Lomography La Sardina and Flash DIY - 35mm Film Camera

Wish it had been the black unit advertised in the picture. Product I received was stark white. Still, a nice, highly-functional unit for taking multiple exposure shots.

I have enjoyed many "Lomography" cameras, which in general are novelty toy film cameras that are a lot of fun. (My favorite is the "Fisheye 2" with flash.) Although they are basically toys, most of the ones I have owned have worked quite well. However, the "La Sardina" has let me down twice. Some years ago I bought a slightly different version of this camera. That one had two big problems. One, the attached flash would not fire in conjunction with the shutter. Two, the back (which is not attached, because of the cutesy idea that this thing should look like a sardine can) would not stay on, thus exposing any film inside to light and ruining it. One would expect better for almost a hundred bucks. Now, a few years later, I decided to try again with this edition of the "La Sardina." The back is still not attached on this model, but at least this time it stayed on - very good. Furthermore, the attached flash (which requires its own expensive 123 battery, not included) works in conjunction with the shutter. Sofar so good. However, this time I had a problem with the film winding. Somehow the film got all wrapped up on itself inside the camera after a few shots. Furthermore, when film was inserted (again, I am not a novice at this- I have wound film successfully in many other cameras by this same company) there seemed to be no display of which picture number you were on, like was this number 5 out of 24 or what? Anyway, in the end I could hardly even get the wound-up mess out of this thing, and my pictures were lost. So, again: most of the novelty cameras by this company are a lot of fun, and I recommend them for analog experimentation. The "La Sardina," however, is way overpriced and not very functional. I do wish that someone would make a wide angle (but not quite fisheye) camera like this one, but one that actually works.