It’s been a couple of years since my original medium format film Holga died but last year I spent the princely sum of around £10 on a plastic holga lens with a micro-4/3 mount. A genius bit of kit. It’s not quite the same as using an original film Holga as it lacks the light leaks and wind-on errors that made original Holga images so much fun in a lucky dip kind of way.. but the lens itself is genuine Holga and comes with all the same desirable attributes – distortion, softness, vignetting and so on. I decided last night that a number of the Holga images I have might be considered interesting enough to go in a dedicated gallery in my portfolio… so that’s what I did. Some of the original Holga images are in there (and a couple of sneaky Lomo pictures too) but most are more recent efforts using the Holga lens on a digital body. My favourites mostly come from last summer on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides.. a particularly special place and relevant also in that I’m really excited to be returning there in a couple of months time. I figure there’s no harm in reproducing those favourites below as I have quite a number of new readers. If you’re sufficiently interested in seeing the whole collection it’s a menu selection in my portfolio here, I’ve also modified the code so now it opens the most recently updated gallery by default.
Its interesting how a lack of quality can create mood yet we all still spend thousands of pounds on the best lens’ & more megapixels, myself included.
Some nice pics there Mike :)
hilarious isn’t it, over the years some of the most fun times I’ve had with a camera have been with $20 toy cameras. With respect to the Holga lens, now wouldn’t it be ironic if it was available in a Leica M-mount.. :-)
Leica Mount LOL, now you’re dreaming.
Mike – you ever used an Agfa Isolet – 6×6 fold out range finder camera. I think my luckiest cameras ever. Tmax 400 rated at 1600 every time.
not an Agfa but not a million miles from that back in the 90’s I had a Voigtlander (the original, not the current japanese back brand) Bessa 1 folding MF rangefinder to play with. I swapped it for a Fuji GW670 rangefinder.. subsequently sold. I did recently (well 2009) have a chance to wrtite a test report for the current Voigtlander Bessa III folder, really liked that camera, would still like one but can’t afford it.
i definitely like these! and im glad i have a holga on the way. lack of quality? i dont see these shots lacking anything! haha. gret work
hehe, cheers. Have fun with your Holga!