Full frame wide angle 20mm is probably one of the great lenses one can get their hands on but they will never be cheap...even though they come from Lomo. It cost US$650 a pop and it only fits the Leica mounts and the L39 screw mounts.

You can of course use this fully manual lens on digital cameras with the option of a a lens adaptor but APS C or M43 type sensors will have to take into account the crop factors of a full frame lens and hopefully realize that they are not buying into a wide angle.

For smaller sensors, you are probably getting between 35mm and 40mm in focal length, which isn't a bad thing considering the vignetting you see on full frame results.

The smaller crop factor reduces the frame and the less than desirable vignettes will be gone...so you have been warned.

The Petzval lens previously released by Lomo was a huge hit, but it was fixed 85mm. This is a nice focal length for portraits but the blurring, well, I think it could have been better.

The upcoming 58mm is also similar, that it allows for those swirly bokeh effects and will also be available soon thanks to its support from Kickstarter.

These are all manual lenses, for both Nikon and Canon mounts and you can be assured that it will work on digital as well as film cameras. The only problem is that aperture settings are totally manual so you won't be seeing any metadata exposure in camera.

My own feelings is this. If you can get a second hand Nikon lens (manual) at 50mm full frame lens, with a 1.5x crop factor for APS sensor cameras, you already got yourself a good portrait lens. What's more the corner sharpness of these old 50mm lenses are nothing short of legendary compared to the Petzval. This means you can place off center subjects and make them sharp.

I am not a fan of center sharp bokeh lenses. The corner sharpness of Petzvals is poor so therefore all your subject shots have to be placed in the center of the focus screen. The lens cost 500 bucks, and God knows how much it will be when it becomes available for retail in Christmas. 

Behold the Minitar from Lomo, its first foray into the Leica M-mount lens business. Now the Leica M is a classic mount for the Leica rangefinder cameras like the M3 and M7.

Sold as add on manual lenses for both digital and film cameras, it cost US$350. For those who wishes to use this, you will need to have an M mount camera or get an M mount adapter for your Nikon or Canon camera. These cost in the ball park of US$100 each.

Now we all know that Rangefinders, even the digital ones from Leica, do not have AF capability. The Minitar is Zone focus. So you get three choices of distance choices.

The Minitar is also a 32mm lens, with a f/2.8 aperture. It should be relatively easy to use but don't expect razor sharp results with wide open apertures. The lens is a fun lens and from the looks of the sample photos, has pretty decent vignetting.

For now, the lens is only on pre-order. Head down to the Lomo website to book now.

Lomography is a cool  place to start for budding analogue photographers but their latest LCA-120 is kinda like a shot in the dark. You know how expensive 120 films are these days and if you are going to shoot Instagram like images for keeps, you're better off with Instagram.

The LCA is a quirky camera. I have one, and I loved using it. Making use of 35mm film is cool as they are available everywhere. But 120 film?

The camera is going to be released soon for US$430 a pop. Has the same zone focus and light metering as the older LCA and nothing else to match. Made it China of course.

The image quality is kinda iffy for me.

Not a fan of vignetting on the four corners of the lens but hey, some will sell their souls for it.
Sharpness and color reproduction is decent, not great but it looks like something you'd get out of a digital camera.

One thing that most people misses out on is that the square format is ideal for learning composition. It is what made Instagram great and this is where you can pick up some good habits on how to place your subject on the viewfinder.

Zone focusing is a bitch. Never quite liked it but for artistic merit, those blurry photos could make you famous....like the one they took of Bigfoot.

With 30 days to go, Lomography has exceeded all its expectations with over 200K pledged on a 100K required funding on Kickstarter. That is a resounding cheer for analogue photographers but the biggest winner has to be Fujifilm, the only remaining instant film maker on the planet. The consumables don't cost much, which at US$1 buck a print, it makes for good memories.

The Lomo Instant Camera is a generic Fuji Instax Mini as it uses the same type of mini instant film but it goes one step further by offering a choice of clip on lenses for the camera that gives you fish eye and portrait angle shots. The colored gel filters are not going to be much of a hit for me, at least in a traditional sense but hipsters will no doubt double down on them.

Long exposure is included if you want to get creative but you have been warned as this is essentially a bulb mode for instant photography. Get the exposure wrong, and you'll wind up having an overexposed pile of goo.

To be fair, I think the portrait lens is a great inclusion but the fish eye is pure rubbish. Then again, Lomo intends to sell the camera kit within the ballpark of US$150 for the camera that comes complete with a wide angle lens. This bodes well for photographers who want a choice and can ante up to the portrait lens clip on as an accessory.

Shutter controls are pretty limited, just at one speed, 1/125 sec. The Mini Instax film is rated at ASA 800. The only way to control the exposure is through the aperture setting. 

But my main beef with this system is the sheet film size. It is small. Probably not as tiny as the first generation Zink prints but close. This means the instant film format isn't suitable for scenic, architecture or even street photography for that matter. It is a format meant for having fun with, shooting friends and family and the family pet. There is no macro capability either, so it would be a hassle to shoot anything smaller than a canary. Size wise, it's not much bigger than the Fujifilm instax mini cameras though I must add that it does bear some resemblance to Lomo's Belair series of cameras in terms of design. The Belair X6-12 has a Fuji Instax wide attachment to allow you take larger size instant pictures but from the initial test samples offered by users, only the 90mm lens seems to perform up to expectations. So if you gotta have that camera, then I suggest you wait for the Lomo Instant which should be made available to users all over the world in 2015. 

Film Format: Fujifilm Instax Mini Film

Exposure Area: 42mm x 64mm

Shutter Speed: 1/125s / Bulb

Exposure compensations: +2/-2 Exposure Values

Ejection Mechanism: Motorized

Multiple Exposures: Yes

Built-in Flash Guide Number: 9(m)

Automatic Flash Output: Yes

Battery Supply: 6V (4x AAA batteries)

Tripod mount: Yes

Cable Release Mount: Yes

Aperture: f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32