A Subjective Vision of Life

Diana Mini Review

These Holidays I’ve had the privilege to get a gift from a great friend of mine. It was a Diana Mini from Lomography. As they say in the Lomography community say: “We are a global community whose strong passion is creative and experimental analogue film photography.”

They comercialize a ton of analog “Toy Cameras”. They recieve this name because they are cameras made from plastic components and have plastic lenses. It is this fact what makes Lomography photography so special and characteristic. The analog feel in the photos taken with these type of cameras is very recognizable.

A part from the analog feel they also have some cool models that do some cool things. I’ll talk about one of my favorites, a part from the Diana Mini.

This camera has 4 lens and takes a sequence of shots that can be configured to be fast or slow and puts them into one shot. Let’s see some examples:

As you can see the feel of the pictures is very dynamic and the colors aren’t achieved by any post or cross-processing of the images. These images where achieved with normal Kodak 35mm film.

And now we come to the object of our review.

When I got this gift I wasn’t aware that this camera was out. I knew about the Diana F+ , her older sister. For me this camera is much cooler. Here is why:

Diana Mini shoots in 35mm film. Diana F+ in 120mm

That may not be a problem for most, but for me, I find it easier to develop 35mm film in this declining analog world… You can buy an adaptor for the Diana F+ to shoot in 35mm but it costs extra…

The size!

As the name indicates this is a mini Camera. A camera that you can fit in your coat pocket. It’s like a compact digital camera in width although the lens on the Diana Mini makes it impossible to fit it in your jeans pocket.

Multi-Exposure

Because the Diana Mini is an analog almost-pin-hole-type camera the shutter mechanism gives you the posibility to take different shots in the same part of the film creating a multi-exposed shot.

Two Possibilities for the price of one

This little mechanism at the back of the camera lets you create two types of captures. Single square frame like so:

Or this cool 2-shot capture:

This is the coolest feature for this camera in my opinion. I have to experiment with it a bit more but it’s really cool!

To summarize, this is a great camera for $50 although if you want to be able to use it night and day you should definetly get the pack with the Diana F+ Flash

Enjoy!

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