Advantages: Cheap, good fun Disadvantages: Small viewfinder
...items: Gold POP 9 lomo camera x 1 A roll of film A poster of lomography / lomographers & a user's guide - with multiple languages for many lomographers.
The camera itself is very lightweight, but its build is somewhat plasticky, so the first time I picked it up I thought it felt rather fragile to handle. But with its plasticky casing, it wasn't too bad once you get the hang of it; its weight is just about right, ... ...carry around in your bag wherever you go.
Loading film: The loading of the 35mm film were easy, a simple process that required the most basic knowledge of film cameras and off you went with the shooting. The winder is situated at the bottom left corner of the back camera, which makes it easier for anyone that wants to wind right after taking a photo to take another speedily. If you're daring enough to play around with the film, ... more
POP 9 is the first lomography camera that I received from my sister, she got it for her birthday but didn't know what to do with it. I immediately stepped in :) The POP 9 I received was the POP 9 Gold edition. Bling!
First impressions: The box itself was already a very tempting box that draws your attention with its bright gold and yellow colours on the box. With some sample POP 9 pictures on it, showing what the pictures will look like. The box had a clear window that openly displayed the camera itself in all its glory, so gold and shiny.
Opening the box: Inventory The box contained the following items: Gold POP 9 lomo camera x 1 A roll of film A poster of lomography / lomographers & a user's guide - with multiple languages for many lomographers.
The camera itself is very lightweight, but its build is somewhat plasticky, so the first time I picked it up I thought it felt rather fragile to handle. But with its plasticky casing, it wasn't too bad once you get the hang of it; its weight is just about right, not being either too heavy or light to handle or carry around in your bag wherever you go.
Loading film: The loading of the 35mm film were easy, a simple process that required the most basic knowledge of film cameras and off you went with the shooting. The winder is situated at the bottom left corner of the back camera, which makes it easier for anyone that wants to wind right after taking a photo to take another speedily. If you're daring enough to play around with the film, you can simply press the film release button based at the base of the camera and rewind a little bit to the previous frame, and shoot again!
Shooting pictures: POP 9 possibly has the easiest photo taking feature ever. Just one click of the shutter on the top right of the camera and your picture is taken, on the top left of the camera is a switch that you can flick to turn on the Flash, which requires several seconds to load; an indicator light based on the back of the camera turns green once the flash light is ready. One annoying thing about picture taking is that the viewfinder is awfully small, which makes it hard to view through when taking pictures. Personally, I don't have too much of a steady hand, so sometimes concentrating on the viewfinder my pictures sometimes come out quite blurry...there isn't a zooming function or anything on this camera so everything besides the flash is pretty manual. Each picture takes 9 (almost) identical pictures in one shot. (The POP 9's range is 0.8m (2.5') - infinity.)
Winding film: The winding of the film was easy, just a simple click of the film release and wind up the film with the reel thing on the base of POP 9. One problem was that the wind up reel at the bottom isn't pushed in all the way, and once had a little trouble with the rewinding; I didn't hear the click of the film finishing winding, then mistakenly opened up the camera and saw film...but managed to create some strange results on the film. But just as long as you listen out for the click before you open the camera there won't be any trouble.
Overall, it's a pretty cheap but satisfying camera if you want to begin playing around with something else than digital and have a dab in film with a dash of fun. The flash gives good results as it's not too bright and doesn't flood the picture. It's a must-buy for anyone that is happy to experiment with something new. The 9 holes gives it a bit of a pop art feel. =]
POP 9 Gold has a Lomography mini-site on www.lomography.com/pop9
Price comparison (as of December 2008) - prices include postage unless stated: - POP 9 Gold Starter Pack Amazon.co.uk - £20 Ebay: £29.95 Buy It Now (+£2.95 Postage) Freestyle Photographic Supplies: $39.99 USD (+ ? postage)
Thanks for reading my review on POP 9 Gold, have a nice day! =}
