What ever happened to that old Polaroid? Lomography is bringing instant cameras back with a difference

When I saw the Kickstarter campaign I had to do a double take.  Lomography was wanting to take their love of old fashioned photography a step further into the realm of instant cameras ala Polaroid with their new Automat camera.  They started it a year ago with the Lomo'Instant, but now were taking it into a new level.  Unlimited exposures on a single instant picture?  Bulb mode with up to 30 second exposures?  A lens cap with built in remote shutter control?  How far can we push an instant camera?

It turns out we can push it pretty far, and they did.  The Lomo'Instant Automat is a wonderful camera and a great piece of engineering.  With modular lenses adding wide-angle and fisheye capability along with the ability to add filters this is far from your Mom's old Polaroid.

The added ability to set the exposure length and take multiple exposures while tripod mounted gives you a lot of the creative flexibility of a medium format or SLR in an instant, something I never would have thought of.  

The camera uses physical film, so it isn't as flexible a medium to experiment with as digital can be, but there is something to be said for having that tangible record of the shot, and the serendipitous mistake that can create a one of a kind photo.

The Lomo'Instant Automat is available now from the Lomography online store for $179

Review: Lomography's latest camera brings instant photos back to the party!

The Lomographic Society is a global organization that is trying to keep interest alive in film photography, and their latest effort is to revive the tradition of instamatic photography with their newest product, the Lomo Instant.

Dead simple to use, and very easy to get decent pictures while still flexible enough to allow for some wide ranges of creativity in settings of aperture and shutter speed that you wouldn't expect to find in an instant camera.

My first two selfies taken with the Lomo Instant

The Lomo Instant they sent me is a limited edition called the Sanremo, and the kit includes the camera and the "Lomo Instant Lens Kit".  This lens kit contains a fisheye lens, portrait lens, and close up lens.  These lenses give you even more flexibility than you ever had with that old Polaroid.

The bottom of the camera has a chart to help you find the right flash and shutter settings on the go 

The Lomo Instant uses FujiFilm instax mini instant film, an instant film that is easily found online.  It develops fast with strong clear images and is fairly inexpensive.  

The last thing they include in keeping with the societies goal of reviving the lost art of manual photography is a set of cards with photos and tips on how to get similar results with your camera.  They range from the very simple to some very advanced techniques in the 18 card set and are a very nice group of tips.

As with their last major project, the Impossible Instant Lab, this became a reality after a successful run on Kickstarter.  This is why Kickstarter is such a great idea.  It launches great projects like this into the world on a regular basis.  Here at Fat Boy Heaven we love Kickstarter, and we will keep bringing new and successful projects to your attention.  

Review: LyveHome Photo and Video Manager

I received an advanced edition of the LyveHome Photo and Video Manager a week ago, and have been putting it through it's paces for the last few days.  It is a local network connected appliance that serves as a backup for all of your pictures and home video files.  Rather than your data being in the cloud where it can be hacked, it resides in your home on your local network giving you security and only uses the cloud to authenticate and locate the device to send your pictures to it.  When you have the application running on your iOS, Android, Mac, or PC device it uploads any new picture and home video to the internal 2TB HDD.  This allows you to access the data files from any other authorized device.

Hardware

The appliance itself is quite slick.  The device has a 5 inch touch screen display with an SD card slot on the side and USB port on the rear for data transfer from portable media.  It also has an HDMI port and audio out jack for connection to your entertainment center for picture or video playback.  It will connect wirelessly via 802.11 b/g/n, and also has Gigabit ethernet for connection directly to your router if you need it.

The rear of the LyveHome has the ethernet, HDMI, USB, Headphone, and power ports

Software

The LyveHome has very basic software built in, managing it's connection to the network and the LyveHome server for authentication.  It also keeps track of the amount of space used my pictures and video on the internal drive.  

Screen 1 of 4: The default display can show either sample pictures or scroll through your uploaded images.Screen 2 of 4: The status screen displays the amount of space remaining and number of pictures and videos stored on the device.Screen 3 of 4: The device screen shows you all of the devices authorized to transfer to and from the LyveHomeScreen 4 of 4: The final screen is the settings screen, where you control brightness, which images are displayed on the main screen, and your network and other settings.

 The software for iOS is also very basic.  When you first open it you are asked to either create or sign into an existing Lyve account.  Once that is accomplished the software asks for permission to access your camera roll.  If given access it starts processing your pictures and uploading them to the LyveHome.  The settings screen gives you the ability to toggle auto-import, upload over cellular data, and a power upload feature which prevents your device from going to sleep while transferring (transfer stops when the iOS device goes into standby).

