Lomography introduces handcranked 35mm Lomokino Movie Camera

[Nicholas Kovats]

This is incredible in my humble opinion. Officially released just a
few hours ago.

1. Cheap as in $79 US cheap.
2. Undeniable mass appeal.
3. Handcranked!
4. 36 exposure 35mm film cassettes.
5. Shoots identical UltraPan8 aspect ratio = 2.8:1, i.e. 14mm x 8.5mm
frame area is created by utilizing a 35mm 2 perf pulldown resulting in
144 "UP8" frames" per 36 exposure 35mm film cassette!

Official Lomokino site -> http://microsites.lomography.com/lomokino/, i.e

Film type : 35mm
Exposure area : 24mm x 8.5mm
Frames per. roll (36 exp.) : 144 frames
Frame rate : Approximately 3-5 frames per second
Taking Lens : 25mm
Angle of view : 54 degrees
Aperture : f/5.6, f/8, f/11 (Continuous aperture)
Shutter speed : 1/100
Film Advancing : Manual
Film Counting : Volume display
Focusing : (Normal) 1m~infinity, (Press button for) 0.6m close-up
View finding : Inverse-Galileo foldable viewfinder
Flash sync : x-sync (hot-shoe)
Tripod mount : Standard 1/4" tripod screw

Check out the sample footage -> http://vimeo.com/31503625. The
implications are wonderful!

Cheers!

Nicholas Kovats

[grainy]

couldn't agree more - as you can see from my simul-post!

What I'd like to see are clever home-brew solutions for improved speed-of-scanning, and some clever person to build the "rest of it", which would be housing for bulk 35mm film and take up.

I'd bet someone could make a little buisness of that... (reminds me of Randy over at holgamods.com ) and there are certainly tons of people like myself who generally find success leaving the tech end of filmmaking to the experts. ;)

[Nicholas Kovats]

Indeed grainy.

Let the mods begin!

PS: 35mm camera production was always a specialized industry. They never "pumped" out units. In fact both Arri and Aaton are made to order. The original reporter did not fact check. Hence the unsubstantiated rumors.

[aj]

Well, as I posted years ago about using half-frame 35mm cameras for ciné purposes you could fill 135 cartridges yourself and get considerable more frames from them. 55 exposures full-frame. The Ilford HP-5 winder version had even 72 exposures on a thinner bearer. Using more home-brew one could even attempt to handle long-rolls of 17 or 30 meter

One would hope there is bordermark in the gate to ease the scanning and stabilize the produced images.

[grainy]

Indeed grainy.
PS: 35mm camera production was always a specialized industry. They never "pumped" out units. In fact both Arri and Aaton are made to order. The original reporter did not fact check. Hence the unsubstantiated rumors.

That makes sense, re: 35mm camera production. I can't image how/why you'd need to "mass produce" an incredibly expensive, specialized machine.

I'm also very interested to see what they use for a shutter system - - how durable it is and how (whether) frame rate could be increased up to, say, 18 fps, without traumatizing the thing. Lomography has traditionally NOT been the swiss watchmakers of photography, to say the least. (and hense the price tag)

[Nicholas Kovats]

But imagine someone CNC machining the equivalent considering the mechanical simplicity of the LomoKino. A mini cottage of all metal handcranked 35mm metal boxes perhaps.

It is also brilliant for cheap replication of the roots of cinema and simple mechanics. Start simple and add complexity as the DIY market starts to get creative.

[grainy]

Love it - it's all good!

[Patrick]

Ive just read about this on Cinematography.com. This is like the coolest idea of cool ideas. Though I'm puzzled as to why one article described it as an "analogue video camera"!?! And another article lists it as a camcorder!

I'm betting that the lens is fixed (would be nice if it was interchangeable.) I could visualise someone building a motor for this camera.

I'm also intrigued about how to go about telecining the footage. As opposed to going to a telecine house and forking out $$$, it would be nice to use a scanner for stills use. Main dilemma of course is accomodating the unusual frame size.

I'm also very interested to see what they use for a shutter system - - how durable it is and how (whether) frame rate could be increased up to, say, 18 fps, without traumatizing the thing.

I'd like to get it to 24 fps but maybe the handle would break off after winding that fast!!

[BK]

Fantastic! would love to have one of these.

Bill

[granfer]

Is it me... or has everyone gone MENTAL????

LOMO have introduced nothing more than a simple BOX camera using 35 mm film with a panoramic ratio-(nothing new there)- with one simple addition....
A handle that one can turn to take a number of still pictures in succession!!!!!
It's nothing more than that.. a manual "motor drive" still camera.

And suddenly everyone is talking about using it (perhaps with a few "minor" modifications) to make Hollywood Blockbusters !!!! With apologies to Jimmy Connors... "are you SERIOUS" !!!!

INCREDIBLE?...NO!
FANTASTIC? ...NO!

Come on... GET A GRIP!

[BK]

When is the last time some company bothered to manufacture an affordable movie camera for the masses that actually uses real film ? Obviously we've been starved of a new movie camera for too long, hence the excitement and imagination. Ok, perhaps not a full length Hollywood blockbuster will be filmed with it but it I am sure it will find it's way in music videos or inserts in features or tv for effects and will achieve cult status.

Bill

[Mana]

Is it me... or has everyone gone MENTAL????

LOMO have introduced nothing more than a simple BOX camera using 35 mm film with a panoramic ratio-(nothing new there)- with one simple addition....
A handle that one can turn to take a number of still pictures in succession!!!!!
It's nothing more than that.. a manual "motor drive" still camera.

And suddenly everyone is talking about using it (perhaps with a few "minor" modifications) to make Hollywood Blockbusters !!!! With apologies to Jimmy Connors... "are you SERIOUS" !!!!

INCREDIBLE?...NO!
FANTASTIC? ...NO!

Come on... GET A GRIP!

Dude, you're lame.

[granfer]

When is the last time some company bothered to manufacture an affordable movie camera for the masses that actually uses real film ? Obviously we've been starved of a new movie camera for too long, hence the excitement and imagination.
Bill

And "Dude, you're lame" (whatever that means in English!)

No, not "lame", just intelligent enough to recognise this for what it is... it's certainly NOT a "MOVIE" camera, unless you refute the concept that to achieve proper "persistence of vision" you need MUCH more than 5 (that's what the spec says) pictures per second. You could call it a "Flicker Book Camera", because it can only produce "Flicks". But it ACTUALLY is what has been available for years... a still camera that can produce STILL pictures in reasonably quick succession... and I don't recall that feature of a motor driven STILL camera either being widely used in Videos , or for effects, or even achieving "Cult" status.

But if it excites you, and you think the Movie Camera has just been re-invented, fine......... there are many much better things in life to excite me

[MIKI-814]

INCREDIBLE?...NO!
FANTASTIC? ...NO!

Come on... GET A GRIP!

Take it easy man...

Ok, this is not a movie camera in the way we know them, but it's a tool in perfect tune with the Lomo philosophy: to make something different and alternative, unperfect and crappy and this is where it's appeal lies. In that way this is a NEW product.

BTW, all stock available has already been sold out in just a few hours. They are now waiting for more of these, so it certainly might have some interest for many people.

In any event, this is something with uses FILM and has been produced and sold today, so for any film supporter is good news, name it "movie camera", "flicker camera" or whatever you want, if it's just the name what makes you angry.

[Tscan]

I just came accross the add from Lomo today. I can't believe it's for 35mm. That's cool, but you will only have about 2 seconds worth of footage per roll. I've been expecting them to come out with a cheapo S8 camera and maybe film too.