jelly fisheye lens

My curiosity got the better of me when my lomo buddy @kpeneyra twittered about buying her third ultra wide and slim camera along with a 110 Demekin fisheye. She sent me a link of a mobile fisheye lens that'll fit her UW&S camera. I saw something similar to this at Uranium99 and at toy*camera at eBay. toy*camera even offers the UW&S camera with the fisheye lens. Now I find myself looking at an even cheaper alternative: the jelly fisheye lens. I don't really need it because I already have a Fisheye 2 camera but thinking that I could attach it to my cameraphone and to my other cameras made it seem slightly appealing because of its portability. If and when I do purchase the jelly lens, I'll be sure to post output pictures here soon :)

low light delights

from my Centuria Chrome 200 test roll
it was cross-processed but everything still looked ordinary

I've only used ISO 100 and 200 with my LC-A+RL under low lighting conditions and it's given me surprisingly good pictures so far. I know I should have used a faster film like ISO 400 or 800 but those were the only two ISOs available to me at the time. One good tip that you have to remember when using your LC-A in low light: hold it steady until you heard a second click (first click is the shutter opening, the second is when it's closing). I've read it many times before and I only appreciated it when I shot pictures in low light. All three pictures posted here were taken without using an external flash.

Roundabout
Velvia 100, cross-processed

Carpark
Provia 100, cross-processed

I love my LC-A+RL. It takes wonderful pictures in and outdoors even without using a flash.

cropped and photoshopped

Out of sheer boredom, I took my P&S (point and shoot) digital camera out yesterday. The weather was bad and I couldn't take any lomo pictures--I'd be wasting film if I did. Anyways, the color of the picture I took seemed so listless that I decided to tweak the saturation and crop it so it'll look better. And it did :)

Ever since I started lomography last year, I look at pictures differently now. If the colors are not saturated, they appear dull. Oh well. I wish the weather would clear up enough for me to take nice sunny pictures again.

more Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim clones

There seems to be a surplus in Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim cameras nowadays. In addition to my previous entry on Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim look-alikes, I've spotted two new clones on eBay lately. One is the White Slim Angel and the other is the Black Slim Devil. Unlike the Eximus UW&S variant, it says "super fat lens" on it (the Eximus has "ultra wide lens"). It may seem nice that they have reproduced the Vivitar and are flooding the market with more cameras. The only problem is the price of the camera--it sells for $39.99! Now I'm glad I got my Eximus UW&S from the toy*camera eBay store for just $23.98 last month :)

*Pictures courtesy of Uranium99 who is selling both the White and Black Slim cameras.

Maryland

I gave this "visitor" the benefit of the doubt since last year--I thought it was a random thing until I noticed the same location pop up in my trackers every month. This person would click through all of the tabs in my site, ignoring the note out front saying that "You have to be one of my contacts to be able to view the contents of my site"--I know this because even if she's not registered with or logged in Multiply, every click of every page she goes to there is recorded. The pictures above are just a few of the visits I have recorded. She even went to my Twitter page which I subsequently changed.


None of my contacts live in Maryland and none of my friends work at a retirement home so my husband and I did some investigating. We found out out who it was by asking a few acquaintances--it was that easy.

Has she ever thought of what other people would say once they find out that she visits the sites (both private and public blogs) of the woman her ex-boyfriend married? What for? She'll just look bitter, envious, and very hung up. I tolerate her visits to this public blog (which title she even Googled), it is displayed for everyone to see after all, but then why does she visit this site when it's already been made private? When will she learn to give up and move on? Makes me wonder how many times she's been through my private blog when it was still open to everyone--she might have turned the tables around, twisted the story to her liking, and ranted on whatever I have written there just to make herself feel good. Anyways, I have no doubt that she will return to try her luck and click the links on my site again. Will she stop when she finds out that she's been caught? If she's smart, she will. But if not, then she's dimwitted.

lomolitoman

I bought my Fisheye 2 from this guy last year. I was anxious at first because his feedback score wasn't so high on eBay. I almost withdrew my bid for the FE2 but now I'm glad that I didn't. Mind you, he's not big on communication and you might not get a reply like what happened to me. I went as far as to call him when he didn't return any of my messages just to ask if my camera was already sent and his answer was that he was too busy to check his email. I felt relieved when I picked it up at the post office after a month of waiting for it in the mail. This was also the only time I appreciated auctions because I won it for a low price even with shipping included. Anyways, good luck to those who'll bid on his Fisheye 2 cameras :) I hope you win them as cheap as I did. Oh and the last time I checked, I saw that he's selling some of them outright now--with either the Buy It Now or Best Offer option.

infrared pictures

One of my lomo buddies shot using infrared and the outputs were awesome. Wish I had the tools to shoot the way she did. Anyways, I'd rather post her album links than post her pictures here instead. Visit this and this to see what I'm talking about :)

my first feature

Thank you to Libor Kriz for featuring me in his blog. Not everyone can appreciate what it means to be featured in another blog. I am just glad to share my experiences with anyone who is interested in lomography :)

favorite times of the day

From experience, my favorite times of the day to take lomographic pictures would either be in the morning (some time before 9am) or during late in the afternoon. I love how unpredictable the colors turn out especially when I use slide film. For now, I'm content on capturing sunsets.

