Diana F+ Retrospective

I received this throwback Diana F+ Retrospective camera for Christmas and was excited to be able to test it out for the first time over the weekend at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. The Diana camera first made it’s debut in the 1960’s as an inexpensive, plastic-bodied, box camera using 120 roll film that was used to take soft focus, dream-like photos. The Diana F+ Retrospective camera, recently launched by Lomography, is a loving recreation of that original legendary cult camera.

Though it was a silly cold day, Ken and I bundled up and headed out to the Winter Carnival in St. Paul on Saturday to check out the impressive ice sculpture display,  listen to the live band, sip hot cocoa, hang by the bonfire, and people watch. I hadn’t been in almost 10 years–since college! And, as you may remember, it’s on my Winter Bucket List for the season. Check out that list here.

Before we left for St. Paul, I spent the morning learning how to use the manual features on the camera–everything on the Diana F+ is manual, and I now have a new-found appreciation for my digital, auto-focusing, PowerShot camera.

I snapped a roll of film at the Carnival, took it in for processing yesterday and should have it back within 5-7 days, so stay tuned! I’ve become accustomed to the instant gratification of digital photography, so it’s quite a change of pace needing to wait a week to see how the photos came out. I have to keep reminding myself, though, that it’s all part of the charm of shooting with film, especially with a retro, manual camera. It will be fun to see what composition “surprises” transpired on film–fingers crossed that a few turned out!

Before the days of Instagram there were cult cameras like the Diana that allowed the everyday person to manipulate the look of their photos by altering the photo format, shutter speed, aperture settings, etc. Here are some of the effects the Diana F+ can create:

Pinhole | Long Exposure | Light Leak | Multiple Exposure

I’m looking forward to playing around with the manual settings more to see what cool, retro compositions I can come up with! The Diana F+ Retrospective Camera is available here. And the flash is available here.