INTRODUCTION

The Holga 120SF is a medium format camera part of the Austrian lomographic movement. It was made around 2000, Holga cameras are now discontinued.

BEST SUITED FOR:

Street

Art

Lomography

Fun!

PERSONAL NOTES

The Holga 120N is in my opinion the best lomographic camera out there. At some point, I was making so much lomography that I had 2 of these in my bag.

The Holga 120SF is older, it has no tripod socket, no bulb mode, but has a build-in flash.

I tried many medium format lomography cameras, the Holga is the one that performs best. The shutter is smoother than Dianas, the lens is only sharp in the center, making these square lofi images so easy to make.

The first thing that strikes you when using a Holga, is its weight (or lack of). Because it's almost made entirely of plastic, even the lens elements), it is very light. The Holga 120 are big cameras, but they are extremely light.

The finder is a bit tight compared to the image you get, but you geet used to it.

There are sponges inside the camera that are supposed to tighten the film, but they always get caught and end up finishing within a film roll, making the advance difficult, and possibly ruining the roll.

When buying a Holga, you should remove these sponges right away. A good trick to tighten the film is to pinch a small cardboard between the film spool and the bottom of the camera body.

When loading a film, you should also tape the back to the body if you don't want light leaks. The back sometimes can fall off in broad daylight, be aware. Tape is your friend :-)

A Holga that has a built-in flash also has batteries within the film chamber. 2 drawbacks : you cannot change the batteries while you have a film loaded, and be sure to tape the batteries in place,because they will find a way of falling into the chamber. Again, tape is your friend :-)

I do photography since the 80s. In 2001, I went 100% digital. In 2006, I tried a Holga 120N. I had so much fun with this toy camera that I eventually came back to film. My last customer that specifically asked for film was in 2009, I still shoot film regularly for pleasure. The Holga 120N is the reason the I am still in love with film today.

CONCLUSION

If you want to try lomography or medium format film, get a Holga while you can.

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