The other day I was browsing one of my favorite sites, A Life Uncommon, and starting reading about the camera that Dawn uses to take some of her pictures. It turns out that the Lomo LC-A has a huge cult following because of the vibrant and unusually professional looking photos it takes. I decided to investigate further. Following a link on her site, I ran into this community of users who post all their pictures at lomography.com. After looking of some of the pictures and reading the history of the camera, I was hooked.

The unique Lomo opens up a whole new world of creative photography. Built as sturdy as a tank, the black retro-looking Lomo was originally designed by a top-secret military optics factory in the Soviet Union and is still made by hand in the St. Petersburg factory. It’s easy to use, takes normal 35mm film, and gives you brilliant colors and superb night photos.
But the Lomo is more than just a cool camera–it’s part of a worldwide community and a refreshingly new artistic movement, Lomography, that encourages even nonartists to be creative. The philosophy is to be quick, don’t think, be open to your surroundings, absorb everything, and enjoy communicating. The Lomo craze started in the Viennese underground scene and rapidly expanded until all across the globe people became armed with Lomos, recording everything in bright colors and strange shapes. There are major Lomo exhibitions and events around the world. And famous folks such as David Byrne, The Verve, and Yassir Arafat own Lomos. -[amazon.com review]

So, its history, construction, picture quality, and bright lens attracted me, and even the crappiest picture examples I found looked good. Plus, the camera is super-russian-cool looking.

Amazon.com has the Lomo Kompakt Automat for $165, which seems a little steep for a hobby camera. I turned to trusty old eBay and searched around for a few days.

This afternoon, I bid on and “won” a beautiful example of this camera from a guy in Slovakia. $72 is a steal if the camera is in good condition. I was a little reluctant at first, to order from out of the country, but this guy seems really professional, he has a ton of other auctions and good rating. Let hope for the best. I guess it will take about 12 days for me to get this little tank of a camera, but it is worth it for the $100 savings.

So, I’ll soon posting some beautiful, hopefully, pictures from my new camera in my new photo section. I am psyched!