The DigiLomo Camera Has Ugly Guts In A Beautiful Case
In an attempt to recreate the much-loved flaws of a lomo camera, Joel Pirela has modded a compact with interchangeable lenses and a custom-built case
While digital lomo apps like Instagram are hugely popular, one thing they can never really capture is the inherently random outcome of the analog technology it’s based on. Over at Unpluggd, Joel Pirela attempted to recapture those imperfections by creating his own digital lomo camera out of the internals of a crummy Vivitar compact and some old Olympus glass.
This gorgeous creation has the internals of a Vivitar Vivicam 5025, which have been put into a custom built black walnut and hand rubbed aluminum body. There’s an OM lens mount on the front, so any of Olympus’ considerable back catalog of glass can be used. You can see an example shot below, and a few more over at the link above. There’s certainly a dreamy, soft-focus quality that some people adore, as evidenced by the existence of LensBaby lenses.
There are a few points worth noting — since this is a custom build, the entire bottom plate of the camera has to be removed to get to the SD card or recharge the batteries. And while the images are intentionally soft, it’s something of a tragedy to see these classic Olympus lenses reduced to creating such fuzzy shots. Even so, you can’t fault them for creating an absolutely stunning DIY project, this thing is gorgeous to look at.
