Month: April 2008

The goons at the Lomographic Society International—the people who brought the world the $20 Holga for $70 and monopolistic control over the distribution of the Lomo LC-A camera—have now added Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day to the list of products and events they had nothing to do with creating that they’ve claimed as their own. The headline of their latest newsletter proclaims, “THE LOMOGRAPHIC SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL PROUDLY PRESENTS THE WORLD PINHOLE DAY”.

Um, no.

WPPD was started in 2001. As far as I know—and please correct me if I’m wrong—none of the members of that year’s coordinating team were affiliated with LSI. Same with this year’s roster. Or any year in between. So to the best of my knowledge, LSI doesn’t present WPPD, proudly or otherwise, at all.

Granted, they don’t use the exact same name, they call it “World Pinhole Day”, and the actual pinhole day event is called “Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day”, but they look same, and they just happen to fall on the same date.

Why would they do such a thing? Probably because it’s a good way to sell more pinhole cameras. They have a decent selection of horribly overpriced pinholes to choose from. And that’s fine. But is it necessary to claim WPPD as their event, which is clearly a crock of shit, to do so? No. They could have gotten behind the real Pinhole Day and promoted it to their mutual advantage instead of choosing this classically-LSI approach. I urge you to think about the kind of company you’re supporting when you buy from them (to say nothing of the fact that you’re almost certainly over-paying).

Here’s where to get the pinhole cameras LSI sells, or equivalents, for less. Prices are in US dollars.

PinHolga: $60 from LSI, $21.95 from holgamods

35mm PinHolga: I don’t know, but you can convert most $1 plastic 35mm cameras yourself, or you can make or buy a pinhole cap for your 35mm, medium format, or digital SLR.

Bulldog Large Format Camera: $325 from LSI, $302.43 from camerabellows.com (as of today’s exchange rate, and that includes VAT, which shouldn’t apply to US orders). And, you can find used, no-assembly-required 4×5 cameras for less. You can try the Buy/Sell board on the Large Format Photography Forum, the Cameras & Lenses classifieds on APUG, or the auction sites.

Zero Image Zero 2000 (“Zero Pinhole 120”): $165 from LSI, $93 from the manufacturer

Zero Image Zero 135 (“Zero Pinhole 35”): $140 from LSI, $93 from the manufacturer

Zero Image Zero 69 Deluxe w/ spirit level & cable release (“Zero Image Deluxe”): $320 from LSI, $222 from the manufacturer

Noon Large Format Pinhole: $225 from LSI, grab the similar-looking and almost certainly identically-functioning (LSI doesn’t list the focal length of the one they sell) Santa Barbara 4×5 75mm pinhole camera for $63.95 from B&H

Sharan DIY Pinhole: $40 from LSI, free if you download and print the plans for the original Dirkon paper pinhole camera, or you can grab the plans for Nick Dvoracek‘s Populist cut-out pinhole camera (PDF link). They’re all paper cameras that you have to put together yourself.

SmileyCam: $25 from LSI, $23 from Justin Quinnell, who makes them. Or just make one yourself, which should be very easy.

And it’s not a pinhole, but you can get a SplitCam $11.95 from the awesome American Science & Surplus instead of paying LSI $25.

Why else don’t I like the Lomographic Society?

Shitty products at high prices: their flagship, the LC-A, is a piece of junk. The lens is unique and awesome, but the camera that surrounds it sucks. They didn’t build them, but they locked down the supply and charge a premium. The first LC-A I ordered from them operated in bulb mode no matter what. The shutter button on the replacement fell off after running less than five rolls through it. I haven’t used an LC-A+ and therefore can’t comment on it.

Their Colorsplash and Fisheye cameras have some of the worst build quality I’ve ever seen. Yes, they work. But for how long? I think my $1.50 Lex 35 crapcams are actually built slightly better.

Their Hipshot was my first camera bag. The seams are unraveling and the Velcro on the camera compartments doesn’t stick—even when I press them together carefully—which leaves anything you put in them likely to fly out and break as you move.

Terrible customer support: When I received the broken LC-A, I sent them several emails over the course of I think three weeks and never got a single response. Finally I called them, sent back the whole package, and got only a replacement camera back. I guess they kept the rest of the kit.

Monopolistic and bullying business practices: they secured world-wide exclusive distribution rights to the LC-A from the factory (can’t charge $200-250 for a $50 camera if there’s any competition!) and then went after anyone else who sold them, regardless of origin.

For example, Lomo Joe is a guy who lived in St. Petersburg, Russia. If you didn’t want to pay the extortionate Lomo Society price for an LC-A, he’d go buy one in a local store and send it to you. Check out the threatening letter LSI president Wolfgang Stranzinger sent him.

Getting people to love getting ripped off: this one’s almost difficult not to find evidence of. People drool all over themselves for anything “Lomo” (including things whose only connection to Lomo is that they’re sold by LSI, like Holgas and Horizons) and just can’t wait to be taken advantage of by paying hugely inflated prices and having their work published in books that LSI profits from without offering the photographers any compensation. I guess getting screwed by a marketing company is its own reward.