31 January 2006
Holga time
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.
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.
# posted by Joe Tarrant @ Tuesday, January 31, 2006 
