Interested in hearing about your experience with the Lomo. Is anybody out there?

-- Jim Shields (jim.shields@tasis.ch), November 27, 2000

Answers

Which Lomo? There were several cameras that came out of the former Soviet republic with this name.
If you mean the little black one about the size of a cigarette pack, then I can tell you it's a pile of crap. I bought one for my daughter, for her birthday, about 10 years ago.
It worked for 6 months, and then the shutter refused to open. It was returned to the retailer, under guarantee, and was kept for about 4 weeks being 'repaired', although when it was eventually returned it was obviously a different camera.
This one lasted a few more months, when the shutter stuck again. This time I repaired it myself, since it was now out of warranty. The problem was grease migrating onto the shutter/diaphragm leaves, and it took only about 5 minutes to clean them. Dismantling the camera to get at them had taken the best part of an hour though.
This repair lasted less than a year, when the shuttter stuck again. By this time my daughter had completely lost faith in it, and I bought her a secondhand Chinon SLR to replace it.
The Chinon is still working just fine, and the little Lomo is still gathering dust. For the short time that the Lomo worked properly, it gave good results.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), November 30, 2000.

I just bought a Lomo Automatik like yours, and I´m experiencing the same kind of annoing trouble with the shutter, as you did. So I was quite amazed when I read that you actually succeded in rapairing the damn thing.....! Therefore I´m very interested in finding out, how you did it.....So maybe, if you feel up to it, or have a spare minute, you could mail me, with a brief discribtion of your course of action...? Kind Regards Niels Damsgaard

-- Niels Damsgaard (mcniel@hotmail.com), May 06, 2001.

Fuck ya'll, U motha's all stink.....! Lomo can kiss my ass, for all I care, if U don't stop writing about those friggin skumsuckin cameras, I'm gonna have to kick you lilly asses into the middle of next week!!! By the way - FUUUUUUUUUCKKKK UUUUUUUUUUUUUUU 4 good (_*_)

Kind regards Henri

-- henri lefebre (dillweep@hotmail.com), March 01, 2002.

Yo Henri, I seriously don't like your attitude m'bout the fine LOMO Automatik camera. This camera s'equipped with some of the scummiest electronics and lenses, ever witnessed by mankind. The pure quality of the plastic covering, end the mere beauty of this timeless piece, makes it a "modern classic". It's memorabilia, a sign of those great times lost in history, when men could shape such amazing macanics, with their bare asses. With absolutely no thought, what so ever, these brute men, working in the steelplants of the Russian highlands, crafted this exclusive piece of hardware out of scrapmetal and polyetanylamon, witch they extracted from goatdroppings boiled in milk and cider. So don't give us "the high hat" just 'cause you're not aware of how stuff went down in history...!!! thanx Franco

-- Franco Fantastiche (fantastiche@hotmail.com), May 02, 2002.