Warning: Low Tech Camera Geeking

Those of you who know a little about the photography that I do, know that almost everything I show is shot with a “Holga” – a super-cheap medium format camera produced in China. The Holga is famous for it’s crappy construction, of which everything is made of plastic except maybe a spring, otherwise is all plastic – including the lens. Oh yeah it’s best if I tape the camera shut so light stays out as well.

Lately I have found out that there is a Polaroid back for the Holga (quick note: A back is a fancy name for a film holder) I thought why not try to marry up two kinds of oddball approaches and see what happens (clearly others have done this before me). So I did a bit of web searching and found a site with them in stock, plunked down the cash (or whatever the equivalent of plunking down cash over the internet is) and waited for the UPS man to show up. I received a new piece of plastic and metal that is about 400 times better engineered than the camera – so I was interested.

I’ve shot a box of film this weekend and have a few images that I think are interesting – certainly these all need some refinement – and probably need to be re-shot. I think the effect is real dreamlike in that the images are soft and while I have an idea that I think will be a great match only time will tell. I’ve uploaded a few of the test photos today so you can get an idea of what I mean.

The only real issue with the Polaroid back is that it completely covers the camera’s viewfinder, which means you have to estimate your shot – not a huge problem since the approach is so exact to start with (HA!). The other drawback is that the camera with back is quite bulky not heavy – but bulky. Insanely bulky.

I do love the name of Polaroid-Holgas though – Holgaroids.

I bought mine at www.unsaleable.com

One quick note – I’m shooting these full size to the Polaroid paper which accounts for a pretty heavy vignette (those dark corners)