Meet Holga

I am not talking about that beautiful Russian girl you met while traveling through Europe. I am referring to the plastic 12o film camera. Spawned from the Diana camera, the Holga has been making a name for its self steadily since the 80's. Personally I own two Holga cameras and love using them as often as I can. I was first introduced to the Holga while I was in school. Since then I have used them regularly. Labeled as a toy camera, the results that can be achieved from using the Holga are anything but that. I take using my Holga very seriously and think of it and treat it the same as my D-SLR. The growing trend of Holga cameras has led to new developments and new products being created for the Holga. What draws most people to the Holga is the blur, vignetting, and in some cases the light leaks this camera produces. This camera will by no means break the bank. At an affordable price of only $24.95 for a Holga with no flash, this camera is worth every penny spent. The Holga uses 120 film. There is an attachment you can purchase that allows you to shoot using 35mm. You can also get a Polaroid backing that allows you to use Polaroid film.

Digital Holga

With all the advances in digital photography there have been quite a lot of products hitting the market. One such product is the Holga Digital Body Cap Lens attachment. This is a cap that holds a Holga Lens and can be mounted to your D-SLR.

As I was writing this article, I came to find out that the site that sells the Holga Digital Body Cap Lens is temporarily not shipping orders. The owner of the site has been in an accident and the store is down for a few weeks.

Http://www.holgamods.com

This site has a list of mods that you can do and can be done to your Holga. The owner of the site has dedicated his life to modifying the Holga and other toy cameras. Dont let the site's store being temporarily closed deter you from visiting.

Now if you find yourself thinking, film? I don't want to shoot with film, I don't want to buy another camera or have to worry about developing film. Then I have another wonderful digital Holga trick you might find yourself downloading as soon as you're done reading this.

Adobe photoshop has an action that you can down load right from the adobe site. It mimics the look of the Holga by using an action that you can manipulate to your ideal standards or desires. This action can be found at,

adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm

A quick google.com search will also lead you to a few other great actions that are close to the result the Holga produces. Goolge Holga Simulator and you will find a whole list of actions including the Adobe one.

One of my Holga prints. 36"x36"