Holga 120S Medium Format Viewfinder Fixed Focus Camera with Built-in Lens – Customer Reviews
Takes a bit of work but good things can be done with it...
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1st.DO NOT BUY a Holga expecting very much.It is very cheap simple camera that isn't worth much.Exposure control is to be kind; very limited, and focusing with one is a pain.
2nd.There are a lot of very good web sites and images shot with the Holga that are nothing short of spectacular.The power and feeling evoked by those images are a credit to the photogs who shot them.
3rd.There are a lot of very bad web sites and images shot with the Holga that are nothing short of garbage.Experimental photography or not, bad photography is bad photography.
4th.Be prepared to waste a lot film and make sure you have an understanding lab that can process 120 roll film.
5th.If you buy one, good luck!!!7/28/2005 12:00 AM | Rating:
Fine Art Camera
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For all its imperfections, it more than makes up for it with its unique quirks. The cheap plastic lens is its personality, as every Holga is different. It seems that the more lensaberrations that it has, the better. Almost every type of photographic genre has been approached with a Holga, from fashion to fine art. The quality of the images resembles dreams and mental snapshots out of the subconscious. There is definitely a melancholy, nostalgic quality that you can also get from a Holga, that you can't capture with great Japanese or German cameras and lenses. It's cheap, it's primitive, but it offers another totally different look at the world.
11/18/2004 12:00 AM | Rating:
Fun camera with surprises...
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This is a great camera, used by beginners and pros alike. I read an article about a pro photographer who hangs 500 ft backdrops behind sequoia trees, photographing with $$$ equipment...but also is a Holga addict, shooting wildlife in Africa.
I've shot many rolls of film on the Holga (I esp. love ILFORD XP2 400 super B+W), and the results are always surprising. Ditch the 645 format adapter for the classic 6x6 Holga vignetting. And I've also gotten great results overlapping frames.
Some advice would be to just THROW away the lens cover, as I've wasted several shots by forgetting to lose the cover. Also, don't repetitively click the shutter quickly because you'll wear down the spring and break it! (But then you can always turn it into a pinhole camera!)10/29/2004 12:00 AM | Rating:
Quirky, Fun Camera
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First of all, this camera is intended to be fun, but can also be interesting. The camera is plastic. It is often full of light leaks that create odd irregularities in the photos. The lens is a cheap plastic that can cause distortions, generally fairly mild, in the photographs.
BUT, it uses medium format (120) film, and the fact that the negative is four times the size means that if you are careful you may find you get a photograph out of this camera better than the one that comes out of your 10 times the price 35 mm camera. To do so, you need to tape up the sides to minimize light leaks. Use black electrical tape.
Also realize that letting the light shine through can create some interesting pictures, and so try some without the tape, or with less tape. Also remove the square bracket inside that focuses the light on a neat rectangle, and instead you'll get vignetted photos that fade off on the sides.
I actually prefer this model over the more expensive one that has a flash. The flash is difficult to use, and the batteries regularly fall out or come loose, occassionally ruining the film.It's worth buying multiples of these, as well - the light patterns and leaks vary from camera to camera, and so you'll get different results with different cameras (and different tape jobs).
Whatever you do, have fun, and do a search of "Holga" on the web -- you'll find a variety of websites devoted to these little babies.9/21/2004 12:00 AM | Rating:
Great quirky medium format camera
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Ok, this is not your basic point-and shoot, in fact the camera as it is shipped barely works at all- you'll have light leaks, the back will fly off, it shoots in a rectangular rather than square format, blah, blah.But, if you want to really break out of conventional photography and have some fun, this is the way to go.
Do some searching around on the Internet about how to modify one of these babies, though. Mine has no light leaks, can be used in a "bulb" mode, and shoots square format, as a holga should if you want to see the kind of edge distortion and vignetting holgas are famous for. I can also run cheap 35mm through it, for an interesting effect. Email me for more info on how I made my modifications, I'm happy to help.
Also, for relatively inexpensive mail-away 120 processing (both color and BW), Vermont Color is the way to go- look them up.
5/11/2004 12:00 AM | Rating:
