Lomography sent me their new Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera preloaded with LomoChrome turquoise film. I was very excited to get my hands on this as I used disposable film cameras a lot in high school, and I mean a lot! They were cheap cameras you could easily throw in your pocket and drop off anywhere with a photo lab. Lomography, however, stepped it up a notch or three with this release. Let's start with the main upgrade; it's reloadable. Once you've shot your roll, all you have to do is wind it back and pop out your 35mm roll, which for me, was the LomoChrome turquoise film with 400 ISO. There are many options for different film loads, including black and white, color, LomoChrome Purple, LomoChrome Metropolis, and LomoChrome Turquoise. Lomography even provides other editions to the camera and underwater housing.
This reusable camera comes with a built-in flash and built-in filters for the flash, three separate colors, purple, blue, and yellow, which you can mix. The shutter speed is prefixed to 1/120 sec, and the aperture is preset to f9 with a focal length of 31mm. There is no tripod mount, no options for a cable release, and it does take AA Batteries, which come preloaded in the camera. The camera costs $24.90, which is okay, considering the film alone usually costs $12.90 per roll.
Shortly after receiving this camera from Lomography, I hit the road and jumped on the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina to test it out. I figured the turquoise film would be a cool effect for the mountains and road, and I was right. This was my first time also using Lomography film. The camera was fun to use, and I often threw it in my pocket as I would stop at overlooks, pulling it out when something caught my eye. To fire the flash, you also have to hold the button on the front of the camera, a red light on the top will light up, and then you just have to click the shutter. For me, it really hit the nostalgia note. All in all it was what I expected, a good, simple-to-use camera.
However, I did find myself getting very frustrated with the filters. The filters get stuck on each other very easily and are hard to pull apart, and from my experience, you really could not see the effect they created. I would take two shots, both using a filter and not using a filter, and they were virtually identical. One way to fix the filters sticking together would be having a thicker mil of plastic (just my opinion). And the filters may not have worked properly since I was shooting landscapes in tight quarters; they could work just fine; however, with my one roll of film, this was what I ran into.
I would give this camera a 4.5 out of 5 rating, especially for what it is (a simple-use camera) and at the price point it is set. I took .5 of a point off for the filters; they were very frustrating. I would buy this product as well, I mean, for just $12 more dollars, why not?
Below are images taken during this test for you to see the results, and if you would like to stay up to date with more of my photography, please check out my YouTube channel here and my Instagram here.
If you would like to see all of Lomography's different camera options for the Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera, you can check it out here.