Holga Questions

RMThompson · Jan 5, 2007

Hey guys, I was thinking about picking up a cheap Holga 6x6 to take some pics in, but I have questions.

Without a darkroom, how can I get these developed? Can a place like Ritz or Wal Mart do them? Can they print 6X6?

What film should I use? Any reccomendations?

Do the standard ones have exposure selection?

RMThompson · Jan 11, 2007

**BUMP**

Anyone familiar with the Holgas???

mysteryscribe · Jan 11, 2007

Well i had a helga
Its one of the wicked sisters of the wicked bunch. Lots of people love the holga helga and diana. They usually have funky lenses and light leaks because they are plastic with poor fitting backs. However that said they have a cult following.

you are not going to get high quality images but some artsy looking unpredictable stuff. If you take the film to a store they will send it out for you. Expect to wait a week or so and pay a premium price. Better to take it to a one hour lab have the negs processed and then buy a cheap flat bed scanner to digitalize them.

If It were just to get a cheap 120 camera to play with and I wanted a fair quality print there are tons of used tlr cameras on ebay for very little money at the moment.

But you might be the holga cult type who knows.

newrmdmike · Jan 11, 2007

if you can find somewhere that can develop bw etc they should be able to . . .you could just buy a 35mm developing canester and develop them yourself. thats what i do.

ritz and walmart cannot do them.

i use fp4 in mine quite often

mysteryscribe · Jan 11, 2007

I think the holga shoots 120 and the question was about 6x6 so not sure a 35mm canister would do it.

freestyle sells a 120 tank and apron that works fine I use those. but I don't do color yet.

jwkwd · Jan 11, 2007

I would try a Holga, but it seems that you have to find a good one. As far as developing, perhaps a local college student would do it for you. Or even take a class so you could do it yourself.

RMThompson · Jan 11, 2007

I called around today. There is a place localy who will do the negative and print 4x4 proofs for 9.50 a roll. Plus 4 bucks for the cost of the roll, and I just dont know If I want to go back to film... although some of the effects these things do is amazing!

newrmdmike · Jan 12, 2007

my 35mm canister works with 120, just buy the plastic ones that extend

newrmdmike · Jan 12, 2007

shame on you for not doing it simply because your to lazy to process!!!!!

RMThompson · Jan 12, 2007

newrmdmike said:
shame on you for not doing it simply because your to lazy to process!!!!!

You're right. I probably will do it, when I can find a cheap Holga out there. I thought about going the "ebay" route, but I think i woudl rather find it at a flea market or something. If I get desperate Ill order a modded one online!

markc · Jan 12, 2007

newrmdmike said:
my 35mm canister works with 120, just buy the plastic ones that extend

Being picky here, but that's not specifically a 35mm canister then. They are short and won't handle 120. Most of the tanks I've seen are just "tanks" of various heights. They will hold a number of 35mm, 120, etc reels depending on their height. Some reels will pop open to accept either, but it wouldn't just be a 35mm reel then, either.

Just getting specific so that they don't end up buying something like this or this. What you are talking about is like this.

burtharrris · Jan 12, 2007

jwkwd said:
I would try a Holga, but it seems that you have to find a good one. As far as developing, perhaps a local college student would do it for you. Or even take a class so you could do it yourself.

Why not take a book out of the library and read up on your online forums?? It's free! Read Black and White Photography by Henry Horenstein. And the articles by Torus34

montresor · Jan 13, 2007

Dodd Camera in Cleveland develops 120 for me onsite, as does the MotoPhoto down the road.

Holgas are fun, they encourage you to break the rules, probably because the camera is such an indifferent piece of plastic. You don't mind pointing it at the sun or taking it out in the rain. The lens is a single element plastic thing, 65mm, which is a very wide angle for medium format. You need to get closer to the subject than the viewfinder would indicate. Rule of thumb: if the subject looks like it's exceeding the boundaries of the viewfinder, it'll be nicely framed in the negative. Be aware of parallax issues, the viewfinder is diagonally higher than the lens. There's light and focus fall-off from the center, which gives a nice vignetting effect. You need to wedge a couple of cardboard flaps from the film box underneath the spools before you start shooting, otherwise you'll get a loose wind.

Because the cruddy plastic lens is slow, you need to use a film no slower than ISO 400. If you want to shoot black and white and are having trouble finding a place that can process it, try Ilford XP2, which is a chromogenic black and white that is processed in the same way as color film, i.e., C-41. That way you may not have to have it sent out. A high-contrast film like T-Max 400 generally gives you darker results, which can sometimes be dramatic, sometimes just murky.

Look into getting a modified Holga from www.holgamods.com. Randy fixes them up a bit (interior flocking to cut down light leaks, 6x6 mask, tripod socket, remote shutter release, bulb setting for time exposures, etc.), charges maybe just a little too much for the result, but they are more reliable when they've had the modifications.

The cheapness of TLRs is relative -- a couple hundred bucks for a Rolleicord or a Mamiya C-series is not bad compared to a couple thousand for something new, but it's way more than the $20+ for a Holga. Of course, with the TLRs you're getting real glass and professional quality images, while the Holga is an aleatory crap shoot. Lots of fun, though. In my experience, the Holga images that I think will look fantastic when shooting generally turn out execrable, while the ones I wasn't so thrilled about when taking them turn out surprisingly evocative.