NEW Lomography NEWS

I second this!

A digital competitor! Then I third that.

But Lomo says nothing about what their lenses really are calibtrated for.
Marketing material gives no mention of this BIG problem.

Interesting will be the question if the focussing mechanism is Zeiss (Russian) or (Leitz) German. The Russians adopted (took?) the Zeiss standard with and the distance of travel of the lens in reference to the rangefinder mechanism differs if I get it right.
The two rangefinder families are calibrated for slightly different lens focussing travel mm's.

First the register (flange to film plane): FED/Zorki and if I understand M39 correctly - 28.80 mm for screw mount
Leica M - 27,80 mm and so a L39-M converter should work OK for infinity.

But: the lenses differ in their focussing mechanism.
Sweeney elaborates: The [old] J-3 has a travel of 3.239 mm from infinity to 90 cm; on the Leica bodies there is a difference in expected travel, the Leica RF calibration is 3.318 mm. The rangefinder of the Leica goes off when using the "wrong" lenses.
The [older] Russian (LOMO) lenses can be shimmed: Sweeney says he can easily change a J3 to Leica by shimming 0,1 mm.
But for instance, shimming the J9 is hard to do, my cameraman Wil van Maanen said. It might cost more than the lens.​

The question thus is: does the new Jupiter-3+ have the Russian (Zeiss) or Leitz mechanism/travel? No mention of it yet. So I am left in anxiety. Then why should I buy?

And then, if a body would be made (the market is wide open!) what rangefinder/mount will that have. If LOMO is silent about the problems I elaborated above for the lens, then I expect the worst when they come up with a body. I'm afraid it will be a Zorki+.

So I do not expect a viable body to be developed for the western world (Leica standard) by Lomo and I do not expect a body with an M-bayonet. :bang:

So for me this is futile even to think about. There are no marketing guys (gals) to break the rules over there. Sorry.

But of course if I'm incorrect . . . the head bartender can punch me hard. I'll wake up from a dream.
 
I'm pretty curious because there is nothing I can find on their website about any new product on the way. They are usually pretty good at tooting their own horn.
 
Someone mentioned a inexpensive M mount RF. Trouble is, what's inexpensive?
$1K.....$2K...? Too many opinions on that. M mount is the way to go however. Universal body, will take both LTM and M lenses.
 
I think Lomography is half way trough. The past is with old plastic film models which used to be cheap. Now exactly the same plastic film cameras high-jacked in price and it is old same and boring. Currently they jumped on very old trend which is on use of old lenses on modern cameras, plus Instax. Both are loosing its novelty. Lomography might look at their past. Lomography started as motion when films are plenty, all what was done - dirt cheap camera was taken and specific rules and principals of lomography shooting were applied. IMO, for Lomography as business (which it has become as soon as it became shop with brand name "Lomography") it is time for Lomo dlc-a. Original lc-a was nothing but copy of made in Japan camera. Why not take designers and market experts to the task to deal with digital camera manufacturer to get dlc-a?
 
How about a TLR for 120? Or a 135 folder a la Retina/Contessa/Karat.

Not interested in instant photography; would prefer greatly a modern take on a classic design.
 
Treated myself to a LCA-120 last year. It's untamed like a Mustang - but I do enjoy the ride!

Anything would be welcomed. Won't hurt anyone, anything, anyway.
 
I would love to test it - Would be interesting to try use it for college work whatever it is because I assume its going to be unusual in a good way!
 
I would like to test the new Zenitar 50mm 1.2 in Nikon F mount that they are about to release. For full frame not crop.
I'll shoot it on my F6, F, and D750 to cover all bases. I will send in a report to stevehuff.com to plug your site.

Thank you.

:)
 
That's exciting news!

I like Lomography gear a lot: Fisheye, Sardina, Spinner 360, U-Boot... They are all here. ;)
And the lenses are highly interesting. I had the chance to shoot with them at the Photokina.

Ah, and yes, I would love to test and write about the "new item" on my blog: www.retrocamera.de

;)
 
I saw some news about Freestyle having a new source of Holgas (120n). Considering they were discontinued about a year ago, it's something.
 
Odd. I posted in this thread yesterday and now its gone. What happened?

It was nothing rude, inappropriate, commercial, or ??? so I'm confused.
 
Well, in my initial post, I was wondering if we will see a new interesting M-mount lens (at least that's my hope). RF-coupled would be all the better.

So, plenty of older designs with "character" that Lomo has started to bring back (Petzval, Achromat) and it would be neat to have them in M-mount and not have to adapt them. Something like a Pronar, Artar, Dagor; most of these quite old designs with similar "errors" as the Petzval.

I also think a real fast lens could be interesting. Namely, a 50/1.2 or around there. And again, RF-coupled. It could be LTM too of course.

They already re-issued the Russar and the Jupiter-3. I haven't tried either, but folks elsewhere on RFF seem to think they're good. The J-3 in particular appears to be a big improvement over the original, and thus a good value for its price (which feels steep because you think of it as an FSU lens, but really its not...)

But I think the person who said it might be 620 film is closer. That actually would be a good thing. Many of us have cameras that would benefit from that.
 
They already re-issued the Russar and the Jupiter-3. I haven't tried either, but folks elsewhere on RFF seem to think they're good. The J-3 in particular appears to be a big improvement over the original, and thus a good value for its price (which feels steep because you think of it as an FSU lens, but really its not...)

I was checking on a lot of sample images from the J3+ when it was then newly out but I didn't see a BIG improvement (optically) over the old J3. There were also reports about miss-focusing from members on this forum if I remember correctly. Despite price difference, the obvious advantage of J3+ over old J3 is that it is a newly issued lens so it is less likely to be abused by many owners before the lens get passed on to you.

Lomography/KMZ also made the NEW Jupiter-9 back in 2013 but for some reasons they haven't brought it out yet. Maybe it is just a small amount of lens but I saw pictures of the lens on exhibition on some Russian forum, as well as a short description on KMZ's Jupiter-9 page.
 
About a year ago we had this news concerning KMZ:

https://petapixel.com/2016/02/12/russian-zenit-camera-coming-back-battle-leica-luxury/

At that time I had my doubts, because attacking very well established Leica in its tiny niche market makes no sense.
Also because of no one in the photo world is considering KMZ as a brand similar to Leica.
Therefore it still makes no sense for me today.

But a closer cooperation of Lomography and KMZ (they are already cooperating for years) in producing higher quality film cameras (higher quality compared to most of current Lomo cams) or more lenses could be economically viable.
 
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