(Photos by author)

Shaped slightly larger than a can of sardines, Lomography’s latest offering, the La Sardina, feels sturdy and alluringly simplistic in your hands.

Design

Staying true to Lomography’s branding, this camera comes in a multitude of delightfully vibrant colours and bold patterns (check them out here), but the specs remain the same.

 Only a handful of the La Sardina collection

Forget the standard DSLR that weighs your bag down like a ton of concrete. Summer calls for effortless style, and it’s way more chic to be seen with a lightweight, cheerful accessory, instead of a drab black brick.

With an ultra wide-angle lens (22mm) for encapsulating scenery, and a fixed aperture of f8.0, the La Sardina ensures you’ll capture every last detail in your surroundings. Unlike a fisheye camera however, it will not warp the perspective of the photo.

Close up of the La Sardina

Should you desire, Lomography gives you the option of also purchasing a ‘Fritz the Blitz’ flash in a matching color to your camera, ensuring you never miss a shot due to gloomy skies or underlit rooms. Unlike previous models, the ‘Fritz the Blitz’ flash has 3 different power settings to be tweaked in accordance with distance from subject, allowing users to adjust the light intensity, preventing overexposure and overblown highlights.

Controls

If any of you are apprehensive regarding using a film camera, fret not! This camera has an elementary learning curve. Forget about tweaking a barrage of settings. All you have to do with the La Sardina is: frame the shot, click the shutter and wind the spool.

With just a flick of a switch to “MX” mode, you can create artsy multiple exposure shots. A multiple exposure shot involves overlaying objects and produces a lo-fi surreal image all Lomography users are hopelessly enamoured with.

Lomography Singapore’s friendly store manager, Hakimbo, advises beginners to limit the number of exposures to 3, or you’ll end up with a chaotic amalgam of dissected objects (unless of course, that’s what you hope to achieve).

Focusing is done via adjusting the lens element. For a macro shot, twist the lens element to the fly symbol. Like most film cameras, the viewfinder doesn’t indicate focus, so you might want to cross your fingers and hope for the best.

But if you prefer tack sharp photos 100% of the time to the dreamy and radiant vibes many have come to associate Lomography with, this probably isn’t the camera for you. We at UrbanWire, on the other hand, love the end result of psychedelic images produced with one simple click of the shutter.

Image Quality

As expected, the La Sardina matches up to the Lomography brand heritage of grainy, raw images so reminiscent of an age of film. For such a wide-angle (22mm) lens, the images do not undergo much distortion. Hakimbo tells UrbanWire this is where the La Sardina differs from traditional fisheye cameras already offered by Lomography. If you are looking for an alternative to the wide bulging effects of a fisheye lens, do consider this.

A fixed shutter speed of 1/100 paired with the fixed exposure of f8 means this camera should be used in bright daylight, if you don’t intend to pack a flash in your bag. Overall, the La Sardina produced soft images squeezing in lots of details (like a tin of sardines, literally).

Conclusion

In a increasingly digital world, where a trip to any camera store warrants gargantuan megapixel counts being shoved in any consumer’s face, a week with this uncomplicated and “no frills” camera was indeed, a liberating experience.

More often than not, we scramble to get noise-free images, correct lighting and colour balance and amidst all that hastiness, we forget to revel in the process of creating art. The La Sardina changes that, tying in perfectly with Lomography’s motto of “Don’t think, just shoot”.

UrbanWire doubts they mean to use film blindly and burn a hole in your wallet. Rather, it’s a gentle reminder to even the most seasoned photographer: catch your breath and really, enjoy all that you’re taking in with your brand new La Sardina.

[Images courtesy of Lomography]

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Get your La Sardina online here or try it out physically at:

Lomography Gallery Store Singapore

Location: 295, South Bridge Road
#01-01
(S) 058838

Opening Hours: Mon – Sun, 12:00 – 21:00