6cm x 6cm

So, this is a Holga. It's a culty, Chinese-made, toy camera, famous for dodgy build quality, light leaks and soft-focus photos. Mine was a present and I love it.



It's smaller than you'd think and a lot lighter than it looks. A six year old wouldn't have any problem holding it steady. It's a medium format camera, using 120 film to give 12 shots in 6x6cm format or 15 shots in 6x4.5cm format. The plastic lens is a 60mm, which on a medium format camera is the equivalent of a normal-wide lens - say a 35-38mm lens on a 35mm film camera. Focussing is done by turning the lens and picking the appropriate icon (person, couple, group or mountain) for the subject. A camera with a GUI! How easy is that? The viewfinder isn't an aide to focussing - it's just a window you look through. You wind the film with the noisy, manual winder and you shoot again. Wind, focus, shoot. Easy. Buy the filter pack and you can slot all sorts of goodies into the push-on filter holder: coloured filters - for black/white - and soft filters with clear centres for that fuzzy-edged look. I really must try it with the filters.

Holgas are called toy cameras but get the focussing right and choose a day when the 1/100th sec-ish shutter speed is right for the aperture (f8-ish) and you discover that it's not just a toy: it's a camera.

The Holga and the Lubitel are affectionately known as "toy cameras". Toy cameras are usually assumed to be medium format cameras, but not exclusively so. You know those tiny digital cameras that fit on keyrings? They're toy cameras. A toy camera is a camera that you shouldn't expect too much of. Generally the assumption is that a toy camera has one shutter speed and a plastic lens. It's the sort of camera you'd give a child. If they broke it, you wouldn't care.

Toy cameras are generally sold for very little money and, especially in the case of the Holga, often need assistance in the way of tape to eliminate light leaks. Why do people use them? Because (A) they're the cheapest way into medium format photography and (B) they're often capable of providing strangely and/or surreally good photos. Have a look at the galleries at toycamera.com or at digital sucks. The following is a Holga photo.



As you can see, it's pretty soft. I have some more Holga photos here.

There's a guy called Sam Liu who does amazing things with his Holga. His website is at sliu.blogspot.com. You can also find his work on photo.net although he's not active there any more. Some of the p'net photos were taken with a Rolleiflex and a Kinaflex. Just shows what you can do with very cheap cameras. It's not just the technology.

If you're a fan of twin-lens cameras (twin-lens reflexes or just TLRs), there's a fabulous thread on photo.net which contains great examples of what people can do with these cameras. Takes a little while to load but the variety is great. Well worth a look if you're into medium format.

My other photography blog, Mju-Mju is a bit limited to one type of camera. These days, I play a lot with my medium format cameras, a Lubitel 166U and a Holga CFN (the one with the coloured flash). So I thought i could have a linked blog for medium format photos, irrespective of which camera they came from. And who knows - I might not always have just a Holga or a Lubi. I used to have a Rolleiflex, which I sold and maybe I'll buy another 6x6 camera if one appears.

How about some photos? Well, as I've mentioned the Rolleiflex, let's kick off with that. This is a photo of St Paul's Cathedral in London, seen from the new "shaky" Millennium bridge. Film was probably Fuji Superia 400. The Rollei was a Rolleiflex 3.5E with a 75mm Planar lens. 75-80mm is a standard lens on 6x6 medium format photos.



This is going to be fun!