So I bought a new camera this morning...

Check out these specs:

Plastic 60/8 Optical Lens
The heart and soul. A dead-simple multi-element plastic lens that makes colors radiate and makes total image sharpness take a brief holiday. You can also expect a bit of vignetting (darkening) around the edges – especially on a sunny day. The focal length is approximately equal to 38mm on a standard 35mm camera – so it's a little bit wider than the normal perspective.

120 Medium Format Film
From glossy fashion magazine covers, to dead-serious landscape shots, to the "Electric Slide" dance at Uncle Bob's wedding, the camera of choice if very likely to be medium format. Created by the Kodak company in 1898, medium format film has filled the guts of professional cameras for well over 100 years. At four times the size of 35mm film, it offers amazing resolution and deep, fantastic colors. A typical 120 print has an incredible richness and depth that no 35mm image can touch.

Built-In Colorflash
A beautiful and recent feature resulting from the success of our 35mm Colorsplash cameras. A little wheel sits around the powerful built-in electronic flash and allows you to choose a red, yellow, or blue filter to tint your burst of flash light. It's mad fun at night or during the day (as a fill flash). There's a clear filter too for those days when you want to keep it real.

Uncoupled Advance and Shutter
After you shoot an image, you can choose to advance it one full frame, a partial frame, or not advance at all. 120 film shows its exposure count on the back, and you can read it through a little red window on the rear door. This feature allows you to shoot limitless times on the same frame (multiple exposures) and advance only partial frames to create a semi-panoramic overlapping image. Hooray!

Variable Shutter Speeds
You lucky duck. You get two to choose from. The standard daytime speed of 1/125 second or the exotic long-exposure "B" setting – where you can hold the shutter open for as long as you want. Use "B" to capture dazzling night images without a flash. Pair the "B" setting with a flash shot to freeze your sharp, flashed subject in front of a streaming, glowing background. Team the "B" setting with a tripod (via the bottom tripod thread) for a sharp night portrait.

Variable Aperture
A little weather guide helps you out. Choose f/11 for sunny shots and f/8 for cloudy and nighttime shots. Pretty easy, that one.

Zone Focus
Fun, fabulous, and very fast. The lens has four focus settings – portrait, small group, big group, and infinity. Guess as best you can and fire away!

 

Uh...Yep!....Sure!....B&H....Yep!

Under $50 shipped Tim- I saw them for about $35 on Ebay but decided to splurge. ; :

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/369379-REG/Holga_146120_120CFN_Fixed_Focus_Camera.html

I am completely addicted to the look of 35mm film drug through a Holga by the way. ; Like a pano and with the whole film exposed- sprocket guides and all.

Not mine- but well- soooo cool. ; 8)







http://www.flickr.com/groups/sprocket_holes/pool/

 

Cool- I know.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK9iBKoQYik[/youtube]


[sub]Ed Note: ; Youtube BBC code added![/sub]

 

That is Super Cool Jeff. Can you point me to the link for that purchase. Never mind, I just saw you said B&H. Don't I recall seeing that link somewhere around this site : LOL.

 

Cool! I think the website 7photographyquestions.com just did a podcast on those.

 

very intriguing, those photos have a nice feel to them

 

So why the obsession about taping everything? ; I don't know about that camera, but that red window seems similar to something that my mom's Zeiss (the camera I made a post about a little while ago) has. ; There it can be closed. ; Does the Holga not properly close and seal off, does it not close at all? ; And what about taping the top and bottom of the back plate? ; Surely it would have to be light sealed already, why would using a smaller format film require extra sealing?

It's an interesting thought, I could try this with my mom's camera for a lark. ; And to see what kind of a reaction I could get from the staff of the photo lab at Costco (they're cheap, I don't pretend they're the ultimate source for quality, but dang they're a cheap way to get film processed and scanned onto CD). ; Oh I know, having it scanned there wouldn't capture the look of this trick, but I could still see how the antique Zeiss optics compare to, perhaps, a test shoot on my old Pentax, or maybe I could bring my mom's old Olympus (another fully manual SLR) out of retirement.

Otherwise I still need to look further to find a local option for having 120 film processed, or else I'll have to resign myself to having to mail it in somewhere.

 

From what I read about the tape- if shooting 35mm in the Holga the red window HAS to be taped because because 35mm film does not have a paper back like 120 does. ; Some folks also tape the camera up more to prevent light leaks in general- while others say the light leaks are part of the camera's charm and interestingness- while yet others lament that the new Holga's sadly do not leak nearly enough light like the old ones did.

Here is an interesting article about David Burnett winning the 2001 White House News Photographers' Association's Eyes of History contest with a Holga image of Al Gore.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ph ... 010706.htm

 

Great article. Thanks for sharing the link.

 

Very Cool! ; I never would have thought about running 35mm film through a medium format camera to expose the entire strip of film...

 

This is going to be fun- I can tell already. ; 8)

 

Sort of looks like you would expect to pull the lens cap, press the shutter & have a stream of water squirt some unsuspecting subject. ; ;D Amazing what can be produced from such an average looking device.

 

Some Pictures!

Ca$h for Clunkers-

Super-Cheap CVS 200 Speed 35mm Film (Like $1 a roll 8) )
Scanned on an Epson V300








I use to want one of these soooo bad....






Not a clunker- but I guess if you want to give up your clunker and donate a pint at the same time. ;

 

That's awesome!