Film: 35mm format
Format/Frame: 36 x 24 mm
…if you take the Lomo LC-Wide too seriously, if you try and use it properly it will probably let you down. If on the other hand you let your hair down, experiment a bit and have fun with it, accept a hand from the good lady serendipity, you might find yourself with a aesthetically pleasing photo that if looked at closely is likely going to be ranked quite poor objectively speaking.
—Hamish Gill (35mmc)
Read Kosmo Foto’s full review on the Lomography LC–Wide HERE
My Insights on the Lomography LC–Wide
Let’s start with “wide” …17mm to be specific; well, that’s what it says on the camera, although some reviews refer to it as a 20mm. Still that’s a significant wide angle and pretty dope for a point ’n’ shoot camera.
I came into the LC–Wide (LC–W) by way of the LC–A (“Lomo Kompakt Automat”), the original point and shoot that started the fire that is Lomography (Look for that review in the future). I loved the feel of the LC–A and its compactness, so when the LC–W was released in 2011, I was all over it.
I think Stephen Dowling said it best in his LC–W review:
There would be no Lomography without the Lomo LC-A compact camera. When the Soviet-era Lomo optical plant decided to copy the Japanese Cosina CX-2 camera back in the early 1980s, they had no idea what a craze they would create in later decades. The humble Lomo LC-A, often given out to delegates at Communist Party congresses as a free gift, was destined to be remembered as a footnote in Soviet camera production. Instead, its discovery by Austrian art students in the early 1990s created an analogue photography craze. The LC-A’s production was restarted, and it spawned a new culture in analogue photography that is still vital and thriving in this now digital world.
Expanding on Dowling’s quote above, the LC–A and the Diana have a common history in their evolution: They came on the scene as almost an afterthought—a camera to give away, a camera not to be taken that seriously. And, look what happened; they both were taken seriously. Perhaps taken seriously only after their production lessened or phased out altogether. Later both cameras would experience a resurrection in their Lomography-produced releases of the Diana+ and the LC–A+.
Check out this great timeline on the LC–A if you are intrigued by its story.
Postscript: Rather than using a standard hyphen between the LC and the A, I’ve taken the liberty to use an en dash in place of the hyphen. I think it makes the name more distinguished. Further, I think they should have named it “LC–A Wide” or “LC–AW,”therefore maintaining the original name/abbreviation.
