Film Photography

Lomo power

OK, this is going to be an unbelievably specialised and geeky post involving LOMO LC-A and LC-A+ cameras (that’s the original sort and the new plastic one) and batteries. Yes, batteries. You will read it and think I am some sort of battery obssessive who is good at science – both these things are untrue. There are some piccies though – just look at those if you like.

Firstly, Let me just say how much I love my LOMO L-CA camera. It’s an original from 70s Soviet Russia (but you can buy fabulous replicas from lomography.com they are the ones with a + on the end). In brief, it’s a zone-focus camera meaning it has four distances maked on the side – you pick how far away you are from your subject and the camera works out the rest. It’s a clever little thing and can work even in low light conditions, it needs to do sums though to work out the exposure and to do this it needs batteries. Fair enough.

Secondly then, let me tell you something I have learnt about batteries.

Alkaline batteries
When they have reached their peak they will drain gradually away untill they eventually die. Ideal for things like watches and clocks that are always on.

Silver Oxide batteries
These will work and work, steadily and consistently then when they’ve run out of juice will just stop. No slow draining away. More suited to things used in short bursts like calculators and cameras.

OK, so those are all the facts. Now we get to a sad, sad story. About how I travelled around with my little Lomo, snapping here and snapping there, 36 times I snapped and was very excited about seeing the results. What can I say, this is the sad part, there were no results. The whole roll of film was completely blank! I knew. I knew straight away what had happened. The alkaline batteries (remember – they drain away slowly) had enough juice to fire off the little red LED that indicates power but didn’t have enough stamina to make the exposures. What I needed were Silver-Oxide batteries – they would work right up to the last and then stop – the red light would stop glowing and I would at least spot this and know what to do.

Lomo-wires

Everything is sorted now but I felt compelled to write this, as on the Lomography website (as well as other independent Lomo sites) RR55 batteries are recommended which are alkaline and will cause the same sad, sad story to be repeated!

USE SILVER OXIDE BATTERIES IN ALL YOUR CAMERAS (err, probably, don’t quote me on that, but def in Lomo LC-A’s). Message over, thank you for listening :)

Yellowflowers

All photos taken (as you might expects) with my orginal LOMO LC-A camera & Kodak Ektar 100 film

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4 Comments

  • Reply
    Ashley Sisk @ Ramblings and Photos
    30 July 2010 at 22:00

    These are gorgeous and while I’d like to believe that I’d have a blast with it…I’m not sure I feel like dealing with film. Instead, I’ll admire your work!

  • Reply
    Tiffany @ Girl with a Camera
    30 July 2010 at 22:38

    I agree. Film just became too expensive for me! I wind up with too many “throw-aways” when I shoot. Instead I went digital a few years ago and haven’t looked back! Now I only pay to print the ones I REALLY like!
    Thanks for the tale about the batteries however – very useful information!!
    Tiffany
    PS – that last picture is fabulous!

  • Reply
    Victoria Bennett Beyer
    2 August 2010 at 16:15

    Love this last shot! The colors are so rich!

  • Reply
    腕時計 ドルガバ
    23 November 2013 at 07:19

    カメラ

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