Shit-ass Lomographic Society launches overpriced Diana Mini camera I might actually buy

The Lomographic Society launched a new camera today that actually looks cool: Diana Mini. Cool enough that I might actually buy it, even though it’s definitely over-priced, and if it’s like the rest of their products, a complete piece of shit.

What makes it cool is that it shoots square format pictures on 35mm film. This is awesome. I love square format, don’t like the 3:2 aspect ratio of normal 35mm, but like the film’s cheap and convenient processing. Unfortunately, square format 35mm cameras are rare and often expensive. This is too expensive for what it is, but less than most of the other options.

Here’s the rundown:

  • Film Type: 35mm film
  • Lens: 24mm (Square Format: 30mm equivalent, Half Frame format: 35mm equivalent)
  • Diagonal View Angles: 70° 62°
  • Focusing: 0.6m-inf.
  • Frame Format: 24mm × 24mm & 24mm × 17mm (select on body)
  • Shutter Speed: 1/60, Bulb (N, B)
  • Aperture: f8, f11 (cloudy, sunny)
  • Flash Attachment: via Diana Flash Plug (flash not included)
  • View Finder: built in
  • Film Counter Type: frame accumulate type
  • Multi- exposure: yes
  • Film stopping: yes
  • Cable Release: yes
  • Tripod Mount: yes
  • Dimension: 70mm × 101mm × 60mm


Multi-format, square and half frame – "Wide-angle" lens (unspecified focal length) – Two apertures (unspecified) – Bulb setting, other shutter speed(s?) unspecified – Cable release socket – Tripod mount

(I just love how they’re too cool to actually tell you what you’re buying. I guess Real Lomographers don’t need to concern themselves with the mundane details of, you know… exposure. It’s Lomographic, so you should just buy it.) (corrected in a comment below by davers)

The cheapest package (no, you still can’t just buy a fucking camera from these goons, you have to buy a lifestyle-enhancing, off-the-shelf Lomographic Personality Package) is US $60.

Get vertical

I just snagged an Olympus Pen FT from fleabay. The Pen F series are half-frame 35mm SLRs (what actually used to be "full frame", the size that 35mm cinema frames still are… what we today call full frame was originally called double frame!).

Square composition definitely shook my world up, and I’m excited to see what composing with a vertical viewfinder does to how I see. I can also see how getting 72 shots per roll could go either way: a blessing if you’re shooting a lot, and a curse if you’re casually taking a shot here and there over the course of a week.

DIY half-frame camera mod

DIY half-frame camera by bricolage.108

Check out this sweet half-frame camera modification by bricolage.108!

If I understand the annotated version on Flickr correctly, he’s put in a sliding mask that blocks off half the frame at a time and a cord that you pull to re-cock the shutter without advancing the frame. So the sequence is: make an exposure, move the sliding mask to the other half of the frame with the paper clip, re-cock the shutter by pulling the dental floss, make another exposure, advance the film, re-set the mask, and start over again. Excellent!

In addition to the obvious benefit of getting twice as many exposures per roll, there’s an artistic benefit as well: since it doubles the enlargement factor over a normal frame of 35mm, you can get the grain to fall apart at smaller print sizes. Granted, most people seem to want to go in the other direction, but I really like that look for certain types of images.

UPDATE: Mr. 108 has added more notes on the photo and an excellent description of how he did it as well as some photos he made with this camera. I can’t wait to try this!

I also forgot to mention that he’s the same guy who came up with the inspired double-sided lens/pinhole bi-cam hack. Way to go, bricolage.108!