Gonna go back in time...

I'm a big fan of Hipstamatic. What a great way to achieve the retro, analog look in digital format. The more I came fascinated with Hipstamatic and Instagram, the more I became fascinated with analog photography.

I grew up and studied photography in the analog era, where you didn't know what you were going to end up with after pressing the shutter until the film was developed. Some shots you nailed it. Some shots you thought you nailed it and your negatives told you otherwise. Sometimes you thought your shots were going to suck and you ended up with happy accidents.

Hipstamatic harkens back to that era in some respects, but still gives you the immediate feedback and gratification of the digital era (after a 10 second wait if you have an iPhone...a few seconds if you have the iPad 2).

The more I became engrossed with the retro look, the more I learned about lomography. Lomography started as a commercial trademark for a line of cameras that took you back to the past and were very niche in their results, like quad-lens cameras, panorama cameras, and toy cameras. Lomography has grown to become to cover beyond these line of cameras, and includes discontinued Polaroid cameras and any camera that provides an unpredictable image because of the characteristics of the camera and its lens.

Lomography has also become a photography movement. It was born from a backlash against the advancements in digital photography where film is no longer part of the equation in image-making. Digital photography has made photography more predictable in its results. The entire image-making process is now faster because of the near-instantaneous feedback loop. Gone is not knowing if your exposure was accurate (unless you had a Polaroid back) or if your subject blinked.

The return of the variance in image-making has made one particular line of cameras very popular -- the Diana camera. Originally sold back in the 1960's as a cheap alternative to 120 format cameras, the Diana never sold well. It had a cheap plastic lens and a manual winding mechanism. It was known for the blurred, chromatically imperfect images that resulted from the cheap parts. It came in all black with a blue top and was often sold or given away as a novelty item.

These days, the Diana has made a resurgence in the form of an updated model, including a 35mm version. The Diana F+ allows for an external flash, a 35mm back, Polaroid back, and interchangeable lenses. It has become a pretty formidable system, all encased in the same plastic camera body as it had back in the 1960's.

Not only has the system been augmented, but the Diana F+ is available in different themes and styles. This allows for a more personalized camera that you would never be able to find in any other camera system, 35mm, medium format, or otherwise. Instead of the standard blue and black Diana, you can get special edition, all white, all black, or all "chrome" versions. There are special Dianas that are based on famous French designers (Colette), rock musicians (Meg White of the White Stripes and Tori Amos each have their own special edition Diana camera sets), and foreign cities (Hong Kong and Tokyo).

The Diana is definitely a quaint, and somewhat delicate camera. It being made of lightweight plastic, you feel like you have to handle it with kid gloves. Changing lenses was somewhat nerve-wracking since I feared breaking the plastic parts of the lens or the camera body.

The Diana F+ cameras are definitely of toy camera quality, but they are not priced like toys. The regular blue and black model Diana F+ will set you back $65. The Diana F+ "clones" consisting of the special edition Dianas can go as high as $180 for the MEG edition, though it comes with the additional accessory of a ring flash.

I have the "Tori" Diana F+ camera set that camer with a wide angle lens with a close-up lens attachment, and an external Diana flash. It also has a burnt orange top, with "Tori" printed on top of the viewfinder, and a facsimile of her autograph on the back left of the car.

I also have a Holga, which is another brand of 120 format toy cameras. It has a built-in hotshoe for a flash but does not have an interchangeable lens system. I've had the Holga for a few years but have yet to put a full roll of film through it yet. Because it doesn't have an interchangeable lens system, it's significantly less-expensive than the Diana F+. In all other respects, it's fairly similar to the Diana F+.

Also available is a set of lens adapters that allows you to mount your Diana lenses onto any Canon EOS SLR or DSLR, or Nikon SLR/DSLR camera body. That and the aforementioned Polaroid are going to be my next acquisitions.