Tag Archives: Holga 135

{Two Rolls In} {Three Rolls In} Holga 135

September 6, 2016 9:27 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

I actually had a Holga 135 a handful of years ago, so this is not a camera that is entirely new to me. I bought one in 2011 but felt like a hipster for doing so because it came from Urban Outfitters. That inspired me to do a photo series call “Things Hipsters Like.” After running a couple of rolls through the Holga 135, a piece broke off of it, then I tried unsuccessfully to paint it a color I liked better, and that was the end of my relationship with the Holga 135. Fast forward a few years, and I started looking back at some of the photos I’d taken with that camera, and I thought “Hey, some of those were pretty cool!” Couple that with the fact that the Holga factory shut down earlier this year, and I decided that I wanted another Holga 135 while I could still get one. I found one online and bought it. It was described as “fuchsia.” My friends, it’s actually a bright neon orangey pink. It’s a LOUD color.

I was SO excited that my new Holga 135 arrived just before I left to see Mallory up in Midtown Memphis on a beautiful afternoon. I knew it would be a great day to try out the Holga!

Roll #1 was Agfa Vista Plus 200

Crosstown

I kinda went overboard photographing the cool sculpture outside Crosstown 🙂

Around Midtown

HI!

It was February, and they still had Christmas decorations up!

Roll #2 was expired Fuji Sensia 400, cross-processed

Now. This isn’t a full roll, because when I was photographing the Impala you’ll see below, someone at work saw me doing so and insisted on taking a bunch of photos of me with the car. It wasted a good bit of that roll. AND I accidentally opened the camera because I forgot there was film in it. OOPS! I was going to wait to get this roll developed, because there had been so many missteps with it, but I decided to throw it in with the most recent batch of film I sent off for processing.

Example of the aforementioned photos of me with the car…

I didn’t really think it was fair to the camera or this blog post for me to accept Roll #2 as a proper test roll, so I put a third roll through the Holga 135 for this post!

Roll #3 was Fuji Superia 400, expired in 2007

Admittedly underexposed, but they’re of SPIKE!

Como, Mississippi

Double exposure, probably in Como, Mississippi

Pro tip: don’t leave your camera in bulb mode and then take a photo in broad daylight!

HI!

Double exposure at the zoo and winner of “best of the bunch” for the photos in this blog

Another zoo double exposure

Crepe myrtles

Underexposed double exposure. But I like it?

Conclusion?

Aside from the mishaps with Roll #2, I actually am really pleased with a lot of the photos I took with my new Holga 135! Hopefully it won’t break like its predecessor did!

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography ⋅ Tagged: camera equipment, camera test, film photography, holga 135, two rolls in

Hipster Cam {Volume One}

January 21, 2012 10:40 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅ Amanda Raney

Warning: if you or someone you love is a hipster, the contents of this blog may fly all over your delicate, ironic sensibilities. Also, this was written with tongue firmly in cheek.

Hello there! Today, I present you with (what I call) “the hipster cam” – also better known as the Holga 135. If you like it when I tell you overly verbose stories about cameras and photos, then this is the blog posting for YOU!

A Holga is a cheap, plastic camera from China that originally came only in models that took medium format film (Holga 120.) I’ve been using medium format Holga cameras since 2000. More recently, however, 35mm Holga models have been on the market. I never really wanted one of the 35mm Holgas. I saw them in person because of the Holga 135 collection at Urban Outfitters – which is (in my opinion) notorious for overpriced merchandise. Fifty dollars for a plastic camera that looks like you spray-painted it in your garage?! I think not!! I was not born yesterday, people!

All of those feelings about Holga 135 cameras were true until I went into Urban Outfitters with a friend last summer. When I saw a purple Holga 135 on clearance for $20, I couldn’t get it out of my head (this happens when I see most any camera for $20 or under.) I mulled it over for a few days and ultimately went against my nature buying a Lomography camera at Urban Outfitters. Yes, Hades had frozen over.

Riddled with guilt that I may have turned into a hipster at this point, I decided the only way to make up for this lapse in my usually unfailing devotion to anti-hipsterdom was to do a photo series with the hipster cam. A series of things hipsters like, more specifically. There are soooo many things which fall into this category, so I have only begun to scratch the surface. But here are a few of the shots from two rolls I put through the Hipster Cam mostly last summer:

Things Hipsters Like , Part One

Banjos

Old typewriters

Pho Hoa Bihn

Waffle House

Farmers Markets*

Sriracha*

Gibson’s Donuts

Craft beers

So, a couple of things:

I LOOOOOVE using the Holga 120 cameras I’ve owned. Having owned the 135 since late June, I have only shot two rolls of film with it. That should tell you something. That something being that I’m not in love with it yet.
After those two rolls of film, the rewind knob’s crank lever fell off. Or broke off. Can’t remember which. Either way, I finally remembered to ask Lomography about a replacement part and was told I could exchange the camera. I sent it back last week. I didn’t like the purple one, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will return to me as a mint green or blush colored Hipster Cam.
Turns out, I like a lot of the same things I would make fun of hipsters for enjoying. See, we’re not so different after all.

*The accuracy of the viewfinder on this thing. Not so much. I did not actually compose those shots that way.

Posted in: camera equipment, film photography ⋅ Tagged: camera equipment, camera review, film photography, holga 135