[geeks] Lomo/Holga photography

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Jan 14, 2007, at 3:47 PM, Dan Duncan wrote:

> My wife is into photography and has recently expressed interest in
> getting a Lomo/Holga camera.  I'd like to pick one up for her birthday
> but she doesn't know much about Lomo and I don't know much about
> photography so I was hoping someone here could recommend a specific
> camera.  She wants something in 35mm,  possibly with a hot shoe for a
> flash (flash recommendations needed), decent quality.  I don't want to
> spend a fortune but I don't want something that doesn't work well or
> will break easily.
>

You are in luck, in that as people as switching to digital they are 
making the used 35mm market crater in terms of pricing.

I would stay away from the Lomo and Holgas, they are not what you want, 
if you are talking about the inexpensive plastic cameras that take 
120-size film.

I assume that you are looking for a 35mm SLR format, instead of a 
rangefinder or point-and-shoot.

SLRs:

Nikon
Olympus
Canon
Minolta
Pentax

Any of these bodies that have some kind of metering builtin will be 
more than adequate.  Minolta is considered to have the very best flash 
setup if you are using more than 1 flash (e.g. have one or more flash 
units that are not attached to the camera).

My recommendation for a base system would be prime (non-zoom) lenses of 
28mm (wide angle), 50mm (standard view, equivalent to what the human 
eye sees), and something in the range of 85-135mm (moderate telephoto, 
works well for head-and-shoulders portraits; anything shorter results 
in a "big-nose" effect).

Special mention goes to Contax, which made a very nice series of SLRs 
and lenses (arguably the sharpest and best outside of Leica's extremely 
high prices).  But they are sort of out of the mainstream.

--Patrick