Sunday, February 6, 2011

Instant Back for Lomo LCA













The blurry goodness of the LCA lens has finally converged with the squishy colors of instant film. Behold the instant back for the Loma LCA. Just don't behold too long or you'll strain your eyes.













You turn on the instant back and a blue LED lights up while the film slowly whirrs out. It uses Fuji's Mini Instax film. Nice film but a little small. Then comes the anticipation - what will develop? And will it be any good? It reminds me of the Polaroid I-Zone Pocket Camera which produced stamp size instant photos. Oh, you don't remember that camera? Neither does the rest of America. And that's why Polaroid went bankrupt.













Indulge me for a second while I take a little jag - who are the wizards who run Polaroid? Honestly, I think they are actual wizards with no business experience or sense of pop-culture. Wizards and their stupid pointy hats. I mean honestly, within the last 10 years the Lomographic company made horrible analog cameras hot despite the robotic rise of digital cameras. They carved a niche for themselves among hipsters and lazy photographic enthusiasts who refuse to read the manuals that came with with their cameras (I fall in the latter category). Now Lomographic is worth a bazillion dollars and Polaroid is . . . is uhm, not.













Meanwhile, I watched as Polaroid stopped making one specialty film after another as their fans wept loudly on the interblogs. Now Fuji owns the instant market. Polaroid is trying to make a comeback. But instead of making what people yearn for (instant film), the wizards have partnered with Lady GaGa to produce sunglasses with pictures in them. I guess the partnership makes perfect sense - whether you're looking at Lady GaGa or these new sunglasses you walk away scratching your head thinking "What was that?"