Rating: 
Summary: lomo user
Review: LOMO has amazing optics, only very expensive world class optics may give you the same results at night. If you use 400 films it will help you to hold the camera still and will increase the sharpness. Day photos are VERY sharp and colorful. It is possible to Bracket exposure by changing the light meter settings. Use the "A" - Auto for all you work. If you would like to use the little flash switch to 2.8, 4, 5,6... modes according to the distance (see you flash manual). Camera will do 1/60 of the second in Aperture mode. Try LOMO, you will love the camera.
Rating:
Summary: love my lomo
Review: My Austrian friend had one of these--way cool. I got one and took it to Burning Man. Did very well in strong sunlight and the night lights were really good. Got some artsy pix of fire dancers. Better than my Nikon at guessing exposure. It's all manual but you don't have to change anything except focus distance, and the film is cheap. The slight distortion is fun. It has a whole cult too, people are always asking me about the camera. It's good because it's not fancy but takes cool pictures. Its good for surreal shots, especially at parties and clubs. Lots of bright blurry lights and BRIGHT colors, electric blue and pink and ghost people. Getting one for my girlfriend for her birthday.
Rating: 
Summary: Actually, zero stars. but that wasn't an option
Review: I don't care about whether pix taken with this camera are good or asthetically pleasing, if you like blur or vignetting or whatever, well great you can take pix like that with this camera or any other camera. and you can take sharp pix too. LS (lomographic society) makes several inaccurate claims about this camera.1 they say it is sturdy, and robust: It's not. mine broke from a drop that wouldn't break an egg. (i'm not exaggerating). Ive heard of many other people having similar experiences, There are even glowing reviews and testimonies of the lomo that mention getting second and thirds because the first and second broke. 2 They say it is unique. Rollei 35 (series). Minox 35 (series). Olympus XA (series). Chinon Bellami. Cosina CX (series). The lomo is a copy, a poor copy, of Cosina's CX1. need i say more. 3 Dazzling supersaturated colors. If you put Portra VC through it you will get that. If you put Portra NC through it you get normal colors. If you put HP5 through it you won't get any colors. Generally lower speed film has greater color saturation and since it is only 400 fast (i think 800 is the begining of fast) results are generally saturated. it has nothing to do with the lens. I've seen the comparisons. 4. it's hip. Maybe four years ago it was. 5. It's a russian spy camera. Never was. it was a camera for the glorious prolatariat. Can you find mention of it in any KGB history/trivia/fan sites? investigate your options before you buy if you are willing to pay big monies get a minox 35ml if you want it on the cheap get a olympus XA.
Rating: 
Summary: Lomo- good pocket camera.
Review: It's a good camera for day-to-day use because of its size, and can still take quality pictures. However for a beginner, its probally best to go for a used SLR (think ebay or good luck at garage sales) for the same price or less. With an SLR you'll find better options for lenses and be able to focus visually rather than guess (tip for lomo- guess the distance to your subject and go to the focus point further than it) and have better control of shutter speed / aperture than with the Lomo. The wide angle lens (35mm) is limiting for some shooting styles, and you'll find yourself needing to get up close to your subject. However as a second camera (one to throw in your backpack or laptop bag) that can provide good photos with little time to prepare or react, the Lomo is a good choice.
My Lomo is pre-english print and came apparently used, and after a few days the forward lens assembely appeared to be loose- with a fine screwdriver this was fixed in about 10 minutes, so dont expect the build quality to be Japanese by any means. Moving parts are for the most part reliable, though a fatal design flaw is that on a tripod mount you cannot operate the lens open/close lever. However I doubt most people will bother shooting with a tripod because this camera is for fun. Overall I am happy with it, but workmanship leaves something to be desired. Within the first few frames of a 36exp roll, it has failed to advance all the way and left a 1/8 inch (on the negative) or so overlap with the previous exposure. When shooting at night, I've found it best to turn the exposure meter down 1 notch (an iso lower). I've had the best results with Kodak Gold 100, but haven't experimented too much.
Enough with the bad, I think the camera makes up for most of these shortcomings by taking great pictures without requiring you to take time to set up the shot, calculate shutter speed, etc. Some of my favorite photos have come from my Lomo not just because of the good photo quality, but because I take it everywhere.
4 stars- Its enjoyable, good size, decent price, and I'm not dissapointed with the picture quality. However it leaves something to be desired in build quality.
Those who have flamed and given it 1 star probally do not own one, take their input with a few spoonfuls of salt. Yes, the lomography society people do hype it up a little too much, but the pictures come out nicely and that is what I value in a camera, not "hipster appeal" or other such advertising schemes.
Rating:
Summary: qUiRkY but functional.
Review: Despite the wanky marketing hype of the official site, the LOMO is a funky and useful little camera.
As an artist, I often need to take images of thangs all over the place - something inspirational in a gallery, stuff for sale at a flea market, obese people in public, etc.
In places where photos are frowned-upon, you can easily take stealth photos and get away with it - no flash/autowind or beeping to give you away.
And the robust/compact construction means one can just plop it in a pocket and forget about it until it's needed.
Another bonus of sorts is the fixed focus - one can readily take snap shots through the glass of display cases - something an autofocussing snap-happy-job just won't do.
On the down side, shots taken from within a few feet of the subject are often blurry (unless you're really accurate with the appropriate distance 80cm/1.5m etc) - but landscape shots always work well.
Rating:
Summary: Hipster camera for naive beginners
Review: In a nutshell: save your money, don't buy into this fashion accessory, hyped camera when for the same price you can buy a decent used SLR and get real knowledge about photography.
