Holga Magic

Chad Stockfleth · December 5, 2006

I just ordered a Holga camera as it's (obviously) super cheap and seems like a lot of fun.

Anyone else ever shoot with a Holga, or have any tips? I'm looking forward to the light leakages and all that.

Anybody ever blown up a shot (as it's medium format negative)? How does it hold up?

Cheers!

Nathan Milford · December 5, 2006

I shoot with my holga all the time on Tri-X and Neopan.

You get some pretty rad imagry. Blowing up the images give you what you'd expect from a plastic lens and leaky body, despite being a mf negative.

The 6x6 format is my favorite, there is just something about a square aspect ratio that is kinda appealing for candid portraits.

Nick Mulder · December 5, 2006

yrp,

got one - they are fun, super light weight - you can modify them to take fish eye lenses, open them up and change the shutter angle etc.. all really easily

I also have an original Diana on which pretty much all the plastic MF cameras were modeled from

I agree about the 6x6, I threw away the 645 adaptor, the vignetting is that much nicer with the symmetry...

Chad Stockfleth · December 5, 2006

Let me ask you, how do you figure your exposure? I can't imagine walking around with a lightmeter. With only the couple of iris settings, is it all about choosing certain ASA's for given conditions and then a wish and a prayer? I know it has a "B" setting which you could use to compensate, but it still seems a little bit of a guessing game. Perhaps that's the spirit of the camera.

Marc Shap · December 6, 2006

Let me ask you, how do you figure your exposure? I can't imagine walking around with a lightmeter. With only the couple of iris settings, is it all about choosing certain ASA's for given conditions and then a wish and a prayer? I know it has a "B" setting which you could use to compensate, but it still seems a little bit of a guessing game. Perhaps that's the spirit of the camera.

Its purly an "educated" guessing game. I am huge fan of the holga and some of my best pics are just guess's. Just expierment, and see what you get. if you want, Check out this link to see some of my holga work...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpmarc/

Chris Keth · December 6, 2006

Let me ask you, how do you figure your exposure? I can't imagine walking around with a lightmeter. With only the couple of iris settings, is it all about choosing certain ASA's for given conditions and then a wish and a prayer? I know it has a "B" setting which you could use to compensate, but it still seems a little bit of a guessing game. Perhaps that's the spirit of the camera.

Basically by sunny 16. The funny thing is that you really only have one aperture. It's roughly f8. The other aperture setting places a square mask behind the back of the lens that is LARGER than the back of the lens, doing nothing :D

Usually, I go with 400 speed stocks for outdoor stuff (I'm in Rochester, NY, so my outdoors is generally bleak. If you're in LA you may want a 200 speed stock.) and 800 or ilford 3200 B&W for indoor. Thy really are a ton of fun and it's a great surprise gift when you get a great image.

Nick Mulder · December 6, 2006

yeh - sunny 16 ...

You'll notice if your Holga was like mine that the aperture setting is exactly the same on both clouds and sun.. I put in some cinefoil and now my sunny option really works...

Another cinefoil trick is to change the shutter angle - the Holga uses a shutter system a lot like many 16mm cameras I have seen, a rotating disk with an angle cut out... Again, open it up and get foiling - I changed the effective shutter angle so the camera would accept 3200 film with no ND or low light required...

If you push it, you can get nice grain, which is rare in MF film ...

Also fun is using 35mm film - a stills canister will fit in fine, just make sure you light trap the red window and the rest of the camera (35mm doesnt have the paper backing to help out) - you are also totally in the dark with regards to how far to wind it after a shot but the Holga will project right onto the sprockets and all, heaps of double exposures and niceness...

A friend put a 4x5 back on his and turned it into a large format macro camera - I am yet to see a photo though

Edited December 6, 2006 by Nick Mulder

Christophe Collette · December 21, 2006

Hi, my Holga (older version) has two settings, sunny and cloudy. Sunny is in the vicinity of 1/60 f11 +- a bit since they are not quite acurate, cloudy is 1/60 f5.6 1/2 +- a bit. ISO 320, tri-x pro. 1/60 is the official Holga speed, althought I tend to think it's more like 1/45, the rest I found out running test comparing it with a dead on Nikon FM2. So be careful, I carry a lightmeter even when using the Holga, you get really great photos using these cams so it is a shame when they are not useable... ...And what's even better is that each Holga or Diana is different. I adapted mine to fit a synch cord and I shoot studio stuff with flashes, It's really funny. I also have a Diana, and the settings I found were pretty much the same with it.

A trick if you want to shoot Delta 3200, coat the inside of your holga with matte black paint, the inside is shiny and you get funny flares everywhere, with my camera anyways... And tape everything with black electro tape.

Check this out if you really are a Holga freak! www.holgamods.com

C