I picked up a Lomo Pop 9 last week and ran a roll of dollar store film through it. Like most toy cameras you can’t change the shutter speed or aperture so using different film speeds is the only way to control exposure. Lomo makes a lot of unique and quirky cameras, this one has nine lenses arranged in a square that all trip at the same time, producing a kind of Warhol-esque mosaic. It’s kind of liberating not having to worry about all the technical stuff and be able to literally just point and shoot. It’s going to take a while getting used to composing for nine tiny lenses though.
Since the Lomo/Holga movement has taken off these little cameras, that are not much more than a nickels worth of plastic, have been commanding top dollar. The Pop 9 goes for around $80 new so I jumped at grabbing this one on the cheap of Craigslist. There aren’t many places that sell them off the shelf, you usually have to go the internet or ebay route to get one, but if you’re in Ottawa you’re in luck. Canteen on Dalhousie has a selection of them, they’re not cheap, but after you add shipping, duty and customs on an ebay order you end up saving about $5-$10 and you don’t have to wait two weeks. It’s a lot of fun so far, I can’t wait to try running some slide film through it. You can seem more shots from the Pop 9 on my Flickr.
