Lots of new stuff on the market: camera, films

Considering how bad I am at guess focusing, zone focusing a 6x12, even at f16, would be a challenge. Obviously intended for landscapes, I guess.
 
I'm sure Lomo's new product offerings will still continue to be criticized by the film snobs, who'd rather see the demise of film altogether than stoop to having to use a (*gasp*) plastic camera.

~Joe
 
I don't mind the plastic at all. Some of my favorite cameras are all plastic (I'm looking at you, XA). But I have to say that I never got the point of buying a toy camera/toy lens specifically to get poor IQ out of it outside of very specific (and I would imagine, temporary) projects where you'd be going for that look. Medium format film plus toy lens, if that's what the Belair is, makes even less sense to me. I'm not sure if that's the case with the Belair, though. From the website:

"both lenses bring high quality photos while still being loaded with the Lomographic charm we all know and love"

The Belair looks good to me design-wise, by the way.

EDIT: If the lenses are half-way decent, the price is certainly enticing. Though, I thought you could get some good used folders for not very much these days anyway.
 
v_roma said:
...
If the lenses are half-way decent, the price is certainly enticing. Though, I thought you could get some good used folders for not very much these days anyway.
Click to expand...

You can, as long as you're looking at folders which are 40 or so years old, and NOT 6x12 format. Yes, I bought two of them recently ... Balda Baldix and Voigtländer Perkeo II ... and each cost me about $300 once in good working order.

A good used MF folder with auto-exposure, however, is going to run you about $1200 or so minimum ... Fuji GF670*or Voigtländer Bessa III ... and be 6x7 format at most. 6x12 seems like it would be fun ... Perhaps I should pre-order.
 
Top shutter speed is 1/125, but thats perfecly fine on a tripod ay f/16. I use that combo on a 4x5 all the time. Could be iffy handheld, though.
 
Do not own any plastic cameras, but I hope they sell billions of them. I bought my daughter a Holga about a year ago and I like a lot of the photos.
 
Since the Belair X 6-12 was mentioned, I thought I'd toss a few of my photos taken with it in to this thread.

I am still not 100% sure I like the photos it takes, but it's the lenses I have a problem with more then the camera itself. It's built like most of their products, plastic and kind of toy-like as you'd expect. There's some issues with the lenses in 6x12 mask mode especially with infinity focusing, aka there isn't any infinity focusing for the most part. It also has the usual light leaks through the paper via the photo count window. I don't know how to avoid this as you have to look at it in the light to see the darn numbers.

But with that said, I have enjoyed taking photos with it and, for what it is, the results aren't awful. Would I buy it now if I knew what I'd get from it from my own experience? No. I'd put that $200 towards something with real glass lenses.

The first shots were from my first rolls. I set the focus to infinity and shot mostly distant landscapes, not realizing that the focus was kind of awful in the wider shots.

6x12 Mask:

Untitled by alienmeatsack, on Flickr


Untitled by alienmeatsack, on Flickr
In this image you can really see how badly the focus goes out of control on the plastic lens as it gets towards the edges.


Untitled by alienmeatsack, on Flickr
This one also used the infinity focus but the metal legs of the bridge in the foreground were actually sort of in focus. They were maybe 9-10 feet from me.

All of these were shot on Ultrafine Plus 100 film. I wasn't super happy with the grain clumping in the shots, to kind of add to the issues with the camera. I am not sure if that was a developer, temperature or timing issue with my development.

The next round were from the second photo session the next day. I picked a different locale, stuck with the wide angle lens set to f/16 only and set the focus to 3m and only adjusted it a little for each shot and used the 6x9 mask. These were shot on Ilford Pan F Plus 50 film (expired in 2011). I tried to get more up closer in these shots to see what differnce it made in the depth of field and focus. I was much happier with the results even if they still aren't perfect.


Turkey Mountain by alienmeatsack, on Flickr


Turkey Mountain by alienmeatsack, on Flickr


Turkey Mountain by alienmeatsack, on Flickr

I've not yet received my color shots back, which I shot during each session along with these. So I have no idea how well it did in that regard. As you can see, the camera has a vibe to it like most of the Lomography cameras, but like I said above, I don't know if I would buy this camera for the first time if I had the experience I do now with it.
 
I like the first set of images - particularly the chain-link fence. The character of the lens adds visual interest imo - it might lack dynamic without the blur and distortion.
 
@ alienmeatsack...

Your shots of Turkey Mountain are very apt - this camera is very definitely a turkey !

As a film-only photographer myself, any camera that feeds on film meets with my approval, whether it be made of metal, plastic, cardboard or even dried buffalo dung, but this Lomo gadget seems to have a photographic usefulness and competance hovering somewhere around zero.

I expect they'll sell by the million to trendy, arty people, though... (!)
 
That second set (6x9) isn't terrible, but there are a lot of excellent 6x9 folders out there (like a Nettar). I reckon 6x12 is simply too much for that lens to handle -- too bad, since where else will you find a 6x12?

Thanks very much for posting these, and I hope they do sell a lot of them! Whatever it takes to keep medium format going....
 
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