Kevin Meredith AKA lomokev is not only a pretty interesting character in real life (millions of people only know him through flickr where he is an A-List celebrity) but he is also the best person on the planet to review the Lomo LCA for us.

If you don’t know about the world’s best compact 35mm camera then you have a lot to discover!

In his words:

Photography has always been a big part of my life but for the last few years it has become more of a profession than a hobby but that does not mean less fun!
In October 2008 my first photography book Hot Shots was released, it’s a pratical guide to photography for people who don’t want to be bogged down with technical jargon and just want to have fun creatively.

The Review

I have been asked to review the Lomo LCA / LCA+ I don’t know whether I can do this beautiful weapon of mass creation made from glass, metal, plastic and a little bit of magic justice with words, so you might be better off taking these words with a pinch of salt and looking at the pictures I have taken with my LCA.
It’s quite an odd review for me to write as I usually write reviews for some of the latest digital cameras for Digital SLR User magazine, I get sent a camera, which usually arrives late, and I get about two days to get to know a device which has more features than amazon has books. In contrast I have had a Lomo LCA for twelve years and shot hundreds of films to get to know this little beast, so rest assured everything I write here is written from a position of authority!
I have always carried a lomo LCA on me at all times for at least the last 10 years and currently always have a Lomo LCA+ and LCA on the go, one loaded with Agfa Precisa 100 and the other with Kodak Portra 400 or if its summer Kodak Ektar 100.

Before I talk about the technical aspects of this camera you must know something of the social activity’s that surround the LCA. I have met many great people because of this little piece of Russia.
In 2000 I took part in the Lomo Olympics where I came second in the London heats. I was then sent to Japan to represent my country in the world finals where I came silver. After Japan I went to Vienna for the Lomographic World Congress, I then took photos at the Commonwealth games using the LCA to shoot for a book, judged a photographic competition for flickr.com in New York and so the list goes on. I have been to places and seen things that I would never have done if I had not picked up this camera.

When I first met the Lomo LCA

If you’re good at math you would have worked out that I got my first LCA in 1998, internet shopping was not a big thing back then so if you wanted an LCA you had to visit your local Lomo embassy to see your Lomo ambassador. I went to London with cash in hand, upon arrival at 26 Roseberry Avenue EC1 I rang the bell and was invited up to a studio that was a bizarre mix of camera repair shop, design studio and junk shop. I was issued with my brand new LCA by Fabian Monheim the then Lomo ambassador of London, he gave me a quick lesson on how to use my new toy and I was away. Back then getting a Lomo was more like joining a cult than just purchasing a camera, Lomography is so big now its more like a religion. After developing my first film I was hooked, weeks later I went to New York which was the reason for getting the camera in the first place. I did not want to lug my SLR around with all the time and especially at night, back in 98 there was no such thing as a compact digital camera, not one that a student could afford.

Reasons to love this little camera

There are so many reasons to love this camera it’s hard to list them all. Simplicity has got to be high on the list, once you have loaded your film all you have to do is estimate the distance to your subject, set the focus to either 0.8m, 1.5m, 3m or infinity and shoot, it’s that simple! The older LCA has an aperture control but I have never touched this and I don’t think many users did because when the revamped LCA+ came out the aperture dial was removed all together simplifying the camera even more.

The LCA’s greatest technical assets are the way it decides on exposure. Normally when you take a shot the camera will decide what aperture and shutter speed to use, once the shutter button is pressed this is set in stone. The LCA on the other hand will open the shutter and will only close it when it has had enough light. This means that if you are taking a shot in dark conditions and something happens to brighten up the scene it will close the shutter early so the shot is not over exposed. This makes the Lomo a great companion for night shooting. Another super strength of the lomo LCA is its Minitar lens which gives very moody vignetting (dark corners in the frame) which when combined with cross processing just goes crazy. The subtle appearance of the LCA is great for shooting people on the street, be it both strangers and friends, it is by no means as intimidating as rocking up with a huge DSLR and therefore allows you to take some great relaxed portraits.

My top Lomo LCA tips

Tip number one: Simply buy one, I promise you won’t regret it!

The rest of my tips are advising you how to avoid Lomo mishaps as it can be very disappointing for a beginner to get that first roll of film back only to find a 3rd of your pictures are under exposed!

My top tip for any newbie LCA user is that you’ve got to hold down the shutter button when you take a picture, don’t just press and release it because if your Lomo LCA needs to take an exposure that is longer that 60th of a second you might end it prematurely. One of the most common mistakes you see when people get their first roll back, is there are a lot of frames very under exposed or blank, this is because they did not hold the shutter button down for long enough.

The left hand light in the view finder is the battery level indicator, it lights up when shutter button is lightly pressed, if this is not a nice bright red or it fades after a few seconds then your batteries need replacing. If your batteries are low then this can cause the exposure to not be correct.

The right hand light in the view finder is the low light level indicator, if this comes on when you press the shutter button it means that the Lomo is going to take a long exposure. You will need to steady the camera on something, hold your breath or move about like a mad man to embrace the motion blur!

After you take a shot, when you are winding on, keep an eye on the film rewind handle. If this turns when you wind on the film this means your film is loaded correctly, sometimes it might not move for about 3 shots then and then it will spin round, this is fine. If it does not go round for 5 shots your film is not loaded properly or you might have ripped the sprocket holes in you film. Never force the winding mechanism because you can tear the film.

I could go on forever about my top tips so the only other one I will give take your camera everywhere you go (this does not go just for the LCA) how are you going to get a shot if you don’t have camera with you!

My top 3 films are:

Kodak portra 400 VC
Kodak ektar 100
Agfa photo precisa (cross processed)
RIP Agfa ultra!

Check out a small sample of Lomokev’s LCA photos:

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You can keep up-to-date with what Lomokev is doing by reading his blog and following him on twitter

You can’t really have a blog about all things analogue without mentioning Lomography! Especially as in the future there will be lots of photographers on analoguemasters who will either be inspired by or active Lomographers.

To cut a long story short Lomography is a photographic society based in Vienna but with “Embassies” worldwide. Started in the early Nineties with the discovery of the Russian Lomo LC-A Lomography has grown into a large worldwide community. They now produce their own Lomographic cameras and accessories and they were one of the first websites were people could upload photos, and create their own lomohomes and interact with other people.

Much more can be discovered at their newly updated website: www.lomography.com

Part of Lomography’s visual identity is the explosion of analogue snap-shots displayed as Lomowalls. All their gallery stores have meters of lomowalls on the walls and at any given time there is an exhibition somewhere of 1000s of fantastic lomographs discplayed on huge Lomowalls!