Holga 120N Medium Format Film Camera Plastic Lens Black Body

Product Information

I have since used the Holga to shoot around Sydney and even took it on one of my trips to New Zealand. Now you know how to load your Holga and what to watch out for when shooting it, what kind of results can you expect if things do indeed go as planned? First – hence the note stuck to the back of the Holga I played with – is that you can shoot your whole roll of film with the lens cap on and not realise until it’s too late. I’m sure any shrewd photographer with a good creative vision could use a Holga to powerful effect and rescue it from the jaws of the shark it long ago jumped. Filters come in special effect filters, color filters, and center spot filters (which leaves a normal center, but a colored surrounding).

Grain was way less pronounced here, much deeper contrasts because of the deeper blacks that render in an almost sepia warm hue. It wasn’t quite as advertised though, because sadly the battery container was broken so there is no way of keeping the batteries in (meaning I can never use flash on this camera!If you leave your glasses on, you’ll find that when you develop your images your subject will appear further away and smaller in the frame than what you saw. Holgas are a brand of ‘toy’ camera first made in Hong Kong in the 1980s, similar to the Diana cameras that were really popular a few years back (although those originally came out in the 1960s). While many countries produced basic 120 snapshot cameras in the decades before this, the Holga's low-tech approachability and artfully-flawed optics have elevated it to a particular cult status today. Holga HL(W)-OP – A 25 mm f/8 Holga lens with Micro Four-Thirds mount, with lettering for Olympus PEN cameras.

Having shot with it on quite a few occasions I have a good feel for the look and feel of the images and it remains a firm favourite of mine in the collection (but you know already that I say that about all my cameras)! Holga cameras are also celebrated on World Toy Camera Day, which is celebrated every year on October 20. The Holga accomplishes this by being the most perfect storm of bad design and accidental ingenuity in photography. I tend to standardize on 400 speed film as, with the nearly f8 lens, full sunlight is needed for slower film.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The Holga range includes a whole range of models from half frames in 35mm to faux TLRs, and there are a multitude of colours to choose from.

After walking a little further up the track, I stood on top of a wall to grab this final shot and was more than a little surprised when two people walked past me - I’d been so wrapped up in my own thoughts, and the rain had masked sounds of their approach that it startled me at first. If you found this post helpful or if you’d like to see more of my work, I’d love it if you considered signing up for my Patreon! The slight softness of the images, vignetting and random light leaks produce dream-like, one-of-a kind images. As with another cost-reduction exercise, the Lomo LC-A, the Holga's inexpensive plastic lens gave its photographs quite a distinctive visual signature—including vignetting and pincushion distortion [3]. Meanwhile, the 120CFN has a colour flash, while the most alphabet-heavy Holga of them all – the 120GCFN – has a glass lens and a colour flash.But what may be the Holga’s greatest flaw is that its unique look has, in 2017, become anything but unique. If you want to play with a basic plastic box that will give you imperfect photographs, and you think you’ll like those photographs, go for it. If you hook up a strap to these lugs and let the camera drop around your neck, the weight of the machine will cause the latches to no longer function as latches. The focus levels are one person (1m) for a portrait, 3 people (2m), a big group of people (6m) and a mountain.

The camera has a hot shoe adapter for attaching a simple flash - unleash your nighttime creativity and take photos in the dark! Every so often when I wanted to be a little lighter hearted, I would put my Nikon away and just carry the Holga. Luckily the moulds were saved and another company Sunrise is now manufacturing several Holga models again. I’d recommend getting the one with the flash (the third one below) because sometimes it’s just too dark for the camera to capture ANYTHING with just natural light.

This could be pretty much anywhere, although the red film window is often said to be particularly vulnerable. If you are thinking of getting a Holga to open up some creativity, the 120N is a great place to start. While I’ll do my best to come up with something cool, this isn’t a professional camera so the quality or outcome of the images isn’t guaranteed. These are denoted by a cloud for the former and a sun for the latter, although how much difference this makes to the actual aperture of the lens appears to be up for debate. Alex Luyckx of Classic Camera Revival fame wrote about the fun he had with his in CCR Review 69 – Holga 120N.