Holga Lens on a Canon 300D

[Wally]

After a lot of trial and error, I finally figured out how to modify a "high quailty" all plastic Holga "toy camera" lens to work on my Canon 300D. I had just enough light after the glue dried to snap a quick pic at 1600 ISO.

Here it is

If you do not know what a Holga is, they are all plastic cameras made in China. They take 120 medium format film and are very popualr in the art B&W side of things. I have been wanting to do this for a while, and I found a few obscure webpages that hinted it could be done. And it can.

Here is what the lens looks like

If anyone is interested I can post a how to in the how to boards so you can do it yourself.

 

[Chase]

Ok, my feeling on this is somewhere between it being very scary and very cool....I'll have to get back to you on my final decision!

 

[AIRIC]

Ok, my feeling on this is somewhere between it being very scary and very cool....I'll have to get back to you on my final decision!

Eric

 

[Meysha]

Oh my god! You are awesome!! Please please please tell us how!

But does this mean I'll have to buy another Holga... I love my baby I've got at the moment - and that looks like you've destroyed yours. I'll have to buy another one to destroy, i mean - make better.

 

[Wally]

Oh my god! You are awesome!! Please please please tell us how!

But does this mean I'll have to buy another Holga... I love my baby I've got at the moment - and that looks like you've destroyed yours. I'll have to buy another one to destroy, i mean - make better.

It was really quite easy. I used a Holga 120N but I think it will be the same for all holgas. Take the back off and you will find 2 tiny screws that hold the lens on. Unscrew them and the whole lens/shutter assembly will come off. Then you will see two more tiny screws that hold on the shutter unscrew them also. Then you will find one more tiny screw down inside a tube that holds the lens barrel onto the lens assembly. Unscrew that and the lens barrel will pop off. The outside of the lens barrel is exactly 1" around. (I thought a camera from China would be metric??) anyway just drill a 1" hole in a body cap and insert the barrel. Then move the barrel out and in until it is focused on infinity, when it is just super glue it all together.

I thought I had this lens perfect but I made it just a touch nearsighted. So eveything from about 5-10 feet away is in focus (at least for a Holga lens). I found tonight out playing that this is a good thing for certain shots. So I will just make another one for infinity. You can put one together for about $25.00 or less.

Here is another from tonight