Colorsplashing?
Colorsplash is now the next step in the continuing development of the Lomographic battery of instruments. In the Colorsplash world you can manipulate the colours on your Lomographs: With a colored flash by day or at night, by playing on the colored artificial lighting at night, by varying the type of 35mm film you use . If you are holding the Colorsplash Camera and/or the Colorsplash Flash in your hand, then you're holding precisely the right tool to really get down to some serious experimentation with colors.

From the beginning, the Colorsplash needed to deliver beautiful form in addition to function - a handsome conversation piece that feels just as comfortable under the adoring eyes of design-vultures as it does in the sweaty hands of a hard-working hyperactive lomographer. Our resultant Colorsplash camera is the product of these intense brainstorming, design, and caffeine-charged sessions. Fully conceived and developed by the hardcore Lomographers of our Lomographic Society, it will do for you what it has done for us: whet your creative appetite, open your photographic world, and compel you to see your environment in a brand-new spectrum of 12 tiny color gels.

Color Wheel
Alongside a glossy plastic body lies the color-bursting electric soul of Colorsplash - the mechanical Color Wheel flash. A flick of the wrist is all that's required to choose between one of three different color filters or a standard white flash. When you're ready for a switch, two of the interchangeable filters can be replaced with one of the 9 additional filters that you will receive with the Flash. Snap away, and take photo 1 in blue, photo 2 in red, photo 3 with no color, and so on.

Exposure
Colorsplash has two exposure controls: Long Exposure and Instant Exposure. A flick of the handy little switch alternates between these two modes. During Long Exposure, the shutter will stay open for as long as you depress the release button. The Color Wheel flash is synched for the end of your exposure, meaning that when you release the button, the flash will fire a split-second before the shutter closes. This allows for the greatest of Colorsplash effects - sharp, colored, flashed foregrounds set against dreamy, natural, blurry backgrounds. Instant Exposure mode both releases the shutter and fires the flash when you press the button; producing nearly monochromatic crazy-contrast shots or fairly normal white-light flash shots.

Skin
A modular three-piece formal suit for the Colorsplash. Crafted in stretchy synthetic fabric, the "skin bag" keeps your camera's most essential parts free from dust and very stylishly dressed. During transport, the top "skin" protects the lens and the flash "skin" covers the entire flash assembly. When duty calls, merely rotate the top "skin" down and stow away the flash "skin" on the included wrist strap. You're ready to shoot.

Design
Coated in high-gloss molded white plastic, the Colorsplash itself attracts almost as much attention as the gorgeous photos it spits out. One half science fiction-futuristic, and one half 1960's retro-mod, its shiny coating and radical shape are pure eye candy to the hungry stares of onlookers and style-freaks.

Take a Look Around and Set the Scene
Inspiration and the proper mind set are the first orders of business. Isolate your subject from the swirling image-mess around you. Now don't be shy--Oktomat's brick shape and wee mechanics are charming enough to make even a surly chap smile. Go on with yourself as if Oktomatic photography is an uncontrollable reflex--something which your brain does not choose, but initiates with its own will.

Fire! and the Oktographic Story Board
SHOOT!! And 8 "clacks" later your subject is cleanly sliced into 8 little frames, boiled, and served. It's no Hollywood feature, but believe us, 8 frames can tell quite a tale. Envision yourself as a movie director on the world's tightest budget--armed with 8 scenes and 2.5 seconds to relate your micro-masterpiece. Among the many possibilities, you might grab an Oktographic snippet from: your best friend's romp in the park, a parade of pugs, the very moment that she said "yes," big Charlie's unfortunate bicycle lesson, passionate hedgehogs, or a boozy sea-cruise. Whatever the occasion, choose your scenes, motivate your cast, and coordinate your cinematography into a print-bound and Oscar-worthy Oktomatic vignette.

Okto-Kino and The Lomographic Brain Trust
Your fresh-from-the-lab shots require one addition to reach their full potential--a potent injection of Oktographic animation. Upload them to the OKTO-KINO application to Lomography web site, pop into your folding director's chair, grab some butter-slathered popcorn and peel your eyes as your Oktomatic images are instantly transformed into live-action 8-frame cinema. And, by all means, don't keep this little screening all to yourself--it's a solemn Lomographic duty to share your images with the other maniacs in our online community.

What's in the Box

Lomography Oktomat camera, hand strap, multi-lingual instructions, and full documentation.

Besides just being fun, this camera has many business applications like documenting insurance and real estate claims, body shop claims, appraisal documentation, landscape design, "before and after" pictures, or "work-in-progress" updates. The slim, ergonomic design makes this camera extremely portable and easy to take with you everywhere.

Each i-zone set comes with a camera and two AA alkaline batteries. Film is sold separately. Loading the camera is as easy as dropping the film cartridge into the back of the camera and closing it back up. The trickiest part is remembering to pull the film tab out in one fluid motion, without stopping--exactly like most other Polaroids. When you expose a shot and pull out the film, you get something that looks like a Band-Aid, with an image in the middle and extra paper on both ends. Just clip the extra paper off with a pair of scissors and you have your final product. Be careful not to cut into the actual photo as you don't want to give the caustic paste inside a chance to seep out and get on your fingers.

There are three exposure settings on the i-zone--indoors (with flash), outdoor/sunny, and outdoor/cloudy. Overall, the camera is probably best for subjects within 2 to 8 feet, although we took pictures of downtown buildings that turned out pretty well. The outdoor/sunny setting requires bright sun directly on the subject for a good exposure. Even if it isn't cloudy, try using the outdoor/cloudy setting if the subject is in shadow or if it is early or late in the day when the sunlight isn't at full strength. The flash seems to work best from about 4 to 5 feet away.

The best part is figuring out what to do with the miniphotos once you've created them. The options seem to be limitless, from decorating cell phones to putting them in miniframes to creating photo albums. These cameras are affordable, simple to use, and a lot of fun. --Walt Opie