The Lomographic SuperSampler pearl camera is a truly original and exciting addition to the world of Lomography. Something of an improvement over the ActionSampler and CyberSampler 2.0, the SuperSampler uses a unique pull-cord film advance mechanism and incorporates four lenses in a panoramic format to capture four shots per frame, each just a fraction of a second apart. The end result is four long images stacked on top of each other that show the sequence of motion. This gives you something akin to panoramic "movie stills" that can even be scanned and animated into a miniature four-frame movie on your computer.
Brought to you by the same Lomographic Society folks who introduced the free world to the famed Lomo Kompakt Automat camera, the SuperSampler shares the original Lomo's wacky, creative image--as evidenced in the colorful, photo-filled booklet that comes with the camera. The SuperSampler is also a study in styling with its unique pull-string design and iridescent pearl color. It doesn't have a flash and sports only a small removable square to frame your photos. "Shoot from the hip," is the driving philosophy behind the Lomographic Society.
Everything with this camera is manual, including film loading, winding, and rewinding. The lens is fixed focus. However, the SuperSampler does offer two speeds--standard and high speed (four photos in two seconds in standard mode; four photos in 0.2 seconds in high-speed mode). And although this multiple image format works best for action shots, it can turn any subject into a creative, interesting slice of life.
Since there is no built-in flash, the best results occur under bright lighting conditions. It comes with a six-month warranty--Lomo will replace the camera free of charge if anything goes wrong with it during that time period. Included in the box are the camera, a SuperSampler booklet, and one roll of 24-exposure ASA 200 35mm film.
From the Manufacturer
The Queen of all multi-lensed cameras. Four highly light-sensitive and precision Japanese panoramic lenses capture four sequential panoramic shots on a single photo. The patented rip-cord advance ensures that you are ever-ready for action. Normal film, normal processing, no batteries. "Design Boutique" packaging includes a molded plastic storage box, 35mm film, and 144-page color book on the sensual pleasure of Supersampling. Now available with a wonderfully-smooth rubberized blue coating.
It's light as a feather and sits agreeably well in the hand. It looks a tad different, extraordinary, like a combination of minidisk player, sugar pot and extraterrestrial optical measuring device. Four lenses nestle in the front. And when you pull its little ripcord and then press the exposure button, a small whirring clockwork motion starts whispering its impassioned little two-second.
The concept behind the SuperSampler is as simple as it is fascinating:
- Four highly light-sensitive and highest precision panorama lenses are arranged so compactly and neatly on the camera that they are able to expose four precisely positioned panorama shots in series above and next to one another on a single photograph.
- Pressing the exposure button sets a piece of precision clockwork into motion, activating each of the lenses one after the other over the course of two seconds.
- The result is a whole new kind of endlessly varied serial images, depending on the action and movement you are capturing:
- A steady camera for the precise analysis of each of the tiniest or wildest movements (sports, action, driving, flying, falling, spasms, shoves...)
- A fast or slow moving camera (horizontal, vertical, rotational, shaky...) for the dissolution and bizarre new recombination of otherwise familiar motifs (people, architecture, scenery...). This is where the craziest tricks and SuperSampling discoveries really start to come into their own!
In terms of photographic technology the SuperSampler is a perfectly normal 35mm camera suitable for any standard 35mm film, which you can then have developed in any normal photo store, supermarket or minilab. Don't stop there, scan those pics and immediately upload them to our international Lomographic Online Laboratories at www.lomography.com. The little (highly collapsible) peephole on top is, by the way, a so-called 'fig-leaf finder' - and it's only there for absolute emergencies. In general a viewfinder only distracts the veritable Lomographer from the task of true ActionSampling from the hip (serious Lomographers remove the viewfinder nano-seconds after they have purchased their SuperSampler, and bury it somewhere in their own private museum of the 20th century!). And the SuperSampler is neither even horrifically expensive nor designed for convoluted ageing photo-hunters... It is a thoroughly affordable wonder for tough (Lomographic) action and creativity in everyday situations. And one thing is for sure: even after the 100th roll of film you'll still be able to use it for discovering unexplored SuperSampling terrain and special tricks, new movements, new sequences, new positions, new perspectives - quite simply new Lomographic hipshot experiments on a daily basis! And for those who still don't understand what it is:
The SuperSampler is a magic image box, a clockwork snapshot plaything, an action shiver-and-shake crate, an architecture-deconstruction chamber, a landscape-lacerater, a Lomographic image sausage-maker, an ultra-short film drum, a panorama hurdy-gurdy, a photographic molatov cocktail, a rapid hacking snapshot-shrapnel maker!
And a couple of significant facts and figures to close: The SuperSampler is the first self-developed, self-designed and patented camera to have emerged from the newly founded product development laboratory of the Lomographic Society International in Vienna. Incidentally, it is also the first 100% Austrian camera since the invention of the Josef Petzval patent cardboard travel camera in 1840. And all the engineering of the SuperSampler stems from the firm Vertikal, a team of star mechanics in Vienna. And the complicated manufacturing process is in the hands of one of the most hard-boiled in the branch, the young Chinese Man Ivan Lau and his 2,000 employees in Shenzen near Hong Kong. These stalwart individuals are now going to ensure that the growing worldwide Sampler market is kept supplied with precision workmanship, producing copious quantities of four-carat jewels from their tender sleevelets.
What's in the Box:
- Design Storage Box: Molded in hard translucent plastic. The reusable Supersampler Design box is durable enough to hold anything from piles of photos to ounces of chilled punch.
- Supersampler Camera: One shot - a series of four razor-sharp sequential panoramic images. Pull the patented "rip-cord winder," take a breath, and SHO-O-O-O-T.
- 35mm Film Roll: An emulsion to translate your vision into hard reality. "What came first - the image inside your head or the one on the glossy photo print in your hand?"
- Supersampler Photo Book: 144 full-color pages of explosive Supersampler content. Feast your greedy eyes upon beautiful photos, stunning graphics, and inspirational text.
- Multilingual Instructions: Something for everyone. Full English - German - Italian - Spanish - French - Japanese - Chinese and Korean text inside.