The love for analog

I love photography. I love my digital Canon camera that takes crisp photos of life around me. However, sometimes real life gains from being blurred a bit. Romanticized. That is when I use a nice 'analog' camera. There is nothing sweeter than a photo taken with a Diana or a Holga. The outcome is never known. Sometimes unexpectedly good. Sometimes not so good. The imperfections of the end result are charming. Everyone can be an artist. Light leaks are allowed. Out of focus encouraged.

Unfortunately, the Diana and Holga, and other cameras originally intended as "toy cameras", have become highly sought after. They have been reproduced as well by the folks at lomography. They have been good at creating a hype. Unfortunately, someone needs to pay for that hype. Why pay loads for a reproduction if you can get the real stuff for the same or less.

I have been hunting down some especially nice ones. Some of them are even 'clones', meaning they work and look like e.g. a Diana, but were produced in the sixties under a different name. It is these cameras that collectors are perhaps even more excited about than when they find a pristine Diana.

I am sharing some of my treasures here. The love for analog is not limited to music. You miss that 'warm' feeling of an old vinyl record? I do too. And sometimes I miss the 'warm' feeling of a photo that is truly alive.

I believe that the folks at lomography are charging too much for their replica cameras. True, they put them in nice boxes and have a really great website. But after all, it is about keeping the real stuff affordable. The cameras I'll post are all for sale, though I intend to start using them myself in the future, should they remain unsold. As every camera has its own character, every photo taken by every camera will be different. Therefore, I can never have enough of them. And I will never get enough of them!