Last time we looked at the (now defunct) 126 format for lo-fi square shots. I mentioned towards the end that this time round we would be looking at the 4×4 option. It seems I got a bit excited and got ahead of myself.

I should have mentioned the 35mm options. The first of which is the Lomography Diana Mini, and the second is the Blackbird, Fly. While I don’t have hands on experience with the Blackbird, fly, I do have experiences with the Diana Mini. And so this post will concentrate on that.

At the time of the Diana Mini being announced, I already owned both a LSI Diana F+ and a (original Diana Clone) Snappy. The former always feels light and of a slightly poor construction compared to the Snappy (which I bought in “as new” condition). While I don’t use either of those cameras particularly much anymore, at the time of the Diana Mini’s announcement I was heavily into the Toy side of photography. Long story short, I bought myself a LSI Diana Mini. I figured the 35mm format would offer something unique.

First Impressions?

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the LSI marketing side of things – the book of sample photography that adds value to the product while interesting, always makes me think that they think the camera they’re selling isn’t worth the shelf price, and so they include extras. But hey, I bought their product so I can’t really complain too loudly can I?

That being said, I was impressed with the construction of the Diana Mini -especially in comparison to it’s big brother sister. The Mini feels much more solid in terms of it’s plastic, and the controls feel solid. Even though it was small and my hand large, it never felt awkward. I suspect that using the Snappy and the F+ for so long helped with that.

Time to Shoot!

I didn’t bother reading the manual. The controls are simplistic. You set the shutter to either Instant or Bulb, and the aperture is set according to the type of weather – sunny, shady and so on. Typical toy camera controls. One interesting thing to note is that the Diana Mini offers the option of half frame (meaning 72 shots of 18×24 vs the standard 24×36) or square. I bought it for the square option since I already had a camera that shot the half frame option.

Film loading was a little fiddly considering the camera was quite small, but easy enough once I figured out the process (the manual probably would have helped here). From then on it’s (almost) point and shoot. Oh, but I forgot to focus…turns out the focus on this camera actually affects the image, unlike the Diana Clone I have.

photo credit: Tomas Webb



As you can see from above, the Mini is capable of some reasonable shots. The lens provided sharper results than I expected, and you can see that the vignette on this camera is quite natural looking – I’ve always felt that on the 6×6 option on the Diana F+ vignetted heavily in certain light that gave the impression of an over corrected feature. Bear in mind that this is just my thoughts.



So how about some more examples?

Confession time. I sold the camera on ebay a few months later (for more than I paid for it!) without ever shooting another roll. At the time I had numerous other cameras with (partially) fixed settings that the camera just didn’t get taken out much and when I went through in the recent cleanout it didn’t make the cut.

Recommended?

If you don’t have access to home developing equipment that allows you to process your own 120 film, or your local lab gives you odd looks when you mention the phrase “medium format” then the LSI, then this is the camera for you if you’re looking for a square output in a easy to find film format. But on the other hand, this camera offers no unique signature in terms of output other than the ability to shoot both half frame and square shots on the same roll – I guess I forgot to mention that before. Truthfully, I didn’t see that as particularly important – as I said, I already had a camera that could shoot half frame.

Judging by the results in the flickr pool associated with this camera I really sshould have spent more time getting to know it. After all, the camera is quite well built and easy to use.