New Lomography film Scanner - WOW!

[RedLion]

Lomography is coming out with a new film scanner.

Scan your film with your smartphone and share instantly.

http://vimeo.com/lomography/smartphone-film-scanner

Comes with an App to edit and correct the scans and share as well.

This may go a long way towards saving film.. Shoot with your favorite analog 35mm camera and share with your friends quickly.... as long as there are still local places to get your film developed, that is.

Joe

 

[v_roma]

Obvious downsides aside, this is real interesting. Kudos to Lomography for trying to constantly innovate around an allegedly moribund industry. If this could be easily hacked/converted to allow the use of actual cameras (dSLRs, etc.), that would be great.

Lomography is coming out with a new film scanner.

Scan your film with your smartphone and share instantly.

http://vimeo.com/lomography/smartphone-film-scanner

Comes with an App to edit and correct the scans and share as well.

This may go a long way towards saving film.. Shoot with your favorite analog 35mm camera and share with your friends quickly.... as long as there are still local places to get your film developed, that is.

Joe

 

[thegman]

Hmm, I normally like the Lomo guys, and what they're doing to help film, but I'm not sure this is a step in the right direction. The quality I assume will be atrocious, surely better off with one of those £50 35mm dedicated scanners.

 

[helvetica]

There is a Lomography store right down the street from me (Austin, TX) and they have an interesting business model for sure. My first camera was a Holga 120G, which I bought new for $12 a few years before Lomo came to the scene. Now they will sell you the same camera for $49! That aside, they have good connections with local labs for processing. I think they could promote their business further with more "photo walks" and other social events, as truth be told - the Lomo movement is about a scene, it is not for results or technical capabilities.

 

[lam]

- Buy film.
- Pay to develop film.
- Buy Lomography Scanner.
- Scan film using Lomography Scanner using your iPhone or Android device (assuming it can macro)
- Post on Instagram.

I kid.

I see some future uses and innovations in this, maybe. I'd love to have a super compact high-quality scanner that fits in a camera bag.

 

[jsrockit]

So basically the best your scans can be depends on the phone used?

 

[johannielscom]

So basically the best your scans can be depends on the phone used?

I'd say yes to that.

Mine is an iPhone 4S so I might be lucky. I would definitely spring for one if it doesn't cost a kidney, because it's the ideal miniature light table to decide which shots are truly scanworthy on the Minolta ScanDual IV I own!

My daughter might be happy with this little scanner as well, it would make a nice package with her iPhone and the Cosina CX-I she has.

 

[v_roma]

Not sure what the street price will be (might be somewhere on the kickstarter page) but if you are a backer and back to the $40 level, you get the scanner at what is reported to be a lower price.

I'd say yes to that.

Mine is an iPhone 4S so I might be lucky. I would definitely spring for one if it doesn't cost a kidney, because it's the ideal miniature light table to decide which shots are truly scanworthy on the Minolta ScanDual IV I own!

My daughter might be happy with this little scanner as well, it would make a nice package with her iPhone and the Cosina CX-I she has.

 

[5:00 PM]

The Lomo Movement is about technical primitivism, but that's built-in to the cameras. One would think that a Lomo scanner would be a much higher fidelity device than a Lomo Camera.

 

[pieter]

From what I see in the video it seems to be nothing more than a lightsource that you use to light the film with? I mean the actual scanning is done by the camera of your phone? Or am I seeing it wrong?

 

[Phil_F_NM]

I'd love to have a super compact high-quality scanner that fits in a camera bag.

A Leica M8 with a DR Summicron or dedicated macro Elmar works surprisingly well for this application.
I'm willing to bet that a high MP count DSLR with a dedicated 1:1 macro lens and one of those filter-attached slide copiers that we all used to have a couple decades ago would work very well. And it would fit into a bag too!

Phil Forrest

 

[kknox]

Will it scan 120 film also?

 

[v_roma]

Yes, light source plus the case to hold the film and the phone.

From what I see in the video it seems to be nothing more than a lightsource that you use to light the film with? I mean the actual scanning is done by the camera of your phone? Or am I seeing it wrong?

 

[perudo]

Well, I was thinking about changing my workflow using this scanner!
I could see myself scanning low res scans with this( it seems damn fast to capture a whole roll)
And after editing those, I could just rescan the negs that I really want to work on( believe me, my scanner is so slow, that I often feel discouraged)
What do you think of this idea?

 

[johannielscom]

Well, I was thinking about changing my workflow using this scanner!
I could see myself scanning low res scans with this( it seems damn fast to capture a whole roll)
And after editing those, I could just rescan the negs that I really want to work on( believe me, my scanner is so slow, that I often feel discouraged)
What do you think of this idea?

I'd say go for it, I was having the same idea!

Are those scanners on sale yet, anybody? What is the MSRP?

 

[locheeboy]

Lomo Film Scammer - sorry Scanner...

Whilst ah agree and support much of what Lomo professes. In the end, with them, it's always " show me your money" ... first. Always remember that they are, and were, marketers. Lomo was a result of a marketing project. As usual, the hiply fashionable are the most gullible.

Ah hate the way they say (not in so many words). Gimme some money up front. Guess a price? Now, gimme more money. That's correct, it's far more than the apparatus is worth. But - it's LIME GREEN!

There are plenty of small scanners, with higher res. which transfer to sd cards etc + adapters for mini/micro SD. PLus the Lomo app itself, is free.

Ah suppose ye could make a smaller, lighter, much cheaper lightbox from spare bits , at home. But lazy sods (like me) can't be bothered...Wouldn't dream of buying it . 😎

 

[v_roma]

There may be actual reasons to have gripes with Lomography, but the Q&A you posted is not one of them. The scanner is simply a box to hold negatives with a light, on which you place your own smartphone to "scan" the negatives. They never claimed otherwise. That is why they cannot tell you about the resolution of the scans because it will depend on your phone (iphone, nokia, etc., etc.).

I got the scanner and I have not tried it yet. I am actually going to try to "hack" the lomo scanner to allow the use of a small digital camera (like the RX100) to do the "scanning" rather than my cellphone, which takes crappy pictures. It will just be a way to get quick scans to share/digital contact prints, which is all I was looking for.

EDIT: All that said, the reviews of the initial version of the app have been pretty bad. Lomo said they are working on improving it.

Lomo Film Scammer - sorry Scanner...

Whilst ah agree and support much of what Lomo professes. In the end, with them, it's always " show me your money" ... first. Always remember that they are, and were, marketers. Lomo was a result of a marketing project. As usual, the hiply fashionable are the most gullible.

Ah hate the way they say (not in so many words). Gimme some money up front. Guess a price? Now, gimme more money. That's correct, it's far more than the apparatus is worth. But - it's LIME GREEN!

There are plenty of small scanners, with higher res. which transfer to sd cards etc + adapters for mini/micro SD. PLus the Lomo app itself, is free.

Ah suppose ye could make a smaller, lighter, much cheaper lightbox from spare bits , at home. But lazy sods (like me) can't be bothered...Wouldn't dream of buying it . 😎

 

[locheeboy]

Hi, v roma.

mine's wasn't a gripe on the resolution. A previous poster had wondered if the res. was limited by the phone. Ah was simply confirming that. 🙂

 

[sepiareverb]

$60 US

 

[johannielscom]

$60 US

...which of course translates to EUR 60 in Lomography's business model 😡

Think I'll better wait until I see the first user reviews