Sunset by the Bay
LC-A+RL, Velvia cross-processed

Dusk
LC-A+RL, Velvia cross-processed

negatives and slide films

As a rule, I don't use slides yet whenever I get a new camera--I always use negatives first. Why? Even if the camera is new, there might be something wrong with it and you won't find out until you test it. It's practical to choose the cheapest film in your stash, wait for the test roll shots to come out and then load your camera with the more expensive ones.

For negatives, I use Solid Gold 200 and Fujicolor Super HQ 100. These are both cheap and yield vibrant colors. For slides, I've used Provia 100, Velvia 50 and 100, Konica Centuria Chrome 200, Fuji Neopan, Kodak BW400CN, Elitechrome, Lomo X-Pro, and Agfa CT Precisa.

I don't like how green or yellow the pictures of people come out when I use either the Provia or Elitechrome. I will never buy another Centuria Chrome ever again because it's too grainy! Other than that, the output doesn't look any different from using negatives.

I prefer to use Velvia 100 with my Supersampler, the negatives for my Fisheye 2 and Actionsampler, and the Lomo X-pro and Precisa for my LC-A+RL (and hopefully for my Eximus too). I have yet to try Lucky Color 200 and the Ilford XP2 400. I don't shoot much using black and white film but it would nice to be able to try it out =) Anyways, I hope to post more output pictures and reviews of the films I've used soon.

review: Fisheye 2

I almost sold my Fisheye 2 after I saw how dismal my last roll turned out. I only appreciated it when I started using negatives instead of slide film and when my experiments using an improvised colorsplash flash turned out better than I had hoped for.


A few things I don't like about the Fisheye 2...
- There's no tripod socket—you can’t mount it onto a gorillapod for more stability.
- No cable release thread for those long and lovely shots. You have to press the shutter button as long as you can and hold the camera steady at the same time.
- Parallax shooting when using the viewfinder (ever noticed that the viewfinder is in the middle but the lens isn’t? Had problems centering before I figured out not to become dependent on the viewfinder)

Details that I like about the Fisheye 2...
- It’s easy to use because it’s point and shoot. No focus levers to worry about.
- Film loading and unloading is easy. No small button to press before rewinding the film.
- The viewfinder—I just love seeing everything through the eyes of the FE2. It acts as a sort of preview.
- The B mode for long exposures.
- The MX button for multiple exposures.

I love my Supersampler!

This is without a doubt my favorite lomo camera. All of my four lomo awards (3 Oktokino's and 1 OSCM expert) were taken using a Supersampler. This picture won the OSCM (Online Shop Cover Marketing) expert award last February 19, 2009. I was holding my Fisheye 2 and my Supersampler.

my award-winning shadow pic
expired Elitechrome, cross-processed

annual band parade
expired Velvia 100, cross-processed

an afternoon at the range
expired Velvia 100, cross-processed

It's great for moving shots. I just wish they'd design one with a flash next time because it's useless at night. This is one camera I wouldn't mind buying again if I ever break mine after the warranty lapses ;-)

the Holga 120CFN

For some strange reason, I missed my black and silver 120CFN last night. The feeling passed but I went as far as to look at previous pictures I took using the 120CFN. Surprisingly, I only used 5 rolls with that camera, two of which I have chosen to post here.

Manaoag, Pangasinan
fresh Velvia 50, cross-processed

stormy skies
expired Provia, cross-processed

If I ever decide to buy another Holga in the future, I'll be sure to buy the 120N. Looking back, I think I should have I bought the 120N instead of the 120CFN. The CFN's color flash was weak and you couldn't put an external flash because there was no hotshoe. Even if the Holga takes amazing pictures, I find myself relieved that I don't have to search for 120 films anymore. That's one of the main reasons why I sold it in the first place =)

something to look forward to: the Olympus XA2

It might have been a stroke of luck (whether good or bad still remains to be seen) when I browsed through eBay and saw an Olympus XA2 being sold for GBP24.99.


That was the cheapest price I've ever seen so far. Couldn't resist buying it before someone else snatched it away or placed a bid on the camera. Now all I have to do is wait patiently for a month before I get it in the mail.

