120 medium format camera with plastic lens, no internal flash and hotshoe mount for external flash.

This Holgaglo Glows in the Dark! is the second special limited edition model to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Holga. There are four brightly coloured models; Aura Orange, Infra Red, Solar Yellow and Ultra Violet. If sufficiently exposed to sunlight these models will glow in the dark in different shades of eerie green.

 

The Holga 120 is the quintessential “toy camera”. First produced in Hong Kong in the 1980s it was designed as a simple, cheap compact for the Chinese market. Originally designed for 35mm it was changed into a 120 medium format camera because of the local glut of 120 roll film at the time.

Because of this change of format the Holga 120 vignettes with a soft black edge around the picture and its cheap plastic lens creates soft, dreamy images. The controls are very simple; two aperture settings for sunlight and darker conditions/flash and four focus settings from close up to infinity. Later models have a tripod thread and B long exposure setting.

Quality control is not the best, some cameras may leak light and need sealing with gaffer tape and lens quality may be different from batch to batch. What this means is that no two Holgas are ever quite the same.

The Holga 120 is an easy and cheap way to get into medium format photography with the basic Holga 120N model costing £29.99 compared with the hundreds or thousands of Pounds you can pay for a new professional medium format camera.

The quirky Holga allows for creative photography with the more detailed images possible with the larger 120 negative combined with the unpredictable effects of a low quality lens. The Holga has many fans worldwide who appreciate its eccentricities, even a photographer as technically  accomplished as Michael Kenna uses them and Daido Moriyama produced a book; T-82entirely shot with a Holga equipped with a Polaroid Filmholder.

There are now more than a dozen versions of the Holga and numerous accessories so there are a number of factors when choosing your Holga.

120 or 35mm format model? The classic Holga is medium format but a number of 35mm models are available. 35mm film is easier to buy and process in many more establishments than 120 film. However, as 35mm is the correct format for the lens the Holga 135 does not vignette. As this is a feature of Holga images liked by many users Holga have created 135 Black Corner (BC) models. These have black corner film masks so that images vignette; in effect they are designed to make the camera work badly. Holga 135models are not available with a glass lens or internal flash.

Plastic or glass lens? The Holga is known as a plastic camera with a plastic lens but some 120 models are available with a glass rather than plastic lens. Some users say the glass lens makes a big difference in image quality while others say it does not. While a glass lens would normally be sharper than a plastic lens the Holga lens is not the sharpest to start with and has been described as more of a meniscus than a lens. Add in poor quality control during manufacture and the glass lens cannot be guaranteed to be better than a plastic one.

Internal or external flash? Holga 120 cameras are available with an internal flash or without an internal flash and a hotshoe mount for external flash units. An internal flash is more convenient but the Holga flash is not that powerful. Holga produce a range of flash units including a strobe, slave and ring flash. Please note that not all of the Holga range of flash units and flash equipped cameras are European Union Rights of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) compliant. This means that the Bookshop cannot sell some models and that all others must be RoHS compliant which increases the cost of production.