. Take pictures of the strangest things, snap everything, everwhere, you'll get used to it, and it'll become an addiction. The LOMO is really a toy (and I mean that in a nice way) - it's fun, and it brings out the artist in you - just don't buy one if you want to take 'ordinary' photos, or if you are really serious about photography. Arty, funny, blurry, spectacular, vibrant, weird - these words best sum up the LOMO experience. And best of all, you'll sometimes take a photo that will look good enough to be album art, and as good as any professional shot you'll ever see - and that's when the the joy of LOMO hits in, and the camera is worth its weight in gold.