Digital Holga

Okay SO, as most of you might know I'm obsessed with my little toy Holga camera, and it will always hold a place in my heart. BUT, you imagine my excitement when I found out a guy had created Holga lenses to mount onto DSLRs! I knew it would never look the same as my actual Holga, because what makes the Holga look so unique are the light leaks and strong vignettes, something I knew this lens wasn't capable of. Nonetheless I decided to buy it for the $40, and waiting eagerly for it to arrive. When it finally did, I was severly disappointed in how the pictures looked so...un-holga like on my Canon 40d. It wasn't crappy enough to look good, and obviously isn't sharp enough to look good either. Just somewhere in the lukewarm middle of those that left me sighing heavily.

Then someone suggested to me the reason why it might not look good is because I was shooting on a cropped sensor and not a full frame...therefore the vignette and other focus effects aren't showing their true colors.

Well I recently got the glorious 5d Mark II back from my brother yesterday to shoot with while I'm in Colorado (YAY!) and slapped the Holga lens on it (yes, a plastic lens on a $3200 camera) and was MUCH happier with the results. Not only did the full frame make a huge difference, but with the Holga lens you don't have aperture settings: it reads "00" on your LCD screen, so you NEED a camera that has higher ISO capabilities otherwise you can't shoot in anything less than BDE. Plus having a higher ISO mimics (to a certain extent) the film grain you see on medium format film.

SO, in short, if you looking into buying one of these, I recommend having a 5d Mark II or other camera with higher ISO capabilities. Know the the focusing is annoying, (you have to literally unscrew the lens and pull it away from the body for a close-up), and you don't have F-stop control. But if you can look past these set backs, I think you'd enjoy this $40 lens for creative purposes. Above are examples of some quick shots I did just now...