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Dating In Hong Kong On FirstClickFriend.Com Offers Online Dating Services And Online Personals For All Regions In Hong Kong. Dating In Hong Kong Can Be Really Successful Ith FirstClickFriend.Com Lomo is by far the most
famous Russian camera manufacturer. Their most famous device is the
Compact Automat, a chunky black box which shoots on 35mm film
with automatic
exposure. Whether due to the lens or the lightmeter, the Automat
produces
vividly-coloured images which have gained a considerable following
on the internet.
Lomo's other products tend to be overshadowed by the Automat,
with the
exception of the unusual 'Action Sampler', a toy camera which shoots
four images in quick succession on a single frame of 35mm film, producing
a 2x2 matrix which captures fast motion.
The Smena is one of their less famous cameras. It's the cheapest Lomo
you can buy (15 dollars on eBay, versus over 140 dollars for an
Automat),
and seems to have been overlooked by Lomo fans (with the exception of
this page).
This page is an attempt to redress the balance; the images presented
here are indicative of the Smena's output. All images have been tweaked
for brightness and colour balance in an attempt to make them look as
close to the photographs as possible - my scanner tends to produce overbright,
washed-out images.
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The
Smena is a small plastic 35mm camera that fits easily in the hand, and is
very light. To the touch, it's quite cold; the plastic is hard, and it seems
to be well-made. It comes with a lens cap, a strap, and a small velcro-ed
bag. Unlike other toy cameras such as the Holga, it doesn't require taping
to eliminate light leaks, and it will not burst open if you hold it by the
strap. It has a tripod mount.
What makes the Smena so interesting? Unlike other cheap cameras, it has
a lot of controls. You can set the focus manually, from roughly three feet
to infinity; you can adjust the exposure time, from 1/250th of a second
to 1/15th of a second, plus a 'bulb' option which lets you hold the shutter
open for as long as you like; and you can adjust the diaphragm from f4 to
f16. Furthermore, frame advance is manual, so you can take multiple exposures
on a single frame of film. If you don't know anything about photography,
the manual has a fair stab at enlightening you.
(Note that the stuff on this page is about the Smena 35 - the
similar Smena 8M has a shutter cable release socket and provision for the
attachment of 35.5mm filters)
It's quite hard to work out the balance between focal depth, exposure time,
film speed and light in your head - however, the Smena's cheapness encourages
experimentation. An expensive Nikon demands that you use it to produce perfection;
the Smena is unashamedly amateur, but in the good sense of the word. All
you have to do is take lots of pictures - it doesn't matter if some do not
come out properly. They come out differently, that's all.
Unlike the Holga, the Smena is not intrinsically flawed. In the right hands,
with the right film, and with a tripod, it can produce sharply-defined images
that are no worse than any from a cheap hand-held. It's cheap and flexible,
and it's Russian.
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Particularly
interesting is the aforementioned 'bulb' setting. With 400 film and a steady
hand, the Smena can take pictures at night. With the light of streetlamps
an exposure time of about ten seconds seems to work. Unless you are heavily
sedated, the details will always be blurred, but this is not necessarily
a bad thing; the lights from passing cars streak into lines, whilst the
city becomes a fantasia of lights. In pitch darkness you will need to hold
the shutter open until you become bored, whereas in a darkly-lit interior
five seconds seems to work well.
You could theoretically use the Smena to take photographs of the stars,
although you would need a tripod. The Smena doesn't provide for the addition
of a remote-controlled shutter, however, and no matter how solid your tripod,
you'll still make the camera wobble as you hold down the shutter.
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