LOMO cameras are marketed by a company who's primary interest seems to be selling $8 Soviet-era design cameras at boutique prices ($200). Accordingly, the cameras have very little speaking for them technically, and the defects are very cleverly hyped with a strong "revolutionary" slant, as being great new discoveries and strengths.
Their website casts a hip skew on the defects in these cameras, aiming them as a "revolution" in photography. Righhhht.
Among the most egregious re-evaluations from the marketing hype at their website:
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THE LOMO TUNNEL EFFECT
...produces an awesome effect called "Vignetting." Look closely - you'll notice that the corners of your Lomographs are slightly darker and a little softer, in contrast to the lighter and sharper center. This tunnel effect yields a clear and vivid subject, with the corners acting as a natural "frame," directing your attention to the center. You see, lomographs simply have more content!
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Keep in mind, vignetting is a powerful *defect* in the lens design, something Canon, Nikon and the other manufacturers have spent decades of advanced lens design and R&D in trying to eliminate. In Lomo's doublespeak, it's a good thing. (Yes, it can sometimes render interesting photographs, but this breathless hype's almost-mystical description of this effect/lens is misleading at best).
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LOMO WIDE ANGLE
The "all-seeing wide angle view"?
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It's really only a 32mm focal length. Woo hoo.
Most SLR lens manufacturers have for decades offered extensive ranges in lenses with this view coverage and wider made to fit their SLR cameras (even old SLR's from the 60s and 70s); for wide coverage, a vintage 70's SLR+wide lens can be had for under $75 if you look right, and it'll be a vastly better machine. Any 1980s Canon, Nikon, or Olympus 35mm film SLR for instance, offers outstanding manufacture, both full manual and electronic controls available, etc...far exceeding the exposure options and build quality of Lomo's flimsy design. Typical 70's and 80's vintage SLR's like these feature supreme exposure and internal mechanisms, and today let you take advantage of low prices for former top-of-the-line professional lenses (e.g. manual focus Canon FD, Nikkor, or Olympus Zuiko SLR lenses).
Overall, the camera purposefully introduces flaws in your photographs that can render some "artsy" feeling shots, but don't be misled by the manufacturer's clever anti-establishment skew.
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LOMO automatic shutter adjustment
Automatically adjusts the shutter to however long it takes to expose film. It's "intelligent" about it.
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This final one is the one to rule them all. Not to spoil the illusion or anything, but autometering has been around for decades in cameras in all film formats. (Marketing this as something new strikes me as akin to a car company marketing their revolutionary "automobile automatic drive modulator" when it's really only an automatic transmission they're selling). Caveat emptor.
If you want to take LOMO looking photos, buy its almost exact copy for much cheaper: the OLYMPUS XA (and XA2) but it is old, so only available on ebay. Good options also include the cheapest models of the "Jazz Jellies" that they sell at drugstores like Walgreens. (for only $10). Same vignetting effects, same purposefully-crappy lenses give blurred shots "artsy" type of feel."
You can even get the "much vaunted LOMO saturation" if you drop in 50 ISO or 100 ISO film. (this last point one is just beyond me. Saturation is mostly a function of the film, not the camera! LOL! Not according to LOMO though...)
If you still think this is a must for you, save your bucks, buy one on ebay for cheap (people tend to tire of these quickly; at least I did), and use it for it's artistic expression and distortions.
Certainly don't buy into all the LOMO company's clever hype without reading around the web for vintage camera offerings matching this camera, and take the Lomo society's skewed reporting with a giant grain of salt.
A simple photography course or some time spent at a website like Phil Green's excellent photo.net will better your education on this, and give you a relatively unbiased perspective with which you can then go back and see this equipment for what it is.
I'm writing this because it is so frustrating to see the gross exaggerations and distortions made in the marketing of this camera; buyers beware!
Rating:
Summary: Something the Russians did well
Review: I bought this camera a little while ago, and I'm amazed by it. I've taken pictures at 100, 200 and 400 ASA film...if you want to get pictures that are fairly sharp, use 400 film on the automatic settings, and you'll be pretty impressed. At 400, the picture is more sharp then 100 or 200, but you really get a hint of the rich color that abounds at the lower speeds.
I bought this camera because I wanted to make "Artistic" looking pictures without having to haul around a bulky bag with filters, lenses, flashes, etc. only to have 1 or 2 good pictures on an entire roll. So far, this camera has done the trick, and I've gotten lots of compliments, albeit from "normal" people, but they think i've spent a lot more than I actually have.
Rating:
Summary: Great camera, but has some mechanical defects.
Review: Like many other reviewers, I agree that this is a fun little camera. However one should be aware of some mechanical diffects, that occur randomly. First, it has a tendency of a sutter to freeze, and when it occurs the sutter leaves simply stick together and stop responding. You would not know untill u get first "empty" film. And the repair is costly. Secondly, the meetering system is fulled at times producing, very unexpected results.
But despite those diffects, I consider it a fun camera and worth a try if you love photography.
Rating:
Summary: Great little fun camera!
Review: I saw this review in Maxim magazine back in 1999. I read the article after I came back from a trip to London and wished I had it with me. This is a fun point-n-click camera. A great manual camera with a metal body. It even smells like a REAL camera. I take it on all my vacations now and only keep black and white film in it. I use it for the fun and quirky artistic shots. I used it on my honeymoon in Italy and took some great pictures in Florance. I've also used it in London and New Orleans. I used only one roll of color and decided to keep b/w in it for something different. It's definitely an "art" camera. No aperture settings to mess with. I have it set from what they suggested in the manual. There is a limited distance, but the sharpness is within 10 feet. I wished I had this in college when I was taking photography. Lomo also has fun contests that you can enter. Their website has users photos and different ideas for how these pictures turn out. If you are a camera collector or photo buff, this is a FUN camera to have!
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