Okay, so, I'm not nearly as good about updating a website that I pay good money for each month as I should be. But, here's to change, because with the 25 dollar amazon gift certificate that my aunt and uncle gave me for Christmas, I managed to pick up one of these:
A Holga. From Lomography. They sell crazy cameras, most of which are made of plastic and are very cheaply made. Some of which take more than one picture on a single frame of film. This one, for all intents and purposes, is a basic camera. Kind of. The Holga is not like a regular film camera in a few ways. First and foremost, most film cameras take 35mm film. I have one that does take 35mm film, but it's a piece of crap Fujifilm camera that would cost you about 2 dollars at a flea market. The Holga takes 120 format film. It's essentially huge film, you can take up to 16 pictures on a roll of it, and it isn't in a container in any way. It's just film on a paper backing that rolls onto a spool, at which point you drop it off for development somewhere.
So far the only place I know of that can develop the film it uses is the Motophoto in the next town over. CVS can't do it, not even through send-out service to Kodak's Qualex Lab in Allentown. Well, I could theoretically run it through the 1-hour machine at CVS and get the negatives done but with no way to print them that would be a waste.
I think I took the pictures wrong anyway, my theory is that when the pictures come back, each frame will slightly overlap with the next one, resulting in one really really big panoramic shot of a bunch of shit.
But anyway, the details of the camera are important I guess. Here's what you need to know.
The Holga is a very cheaply made camera. It's famous for light leaks and the back falls off at the slightest provocation. The aperture switch doesn't do anything, it's just there. The model I have came with an adapter for 35mm film if I so choose to us it. It also has a multi-colored flash. I can switch it between White, Yellow, Red and Blue at my liking. It came with a roll of 120 format film, which is next to impossible to load your first time. The clickwheel for advancing the film doesn't stop when it's at the next frame. It keeps going until I stop turning. Also, the clickwheel and shutter aren't linked so I can advance the film without taking a shot, or, after taking multiple shots on one frame. It has a manual focus, and is rather large and klunky. It's really interesting.
Once I get the negatives developed, I'll scan them and post them here.
Let's hope I did things right.
