The emergence of digital photography caused instant cameras to become a long-forgotten dream, but Lomo’Instant wants to bring that back, and what more, at an accessible price.
New York-based Lomography developed a camera that takes instant photography to the extreme. Unlike Polaroid cameras, which at some point became a synonym to instant photos (and that no thanks to the “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” lyric from Outkast’s Hey Ya!, something that the American camera manufacturer actually advised against, while at the same time using the song to revitalize its products), Lomo’Instant is equipped with more lenses, more shooting modes and various types of exposures.
This one-of-a-kind instant camera comes with an advanced lens system that includes a built-in wide angle lens with the closest focusing distance set at 40cm. Photographers who want to shoot more artistic photos can easily attach the Fisheye or the Portrait lenses that come with the camera.
The three shooting modes promoted by the developers of this camera refer to the use of flash, which can be automatically triggered or can be manually set to fire up or not. As far as the exposure is concerned, photographers can opt for unlimited multiple exposures (that are meant to give birth to interesting experimental shots) or for infinite long exposures, for low-light conditions.
Color gels represent yet another way of transforming the pictures taken with Lomo’Instant. Not at last, you should probably know that this instant camera uses Fujifilm Instax Mini Film, the most widely available instant film in the world.
Lomography’s camera also features a tripod mount and cable release thread, but I think that preparing for too long to shoot a picture takes away from the instant factor. After all, you want to surprise spontaneous reactions with this sort of camera. On the other hand, for infinite long exposures, you might want to use a tripod, unless you want the pictures to be shaky.
Lomo’Instant is currently featured on Kickstarter, where Lomography has raised almost 7 times the initial goal of $100K. Considering that there are 23 more days to go in this campaign, I expect that number to go even higher. Since all the Early Bird spots are gone, you’ll have to back the project with at least $79 if you want to own Lomo’Instant. In that case, you should receive yours around November 2014.
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