This camera has gotten me curious ever since I read it being compared with the LC-A. I just hope it works just as it was advertised. This is the first time I ever bought anything second hand from anywhere. If by chance it doesn't work, I just hope I can have it repaired.

*photo of the XA2 taken from the seller's eBay listing

Red Camera

When I received my Eximus UW&S last month, I noticed the packaging had a website stamped on it. I browsed through Red Camera and looked through the cameras in their line up. The Eximus is considered as a "Red Original". Could Vivitar have sold the rights of their original UW&S to Red Camera? Oh well...


I'm already tempted to buy the Mr. Macro and Aryca Auto 4-Lens Sports cameras. At least now I have something else to save up for other than buying more films ;-)

Paul Smith Fisheye 2

I've seen this Paul Smith version quite some time ago. It's gorgeous! I would love to buy this for my collection.

4am project

Yipee! It's not too late to join =)

review: Eximus Ultra Wide & Slim

I got my second roll of film using this camera today. Using it and seeing the results made me want to own the original Vivitar too.

I like that it's small enough to fit into my handbag. It's point and shoot--no need to worry about focusing all the time. The Eximus comes with an extra film winder just in case it breaks.

The downsides I see in this camera seem to be its price and fragility. It's a great camera for beginners or for plastic camera enthusiasts.

Here are a few output pictures. I used Elitechrome (cross-processed) for the pictures posted below.


I bought my Eximus for $23.98 (shipping excluded) from the FUN camera store. I feel lucky to have bought it with this price. People have told me that it now costs $25.99.

DIY colorsplash flash

I used to own a Colorsplash flash. It actually lasted less than a day because the one I bought from LSI was defective and I ended up just getting a refund instead. Why not a replacement? Hmm... I was discouraged with the design and how flimsy it felt. Maybe next time I do buy another CS flash, I'll be sure to test it first before buying it.

Anyways, there are two ways in which you can make your own colorsplash flashes. A fellow Lomomanila forum member posted a thread on alternative colorsplash flashes and it was really helpful. He used colored velcro fasteners. An online buddy improvised by using colored plastic folders and it turned out great too. Both are equally effective and inexpensive. I already can't wait to try out mine =)

Special thanks to wraithblade and tiffxi for providing the alternative colorsplash flash tips =)

favorite Holga sellers on eBay

XinHaicc is without a doubt one of my favorite Holga sellers on eBay (well, at least when I was still using Holgas). I bought six Holga 120 CFNs (two silver and the rest were all black) during my early days into lomography. This seller has the best prices on combined shipping compared to the other online shops selling Holgas at the time.

For accessories, I recommend buying from Daipatmeow or Uranium99. Daipatmeow has the lowest prices for accessories and is good when you're buying single items (he doesn't combine shipping). I also bought my Holga 135BC from this seller when it was still cheap. Too bad the sellers increased the prices because of the popularity of the Holga. Other accessories like the 15B flash for the 135BC I was able to buy from Uranium99--good seller too but price-wise on Holga cameras, I'd still go with XinHaicc.

If you're looking for a Holga, I recommend the three I mentioned above. They ship worldwide and they arrive relatively fast. There's another promising seller on eBay--KG Hobbie has very attractive prices and free shipping worldwide too. Haven't bought anything from this store yet as I no longer use Holgas. Worth trying though--if I ever want to buy one again =)

Into other cheap plastic cameras? Go for LSI or Amazon.com instead =)

my el cheapo Actionsampler

It's not the original but it's good enough. Friends who own the original told me that the output of my el cheapo Actionsampler look sharper than theirs. Not bad for a $3 camera on eBay.

photo storage using Multiply

I've been asked a few times about why I prefer Multiply to Flickr in terms of photo storage and I think it's about time that I blogged about it. I've been a member of Multiply since 2006 and it was just last year that I upgraded to a premium account. I asked friends who both had Flickr and Multiply accounts before I upgraded because I wanted to see what the pros and cons were. I even had a free Flickr account for some time but I deleted it eventually because of the storage quota (Multiply lets you upload an unlimited number of photos for free).

Here are a few details I gathered before deciding to stick with Multiply:
1. Flickr costs $24.95, Multiply costs $19.95 annually
2. both offer restrictions as to who can view your photos and videos
3. Multiply Premium account users can download their albums in a *.zip file
4. Multiply allows unlimited upload of pictures, Flickr has a quota and will only show 3 sets (Multiply stores your high resolution pictures for 30 days unless you upgrade to a premium account--otherwise, the low resolution version will be saved instead)
5. both offer the "tagging" feature (Flickr allows offers geo-tagging)
6. both allow you to comment on others works and disable comments if you don't want others to comment on your work)
7. Multiply is more versatile in terms of posting blogs, events, links, recipes, market goodies (if you ever need to sell anything) other than pictures and videos