A Lomo Kinoscopy

Today Lomography launched their latest camera. A small box camera (big surprise there) that shoots quick movies onto 35mm film. At first I was really excited, the short films they showed on the product page looked fun, spontaneous and interesting. But once I looked past the glitzy marketing I noticed the major flaw. Cost.

The Lomo Kino and Kinoscope - Image courtesy of Lomography.com

So I did some quick math to see how economical it was compared to super 8, here goes:

Super 8 for a little over 3 minutes, film + processing is $30 locally. Telecine is an additional $8.

The Kino shoots 144 frames on a roll of film, at the 3-5 fps listed that is between 28 and 48 seconds of movie.

Shooting slide film to "project" it in the Kino scope, is around $20 for film and processing, this means to get the same length of film as one super 8 cartridge you're looking between $80 and $120!

The Lomo Kino - Image courtesy of Lomography.com

If your goal is to simply digitize it the costs change dramatically. Let's say we go super cheap with $1 Walgreens film, and $1 processing at Target it only costs $8-$12 for that same 3 minute movie. However, shooting the color neg requires (obviously) digitizing, call me crazy but I have no desire to scan 144 frames and edit them into a movie.

Now here is the big caveat, you can only do one of the two options! Either digitize it, or watch it in the Kino scope. Unlike Super 8 where you are easily able to do both.

Most of this stems from just prior to the release of the Kino many people had brought up the expense of Super 8 film making. This is hardly an alternative. Lower frame rates, a much worse lens, and more expensive processing to boot!

The Lomo Kino - Image courtesy of Lomography.com

NOTE: It has been brought to my attention that "The Lomolab in the UK is offering process, scan and moviefy (is that a word) for £10 which isn't too bad." Thanks to flickr user blametheparents1982 for that. Even so however, still more than I would like to spend for what would ultimately be a novelty camera sitting on my shelf.