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Holga Cam?
I just got a Holga cam as a early birthday gift,and I was wondering if anybody on here has had any experience with them,and or tips on shooting with them? I'm a doll artist by trade and do modeling as a side project really,and I thought a Holga would take cool shots of some of my fine art dolls,since it gives allot of the shots a surreal feel. The Holga I got doesn't have a flash on it,and it uses 120 film.Any pros/cons or using your own lighting VS using a flash on it,and is it better use it in it's "natural state" or to get a 135 adapter for it. Again I'm going for a more surreal,as apposed to a true to life look with the pic's.So any tips would be appreciated. -Ugly Shyla Dec 02 05 02:56 am Link Dec 02 05 03:48 am Link Yes, I have one and I love it! You'll have a blast with the Holga. Just bear in mind it is not a traditional camera. It began life as a child's toy and has lots of technical issues, many of them leak light, have lens flaws (sometimes many lens flaws) and it considers exposure to be approximate. But all those 'flaws' are why it is so liked by a lot of photo artists. Yes, the pix it gives you will be "cool" and "funky". Try to use it in bright light as it really does not like flash too much. Experiment with it, play with it, you'll be surprised by the results it gives, just don't expect the results to be traditional. Dec 02 05 10:22 am Link I would rather make a pinhole camera than deal with that piece of crrraaamera!! LOL!! Dont you put the film in backwards of something!! Dec 02 05 12:20 pm Link Basically the Holga is "suppose" to shoot at f/8 at 1/100th. of a second, therefore full sunlight or release the shutter twice with a steady camera for f/4. The suckers leak light like crazy so a bit of gaffers tape is in order around the back if you are not wanting that effect. If you want the light leak effect I would at least put a little tape on the back to keep it from popping open unexpectedly, actually with the Holga you kind of expect the back to pop open. The viewfinder is just a suggestion, what you are shooting is a complete mystery until you developed your film. Forget about really knowing just how many shots you have taken with the plastic devil as number on the frame indicator is just some nasty little joke of an approximation. Great fun and cheap camera, part camera, part frustration in the guise of a camera, but for under $20 so feel free to buy a few and modify them, smash them, try shooting under water with them, whatever. Have fun. See: http://www.argonauta.com/html/holga_cameras.htm http://www.apogeephoto.com/july2001/pla … stic.shtml Dec 02 05 12:38 pm Link The beauty of the Holga is that it is a toy and you can play with it. I think you can get an idea of the quality of the plastic bodied, plastic lensed, poorly manufactured piece of crap that Holga puts out. NOW... get creative with it. I got a deal on a dozen of them once and did some playing around. They all shot differently from one another. The light leaks and lens distortions are different from camera to camera. A couple of them worked well. A few had really bad problems. The sites listed above have some really cool tips for shooting with them. The shutter is a cheap spring. The aperature is what it is. I recomend a film with a REALLY wide lattitude. At least 3-4 stops. Shooting slide film with one of these would be insane. (nothing wrong with being insane) My best results came from Fuji NPC which I think is called Fuji Pro now. Very wide lattitude and excellent color quality. Most B&W films have a fairly wide lattitude as well. The hotshoe does work well, and you can use a pro light rig with it. I just thought that was funny. Also... try baking one in the oven at about 200 for 1/2 hour or so. It melts the lens and camera just enough to get some REALLY funky distortions and leaks. Shoot your film quickly though, or it will fog like crazy. Try taking part of the back off for a larger negative with some interesting vignette. Anothr cool thing... the shutter and winding are independent of one another... You can easily do some really cool stuff with double exposures. You can even wind half way and layer exposures. It's a toy... PLAY WITH IT! Dec 02 05 01:29 pm Link Thanks for the info.Especially about the flash.I already have a little bit of lighting,so I didn't want to have to start searching out Flashes for it,if it was best not to use one.I'm not that fond of flash in the first place,and when you are shooting something like a 14 inch doll it's a real pain in the butt,and just ends up burning everything out.So I was wondering about the whole flash VS lighting thing. Doug Lester wrote: Dec 02 05 09:14 pm Link Agree with some other posters that the key to this camera is to play. It's a toy camera, and toys are meant to be played with. Also, those that get really serious about this type of photography often have several of these. Because of the shoddy manufacturing techniques, each lens and body is unique and has its unique abberations. They get to know how each one "messes up" the image and grab the one that messes it up the best in each particular case. Not that you have to get that serious with it to have some fun with it, and perhaps make some beautiful imagery from it. Dec 02 05 09:20 pm Link I wish they would make a digital Holga! Maybe that's what Lensbabies are. Dec 03 05 12:37 pm Link Here's some stuff you can do with your Holga: http://www.jmxphoto.com/toy/hlinks.shtml Remember Holga Pics can be creepy! http://www.jmxphoto.com/galleries/creepy.shtml One thing I would recommend is really only using 400 speed film in it (specificly Ilford Delta 400) because of its wide exposure latitude and the Holga's limited exposure options. Another reccommendation is to get a rinky, little, old, single battery, strobe and slap it on the holga, use it all the time. Dec 03 05 02:05 pm Link Dec 03 05 02:16 pm Link I agree with the recommendation to use 400 speed film with it, and negative, not chrome. As far as B&W goes, you really cannot get any better for this purpose than Kodak Tri-X. Seriously. That's as wide a lattitude and as flexible an emulsion as there is. Much more so than the modern t-grain style emulsions. For color, almost any 400 speed C41 film would do the trick, then it's a question of preference. Dec 03 05 02:19 pm Link JMX Photography wrote: Ilford makes a Delta 3200 asa that gives fantastic results... Dec 03 05 02:21 pm Link How many megapixels is a Holga? Dec 03 05 04:01 pm Link ericphotonyc wrote: Using odd math, being the Holga shoots 120.. And using the Hassy H1d is a medium format digital counter part. I'd low ball guess 22mp.. Dec 03 05 04:08 pm Link Cool I will have to look for that then.I haven't gotten any film for it yet,because I need to take a trip out of town to go get some.So I will pick up a few rolls of that and try it out  Marko Cecic-Karuzic wrote: Dec 04 05 03:45 am Link Those are really great!I love the sort of silent film feel they sort of have to them.Cool I will have to grab a strobe when I go grab some film for it.I wasn't to sure about the whole lighting situation,since so many of my doll are under 14 inches.Sometimes flash just burns them out. Melvin Moten Jr wrote: JMX Photography wrote: Ilford makes a Delta 3200 asa that gives fantastic results... Dec 04 05 03:48 am Link |
