Production notes
From pre-production to post-production, discover how to make your analogue masterpiece with the LomoKino
Pre-Production
Choosing your film
- When choosing the film you’re using for the LomoKino, bear in mind the lighting conditions you plan to shoot in.
- If you’re shooting outdoors, use 100 or 400 ISO film
- If you’re shooting indoors, use high-sensitivity film e.g. 800, 1600 or 3200 ISO
- Whichever film you pick, it’s also important to set your aperture depending on the conditions, too.
Loading your film
To load film into your LomoKino, just follow the simple steps below!
- Open the LomoKino cover by pressing both of the door lock buttons (on either side of the camera) at the same time
- Pull out the film tongue a little and slide it around the upper roller (this is very important!) – Then pull it back over towards the taking spool
- Pull up the rewinding lever a bit and place the film roll into the film chamber – Then drop the rewinding lever back into place
- Insert the film tongue into the taking spool slit and turn the advancing crank forward a bit to ensure that the film spool is firmly on the taking spool
- When you are sure that the film is firmly attached to the taking spool, reattach the camera’s cover.
- Move the advancing crank forward another one or two cycles – You will see the rewinding knob turning and that means your film is properly inserted. Now you can start shooting!
Shooting Your Movie
Focusing
Setting the focus on the LomoKino is a breeze because if you are over 1m away from your movie subject you don’t have to do a thing! And if you are between 1m and 0.6m, then you can focus by holding the close-up button on the front of the LomoKino as you shoot.
Setting the Aperture
The LomoKino has continuous aperture settings between f/5.6 and f/11 – This means that you can smoothly adjust the aperture at any time as you shoot – A larger aperture (f/5.6) means that more light will enter the camera, and a smaller aperture (f/11) means less light will enter the camera – So use a larger aperture if you want your movie brighter, and vice versa. There is no step between each aperture, so you may adjust the aperture setting at any time during shooting. Below are some tips on setting the LomoKino’s aperture.
If you are shooting on a sunny day outdoors - no matter whether you are using 100 or 400 ISO film, use aperture f/11. If you are shooting on a cloudy day outdoors and you are using 100 ISO film, use aperture f/5.6. If you are using 400 ISO film, you can use aperture f/11. If you are shooting indoors - Use a high sensitivity film e.g. 800, 1600 or 3200 ISO; always open the aperture to the largest f/5.6 and shoot near a bright continuous light source.
Shooting your movie and controlling the frame rate
To shoot with your LomoKino, just lock the advancing crank in position and turn it forward at your desired speed. The faster you turn the crank, the higher your movie frame rate will be - If you turn the advancing crank at full speed, you can reach 3-5 frames per second when filming. When you are shooting, you should be able to see the rewinding wheel turning.
More about controlling frame rate
Using the Hot-shoe and Flash
There is a hot-shoe located on the top of the LomoKino. The hot-shoe works with all kinds of electronic flashes. However many electronic flashes may not be able to recharge as fast as you can shoot. Here are a couple of tips for using a flash with the LomoKino:
Use a high-end flash product to achieve a short recharging time e.g. the Lomography Fritz the Blitz flash is able to recharge within a second at a 1/8 output mode. Use the flash to make stop motion photos - take each frame one by one until your flash is recharged.
Rewinding your film
You’ll know when you’ve reached the end of your film because you will see a red flag pop up behind the hot-shoe and the rewinding knob will also stop turning. To be extra sure that you have reached the end of the film, just check the film volume display to see if it's totally red. If it is, it’s time to rewind! To rewind the film roll, just flip the rewinding lever up and turn it anti-clockwise. When you can no longer feel any friction, you’ll know that the film is fully rewound.
Post-Production
Developing your LomoKino roll
Because the LomoKino uses a format most labs won’t be used to seeing, it’s best to tell your film lab about the LomoKino in advance. Ask the lab technician not to cut your negatives, but if your lab does automatically cut your negatives, it’s no big deal – You’ll probably end up with negatives and prints similar to what you’d get with a camera like the Lomography Supersampler (with 4 frames on each print). You can then easily scan the negatives using a flatbed scanner.
Scanning your roll
The best way to share LomoKino movies with other analogue lovers in the Lomography online community is to scan your film roll and turn it into a movie using video editing software. You can either scan the images yourself or you can ask your photo lab to scan the negatives for you - But getting the photo lab to scan is a more expensive option in the long-term and doesn’t give you much control over the images. That’s why we suggest you invest in a flatbed scanner with backlight unit and scan your own LomoKino negatives. But whichever option you choose, there are some important points to bear in mind or tell your photo lab about:
- Don’t color correct your LomoKino scans or at least keep the same scan settings throughout the film – This way you are more likely to get consistent results
- Remember to keep the same order and orientation when you scan the negatives – The best way to do this is save each movie frame as a 3-digit number such as 001, 002, 003, all the way to the end of the film
Editing your scans into a movie
Using the Samplomat App:
We recommend Samplomat - a desktop application designed to cut your LomoKino scans into a movie. It supports common picture formats such as JPG or PNG. The output movies are in MP4 format, which can be played by many players on several platforms and devices. It has a better slicing engine, new video encoder and some UI improvements. You can download it for free for Windows and Mac OS.
How To Digitize Your LomoKino Movie Using Samplomat
Using other movie editing software
To create LomoKino Movies using movie editing software please follow these tutorials in the Lomography Magazine:
Uploading your LomoKino movie to Lomography.com
Currently, we are still working on the Movies section of the Lomography site. We will let you know once it’s up and running, so that you can easily share your LomoKino movies with the Lomography community!
In the meantime, you can upload your videos on Vimeo. Here’s what you need to do:
- First, if you are not already a member, you’ll need to Register on Vimeo.
- To avoid users showing other users videos, we kindly ask you then to connect your Lomography and Vimeo accounts. To do this, you have to be logged in on Lomography, head to the Account Settings page and follow the button that redirects you to Vimeo. There you need to be logged in as well (or login) and authorize the connection. The reason for this is that we want to make sure that you are an authorized user on Lomography and Vimeo – this way nobody can import anyone else's videos on the Lomography site.