This year for my birthday I received an Oktomat camera made by the Lomography company. It's a fun a little camera that shoots eight consecutive shots over 2.5 seconds, using an aperture of f/8 and shutter speed of about 1/100th of a second.
I took the above shots using Walgreens brand ASA 800 film. The first is of the Tivoli in University City, while the one of the Arch was taken by sticking my hand and camera out the window while driving on the Poplar Street Bridge over the Mississippi.
Some thoughts on the Oktomat experience:
- I liked the tactile experience of using film again and the nostalgia of smelling the chemical coating. But it was a real pain trying to thread it into the camera.
- Nice ergonomics. I'm becoming unhappy with the bulkiness and handling of a lot of digital cameras. This one was light and fit well in my hand.
- Not being able to review a shot after you take, especially in a camera like this, makes it hard to know what you are doing right and wrong. This is a especially a problem because of the next point.
- 10 bucks to develop 24 shots and have them burned on a CD! That's a shocker after getting used to 'free' digital pictures.
- The view finder is a little inaccurate, as you can see with the large amount of sky in the Tivoli picture.
- One of the 'charms' of this camera is the light leaks, which can sometimes give an unexpected coloring to a photo. In the two rolls I shot, I thought they simply ruined the picture.
I'm not sure how often I'll use the camera, but taking it out every once in a while will be fun.
I got out the Oktomat camera again today and took some shots around the new Moonrise hotel that is being built. The hotel is starting to look magnificent and I'm really excited for the Delmar Loop to be getting this.
I used the Oktomat at dusk, which turned out really dark in the processed film. It was 400 ASA film, so next time I might try for the 800 ASA, or else take some shots a little earlier on.
