Introducing: Guppy
hello! i figured, in the interest to getting to know each other, you and i should become better acquainted. to that end, i thought i'd make a series of posts showcasing all of my cameras. yes, i do give all my stuff human names. what's life without whimsy?
i've talked at length about the now-discontinued lomography colorsplash, the camera that launched me headlong into the world of lomography and embracing photography as messy, spontaneous, beautiful art. well, meet that camera's evolution.
released in 2022, the lomoapparat is, on the face of it, a normal point and shoot camera. featuring a wide angle lens and a flash, you'd be forgiven thinking that was all there is to this tiny plastic camera. you'd be wrong.
now, this camera looks more like a camera than the colorsplash ever did, which is nice; you probably won't get the looks when you pull this one out of your bag that you would when you bring out that rounded white plastic machine. but while everything seems usual, you need to look closer to find all is not as it seems.
where the colorsplash had a rotating cylinder of colourful flash gels, the lomoapparat has a retractable frame containing up to 2 gels, as well as a grey gel which dims the flash, which is necessary when you're closer to your subject and don't want to wash out every detail.
to turn on the camera, you flip the switch to either N - normal - or B - bulb mode, where you can expose the shot for as long as you're holding down the shutter. and once you've taken a shot, you can press the multiple exposure switch on the back of the camera and take another shot on that same frame, which makes for trippy results.
one fun thing about this camera, if you're in the market - it's available in so many wonderful and creative colourways. you can go for an all black model if you like, or mix it up - take a look at the lomography website to see what i'm talking about.
i found mine on ebay - brand new and in box, and would have scrolled past if not for the branding. this camera is a tie in item for the Third Man Records shop. if you don't know me, you don't know that i've been a massive, obsessive fan of the white stripes and jack white since at least 2003. so here's a camera that i fancy, matching the branding of jack white's record label? it's like it was made for me in a lab.
i ramble on. let's talk accessories!
not content with creating just a cool little camera, in the box comes a couple of things that attach to the lens hood on the front. first off, a close up lens lets you get up to 0.2 metres (perfect for selfies and still lives), a splitzer (a device of lomography's design; it cuts off exactly half the frame. take the photo with the left half covered, hit the multiple exposure button, turn the splitzer to the right side and take again) and a kaleidoscope lens (the centre will be in focus, everything around it will be diffused and interesting). obviously, i've played around with all of these things. when a camera is asking you to have fun with it, you take that seriously!
as we end this post, i just want to thank my dear friend guppy, who lost their fight with cancer this year. they gave me the gift of pennies so i could go out and buy my camera. i literally would not have bought it without their generosity, and the camera is named after them, and all the photos i produce will be in their name.
Pros:
- creative as heck! bulb mode! coloured flashes! multiple exposures!
- small, great size for a hoodie pocket
- easy to use and sturdy given the plastic construction.
- mutliple lens attachments for even more experimentation
Cons:
- the rewind lever is hard to turn; there's no button, you just have to turn that crank with brute force, and it does knacker your fingers
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