Lomography debuts multiple exposure-friendly Experimental Lens Kit for Micro Four Thirds cameras
posted Monday, October 21, 2013 at 4:12 PM EDT
The folks over at Lomography bill themselves as the "home of creative analogue photography and cameras", but they're dabbling their toes in the digital world with a new product launch. The company's core of film-centric customers are up in arms at the news, as you'll see in the comments alongside the official announcement of the Lomography Experimental Lens Kit, but digital photographers looking for a more tactile experience that gets them out of the digital darkroom (and their camera's menu system) may find it rather appealing.
The Lomography Experimental Lens Kit is a three-lens offering for Micro Four Thirds digital cameras, and it promises not only the lo-fi look beloved of the company's analogue customer base, but also an unusual twist on multiple-exposure photography. Three lenses are included: a 12mm prime, a 24mm prime, and a 160-degree fisheye. Each has a fixed f/8 aperture, and includes both a shutter and a filter slot built into the lens.
You may be wondering why you need a built-in shutter, given that your camera already has one, but this comes into its own with what Lomography claims to be a world's first feature -- "real, optical multiple exposures on a digital camera". That might not seem to make a lot of sense -- plenty of digital cameras can already create multiple-exposure shots in-camera, after all -- but essentially, what they mean is that you can open and close the lens' shutter multiple times during a single exposure from the camera body. Simply set the camera in bulb mode (or with a slow enough shutter speed), and effectively, what's a single exposure as far as the camera is concerned is effectively a lo-fi multiple exposure shot.
The Lomography M4/3 Multiple Exposure Fisheye Lens 160° has a fixed-focus design that should yield a sharp image from as close as two inches (5cm), while the Wide-Angle Lens 12mm and Standard Lens 24mm have an eight-inch (20cm) minimum focus. Colored gel filters are bundled which can be used with all three optics for special effects.
Priced at US$90 or thereabouts, the Lomography Experimental Lens Kit is listed now on the company's web site. Availability for the kit hasn't been stated; it's currently shown as out of stock.