Top of settings pageBottom of settings pageThe software for the Mac is pretty similar. The software will automatically detect iPhoto and Aperture libraries and copy them, and then allows you to specify other folders to have pictures automatically copied from when the software detects they are added.

The Lyve Desktop software for MacSummary

In all the software makes it easy and the device is great if you have a large quantity of photos and videos to keep a-hold of.  The idea of having everything local instead of in the cloud I'm of mixed opinion about.  While for my family, with multiple iPhones taking pictures and photos and videos for the web sites on multiple computers and cameras, I don't know that it makes as much sense for most families.  Cloud storage is more convenient for most people, and doesn't require connection to a local device.  While intended for the home, I really see this as being of more value to home office and small business customers with multiple users and content they need to keep secure.  The only value it has to the average family is as a way for everyone to share photos without them being uploaded to the web where photos can be accessed by others.

Things they sent me to review

OK, this has been a crazy summer filled with construction dust and contractors while we remodeled our kitchen.  normally each of these products would have their own post, but I am buried under review units and need to catch up, so we will do quick hits on everything.

Atari Arcade Duo

The Atari Arcade for iPad

The Atari Arcade is very cool if you love classic gaming and still have an iPad 2/3 laying around.  It is powered by the 30-pin connector on your iPad, so no batteries are wasted.  Would have been better if they had added a USB or 30-pin port to the back to charge through though.  In all it works nicely and gives you that satisfying arcade joystick feel to bring games like Pac-Man back to their visceral glory.  Can be found cheap online.

HP X2 Windows 8 Convertable Tablet/Laptop
The HP X2 windows 8 Tablet with Laptop Dock

The X2 is the first Windows laptop/tablet I have liked in a long time.  Light weight and sturdy, the X2 is decently powered and makes great use of the Windows 8 Modern UI with it's responsive touchscreen and above average spec sheet.  I love that the keyboard dock doubles battery life (up to 16 hours of moderate use) without adding too much weight.  If I wanted to go back to windows, this would get me there.

Rymdkapsel - iOS Game

Rymdkapsel, an interesting new iOS RTS game

Rymdkapsel is short on graphics, but long on re-play ability and challenging.  You need to manage resources and workers to defend your outpost while trying to complete various missions and defending yourself against waves of attacking enemies.  This game has me turning my back on casual games for hours at a time.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8" Tablet

The Samsung Galaxy Note has done the impossible....it is an Android device I could see myself using every day.  I haven't had a lot of love for Android in the past, but this combination of form factor and the pressure-sensitive stylus has me warming to the idea.  The Galaxy Tab 8.0 has 1.5GB RAM, 16GB Storage, and a SnapDragon 800 1.5Ghz processor, giving it plenty of power to run any application.  When combined with the ChromeCast it becomes an easy home entertainment center as well.  The thing that I love the most is the stylus and how easily it adapts to drawing and note taking.  If you miss the days of your Palm Pilot and decent handwriting recognition, but want a display large enough to comfortably read book and watch video, this is the tablet to get for now.

Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable Game Center

The Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable Game Player

A handheld that knows what it is and does itself proud, I love having 80 Genesis classics at my finger tips for some retro gaming on demand.  It's downfall is that it doesn't save game progress, so RPG mainstays like Phantasy Star would be pointless. If you are looking to re-gain some of your youth and are OK with only having the platform and arcade titles to draw from, you can do a lot worse than this $59 wonder.

Sega Genesis Arcade Nano - Virtua Fighter Edition

The Sega Genesis Arcade Nano

This little wonder serves to illustrate just how far computing and video games have come in my lifetime.  This little keychain has as much computing power as the Sega Genesis console, and includes the contents of 10 game cartidges besides.  Easily hooks up to any TV and provides quick easy gaming fun for you or your kids.  For $19.99 you can't go wrong.  Also available in a puzzle games version with Columns and 9 other titles.

Credit Card Lightbulb

The Credit Card Light Bulb

Not much surprise here.  Flip up the bulb and it turns on.  Fairly bright and super reliable.  Would be great for emergency kits and cars, or to carry in your gear bag just in case.

Impossible Instant Lab

The Impossible Instant Lab

 This was one of the first really big KickStarter campaigns to draw wide-spread attention, and there is good reason.  With photo applications like Instagram and Hipstamatic taking over the camera phone market with their oddly retro photo effects, bringing back physical old school poloroids isn't a huge jump.  Being able to attach your iPhone to the device and transfer your instagram greatness in physical form is pretty cool, but can get expensive due to hard-to-find film cartidges.  Impossible thought this through though, and they have supplies available to keep you in instamatic film for as long as you would like.  The film is still a bit pricey (a 10 shot cartridge still runs about $25), but the novelty makes it a huge hit.  Available from Impossible for $299.00