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I ran across references to Holgas first on
eBay and then later did some in-depth searching on Holgas when my curiosity got the better of me.
 A Holga is a plastic 120 film camera that is cheap, cheap, cheap and built like it. There is no cheaper way to get into medium format
photography. There’s also controversy over the Holga, with many people dismissing it as a cheap plastic toy camera, and many others taking astonishingly unique photos with it in spite
of light leaks and considerable variation from camera to camera in lens quality, shutter speed, and f/stops. Think of the Holga as a rangefinder version of the
Kodak Brownie and you won’t be too far off the mark.
I wondered about using a Holga for pinhole
photography. Given the $15 cost of the camera, I would have no reservations about cutting them up to suit my purposes. So I
ordered three from the Maine Photographic Workshops. The nice folks there even include a fat rubber band to keep the back from popping off unexpectedly.
The Holga has one shutter speed - approximately 1/100th of a second. With a steady camera, you can fire the shutter
multiple times to build up exposure.This won’t work for pinhole or long duration photos, so the shutter needs to be modified. This article tells you how to modify the shutter to stay open as long as
you hold the shutter button down, and also how to modify the shutter so that it opens by pushing the shutter button down and closes by pulling the shutter button back up (no
need to hold the shutter button down).
Throw away that spool!
A convenient take up spool comes with your new Holga. Throw it away. Now. Trust me. Find another spool or pull one off
an expired roll of film. The picture below should explain it all. For those of you new to 120 film and medium format photography, the paper backing is supposed to make a light-tight seal with the
spool so the film underneath is not exposed to light. The gap shown here allows light to leak in and expose the edge of the film. This is not good.
Setting the film window
A classic user interface blunder was made with the Holga back. You can shoot 16 exposures per 120 roll in 6x4.5cm format or
12 exposures in 6x6 format, and the Holga back comes with a handy selector. Pay attention: the number of exposures is NOT next to the red window. The number of
exposures is pointed to by the arrow on the switch.
The following photo is what you get if you show the red window by the “12” on the right (switch in ”16” position). Your first clue
is when “13” shows up in the window next to the “12” marked on the plastic...
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with questions or comments about the web site.