DIYPhotography.net Photography and Studio Lighting

I really like the Lomo Action Sampler. I shoot digital today, but there is a warm spot in my heart kept for the Action sampler. I've been wanting to write an Action Sampler post for a long time now, and the 50$ camera project initiated by Brian Auer from Epic Edits, just gave me enough of a kick to go and make this post. (Brian was also so kind and asked me to be one of the judges along with the excellent Jim Talkinton).

One of the major reasons why I love the Lomo Action
Sampler (LAS), is its absolute lack of control. It drives your mind to
totally different districts that my usual strobe lighted photography.

The Lomo Action Sampler lacks any type of control, no focus, no exposure settings and no real control over framing. Even the exact time of the exposure is vague as the camera takes 4 different images at a small interval. I found this lack of control actually enables me to look for an artistic say in a different way then I would normally do with an SLR. I went about looking for stuff that would be fun to capture, and had a strong weird attraction to bicycles. I shot with out composing to hard. I could do this since the camera allowed me to change my expectation from the results. It's Fuzzy? OK; Weirdly composed? Great; Tilted? Magnificent! Subject is cut half way through? Bring it on!

Since this is a technical review as well, (and not just me poaring my artsy emotions on ya all) I decided to go DPReview on this one and compare it side by side with my candidate for next body: the Nikon D300. (Hint: Left column is boring real facts on the Nikon D300m; Right column is real time experience with the Lomo Action Sampler)

Camera	Nikon D300	Lomo Action Sampler
Image
Buy At Amazon
Format	SLR	Format, you make me laugh, I make my own format.
Price	$1620.63	$24.95
Max resolution	4288 x 2848	No limits other then your creativity (divided by four)
Low resolution	3216 x 2136, 2144 x 1424	Always
Image ratio w:h	3:2	3:2 (quadruple)
Effective pixels	12.3 million	Pixels?
Sensor size	23.6 x 15.8 mm (3.72 cm²)	Good old 35 millimeters
Sensor type	CMOS	Dynamic sensor - depending on creativity and refrigerator of photographer
Sensor manufacturer	Sony	Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Agfa and some others
ISO rating	200 - 3200	6-3200
Zoom wide (W) --> (T)	depending on lens	Zoom? Got legs? You don't need to zoom!
Image stabilization	No	Hands, Rocks, Walls. what ever is around
Auto Focus	Yes	I could not find a manual focus ring, so I guess it is autofocus
Manual Focus	Yes	It did not beep on a half press, so it could also be manual
Auto focus type	Nikon Multi-CAM3500 DX	Lomo AlwaysFuzzy (tm) / HumanEye
Normal focus range		The closer, the better
White balance override	6 positions, plus manual preset and Kelvin	Mostly daylight balanced. actually, it really works best in daylight
shutter (Min --> Max)	1/8000 --> 30	1/4
Built in Flash	Yap	nope
Metering	3D Matrix metering II, Center weighted, Spot	State of the art fixed metering and exposure settings
Focal length multiplier	x1.5	x4
Continuous Drive	Yes, 6 fps, 100 JPEG	4 FPS
Timelapse recording		Always!!
Storage types	Compact Flash (Type I or II)	Good old negatives
Storage included	Nope	2 rolls of film
Quality Levels	Fine, Normal, Basic	Quality is in the eye of the observer
Viewfinder	Optical (Pentaprism)	Optical - two weird square thingies
LCD	3.0 "	No, but finish is reflective and can be used as a mirror
Video out		Available here under "animate"

And here is an entire roll of film taken with the Lomo Action Sampler on a particular hot and steamy Friday. I used a Fuji NPC160 - my favorite color film.

So sit back, turn your fuzzy mode on and enjoy the show (or check out the set here): 

This is an actual picture of my Lomo Action Sampler:

Make sure you don't miss out on the next article - Register to the RSS feed or the newsletter.