Holga

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The Holga the medium format toy camera that recently became ultra popular. It is quite cheap and poorly made. Everything in the camera is plastic including the lens, and this leads to blown out, wild looking photos with plenty of light leaks. The worst optics ever produce some of the most striking images - this is lomography at its best.

You can get Holgas modified to do different things by giving them different features. For instance some modded Holgas can shoot 6x6 and some only 6x4.5, others have been modded to include cable releases, tripod mounts, and even to shoot 35mm film. Holgamods.com explains the common mods and what they do. ToyCamera.com is a very active toy camera (Holga, Diana, what have you) crew with forums, tips, galleries, etc.

Loading film into the camera is notoriously difficult and its often hard to tell whether its loaded correctly until the whole roll has been shot and developed. The back is also prone to falling off half way through a shoot, exposing the film, so its a good idea to tie the back on using velcro or elastic bands. The shutter release is placed beside the lens as opposed to the standard place which can be confusing for first time shooters.

Recently, Holgas have become available in a kit form which acknowledges and even celebrates their low-tech nature. The kit includes a manual that details the camera's idiosyncrasies, as well as a roll of black tape for taping up light leaks -- though the manual notes that many Holga devotees regard light leaks as part of the camera's signature style.


Holga Camera Models

  • Holga 120S - The default Holga camera.
  • Holga 120SF - A standard Holga 120S, with a flash.
  • Holga 120N - featuring a tripod mount and bulb mode.
  • Holga 120FN - A Holga 120N with a flash.
  • Holga 120CFN - A Holga 120FN with a color flash
  • Woca 120G - Woca is a Holga with a glass lens.
  • Woca 120GF - A glass-lens Woca with a flash.

There is also a Polaroid CB80 Camera Back for Holga available for the Holga to shoot full-size images onto Polaroid peel-apart films.

Links