Raise your hand if you know Holga. I didn't have much more than a vague awareness of their existence until I met my partner, who is an amazing photographer with an affinity for film. Pretty sure it was on one of our early picturing outings that I first met Holga. Holga has accompanied us on many more since and I've grown rather fond of it's particular aesthetic. Had my eye on a Holga lens for DSLRs on B&H for a while but the Nikon one was always out of stock and I'd largely forgot. Needed something to make the 'send me your wishlist' harassment stop and remembered Holga, and in a twist of fate B&H fooled me and got some in. Got one yesterday and went on a jaunt to try it out today.
The lens is just a piece of plastic so I wasn't sure how things would develop. It made the viewfinder much more dark and difficult to see through and my Nikon kept showing f0 but I was able to make it work with a mixture of Live View and the old shoot'n'look. It was manual focus, if you're feeling a bit generous in how you define focus, but I think the softness is in keeping with how Holga intended.
All the Christmas lights, inflatable yard decorations, and nativity scenes take on a grotesque, surreal air when you remember that our solution for having nowhere to go here is to make it illegal.
It rained all morning and was still overcast when I went wandering, terrible light for shooting with an actual Holga but I was able to jack up the ISO and make it work, so there's something to be said for newfangled electronic doohickeys.
Still getting used to shooting with the Holga lens but have rather enjoyed the results thus far. Debating popping it onto my old D5000, see if the crop sensor would make for less vignetting and a little more range than the fixed 60mm meniscus lens normally has.
That's enough for one day. Anybody else used the Holga or a Holga lens?
