Holga

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Holga

Manufacturer	Various
Camera type	Box camera
Image sensor type	Film
Image sensor size	56 mm × 56 mm
Recording medium	120 film
Lens system	60 mm plastic meniscus
Focus type	Manual zone (four settings)^[1]
Shutter speed(s)	1/100^[2] or 1/125^[1], Bulb^[1]
Aperture value(s)	f/8.0, f/11.0^[1]^[2]

The Holga is a cheap, medium format 120 film toy camera, made in China, appreciated for its low-fidelity aesthetic.

The Holga's cheap construction and simple meniscus lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions. The camera's quality problems have become a virtue among some photographers, with Holga photos winning awards and competitions in art and news photography.^[3]

1 History
2 Models
3 Lens
4 Modifications and variants
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

The Holga camera was first designed in 1982.^{[citation needed]} At the time, 120 rollfilm in black-and-white was the most widely available film in mainland China. The Holga was intended to provide an inexpensive mass-market camera for working-class Chinese in order to record family portraits and events.^[4] After the cameras began to be distributed in the West, some photographers took to using the Holga for its surrealistic, impressionistic scenes for landscape, still life, portrait, and especially, street photography. In this respect, the Holga became the successor to the Diana and other 'toy' cameras previously used in such work. A Holga photograph by David Burnett of former vice-president Al Gore during a campaign appearance earned a top prize in a 2001 White House News Photographers' Association Eyes of History award ceremony.^[3]

[edit] Models

Holga 120S - The original Holga. Fixed shutter speed, adjustable focus, plastic lens, ineffective adjustable f-stop switch, hot shoe, and 6x4.5 film mask. Although now out of production, the 'WOCA' is actually identical but with glass lens.
Holga 120N - Updated version with the same "Japanese" plastic lens, tripod mount, bulb exposure mode, an easier-to-move film counter window switch, and an additional 6x6 film mask.

Holga 120SF - A standard Holga 120S, with a flash.
Holga 120FN - A Holga 120N with a flash.
Holga 120CFN - A Holga 120FN with a color flash.
Holga 120GN - A Holga 120N with a glass lens.
Holga 120GFN - A Holga 120FN with a glass lens.
Holga 120GCFN - A Holga 120CFN with a glass lens.

35mm Holgas:

Holga 135BC - A Holga already made for 35mm film, glass lens and the same lens mount of the holgas 120 but with 45mm lens.
Holga 135PC - The pinhole version of the Holga 135 BC.
Holga 135AFX - 38 mm f/3.8 lens with infrared autofocus, automatic film load, built-in pop-up flash and interlock shutter release.
Holga K202 - Meow Kitty camera in the shape of a cat face with blinking lights

[edit] Lens

A sample Holga image showing its characteristic vignetting.

Most Holga cameras use a single-piece plastic meniscus lens with a focal length of 60 millimeters and can focus from about 1 meter/yard to infinity. There is an aperture switch on the camera with two settings: sunny and cloudy. Due to a manufacturing oversight in early production cameras, this switch had no effect, giving the Holga only one true aperture of around f/13 - although the camera may be easily modified to provide two usable apertures.^[5]

Like any simple meniscus lens, the Holga lens exhibits soft focus and chromatic aberration. Other Holga variants, denoted either by the letter 'G' in their model name, or the name WOCA, feature a simple glass lens, but are otherwise identical in construction. The circle of coverage is meant to be for a 6×4.5 format. When the camera mask is taken out and shot in a 6×6 (square) format, vignetting arises. (Holgas can also be modified to use 35mm film.)

[edit] Modifications and variants

A sample Holga image showing the 4.5 × 6 format

Holga cameras are often modified:

A Holga's interior can be "flocked" — coated with matte black paint — in order to limit the effect of light bouncing off the plastic interior from light leaks.^[6]
The Holga's aperture switch can be modified to set a large ('cloudy') and small ('sunny') aperture.^[7]
The lens, and sometimes the entire shutter assembly, can be replaced with a pinhole (the "Pinholga").^[8]
The plastic lens can be replaced with a glass version (the "Woca").
Newer models of the camera come with multiple optional frame inserts (4.5 × 6 cm and 6 × 6 cm). Shooting without an insert can lead to problems keeping the 120 size film flat against the film plane.

Some modifications permit the use of other film formats:

Holga cameras may be fitted with a Polaroid back, allowing use of Polaroid 80 series instant film, or with newer models, 100 series film (but the image is not centered). This modification, sometimes termed a "Holgaroid" or "Polga", renders the viewfinder unusable, but allows for instant Holga prints.
By sandwiching a normal 35mm roll of film into the Holga's 120 spool, "sprocket hole" exposures may be taken that expose the entire surface of 135 film.^[9]^[10]
Cameras such as the Hasselblad have been modified to make use of a Holga lens.^[11]
Holga plastic lenses have also been adapted to the Canon EOS, the Nikon f-mount, Pentax, Sony, Olympus and Minolta. An f-mount, 'melted' plastic Holga lens has been used on a digital f-mount camera while the EOS Holga has been mounted to the latest Canon DSLRs. Adapted lenses are also commercially available. ^[12] ^[13]^[14]