Other Holgas and Attachments

One nice thing about the toy camera fad is that there are a variety of weird attachments and specialized cameras you can buy that do weird things.  Holga even makes a 3D camera (which I’ve never personally used, but sounds cool). 

Two Holga varieties I have played with lately are the Holga Fisheye attachment and the Holga 35mm pinhole camera.  (By the way, if the shutter spring ever breaks on a Holga, you can make it into a pinhole camera as well very easily.  Google tutorials, there are a ton out there.)

The fisheye attachment.  

One thing I learned about this guy was that it made everything more wide angle than it will look in your normal Holga viewfinder, so be prepared to have some extra stuff included in your shot.  Not really a tragedy when shooting architecture or landscapes, but a shot of a skateboarder I took turned into a shot of a skatepark.  I got some that I love, however, here they are.

The pictures are weird, circular and bent.  As should be expected.  With this thing, my favorite shots have these great straight lines that are bent and show the effect the most.  If you Google Holga fisheyes, you can find some interesting shots of Times Square.

Next, Holga Pinhole.  Of course they went there.

 

Now, I wasn’t entirely impressed with this camera, although it was fun, for a couple reasons.  First, the Diana has a pinhole setting and removable lens, so it offers more functions in one toy camera.  Second, I thought some of my shots were too sharp.  I’ve built some pinholes that are beautifully hazy.  I’ve also built large format pinholes that are remarkably clear (upcoming post).  However, I figured the Holga would fall on the hazy side so I don’t like the shots as much.  The first shot is an example of the sharpness I don’t like.  The second is a longer exposure with a moving subject, which I do like.

One thing I will admit a pinhole is always fun for is the infinite depth of field, which you can really see in the first shot.  I doubt most cameras would have picked up both the tree in the foreground and the entire landscape in the background as clearly.

Finally, Print of the Week!

I shot this with a friends Anscoflex II.  No f-stop control, no shutter speeds.  A mint green plastic TLR designed by the guy who made the Studebaker.  The only way to “control” exposure in this scenario is with different film speeds.  I love how this shot looks really old and has a distinct lack of contrast.

I also used an enlarger that isn’t exactly meant to print 120 film, so I could slide the negative holder around a little to control vignetting, which is arguably my favorite effect.