While I can see the obvious benefits of 120 film over 35mm in the image quality even the Holga gave me, I don’t have any real yearning to buy any medium format camera. Not yet. Although I remember saying that about all film cameras not too long ago. When you’re confident it’s in, wind the wheel on top of the camera to pull it on further, ensuring it’s rolling on tightly to avoid, or minimise at least, light leaks. One final thing to mention here is the lens focal length. If you’re not used to shooting medium format and 60mm sounds too long and not very wide, don’t worry. That apparent contradiction comes from the fact that its features are so basic that it takes more of an understanding of how a camera works to make good photographs than it does with a camera you can use on auto mode. There’s no light meter or autofocus to help you out here. The Holga 135BC TLR allows all these feelings while shooting: the viewing window is clear and big enough to compose your shots, and for more precision, you have the rectangular frame of the picture inside the viewing glass and a little circle inside it too. This little circle, not exactly in the middle of the rectangular frame, shows you where the center of the image will be when you’re shooting close. In other words, it’s a kind of parallax correction, as the viewing lens is above the shooting lens, and for close-up shots this makes a little modification between what you frame and what the shooting lens takes on the film… You can also shoot easily from the ground or in vertical mode by turning the camera and having the viewing lens on your left or right side, or even hold the camera upside down above your head…. not always easy to frame like that, but it’s still ok!

The shutter speed of a Holga is approximately 1/100 of a second. There is the added option to put the camera in "B"; bulb setting. The bulb setting allows the shutter to stay open for as long as necessary for long exposures. This makes it possible to do night photography, getting images without a flash in low light situations or even painting with light. Both a tripod and cable release are recommended when using the Holga in the bulb setting. The Holga 135BC shoots 35mm film. Hotshoe adaptor accepts standard flash units. There’s a plethora of other Holga camera types out there, with twin lens reflex, pinhole, panoramic, stereo, 35mm, and 110 versions all made at one point or another. But even with all those, the 120N is probably what people mean if they don’t specify when they say they have a Holga. I also knew it had to be a shooting format/ style that I hadn’t used before. I’d been shooting on film for over 15 years before my Lomo plunge and in that time I’d shot extensively on 35mm SLRs and the very occasional, borrowed medium format. So I knew that satisfying this criteria was probably going to be a lot more challenging than the first one. Personally, although I enjoyed shooting the one I temporarily had and like the results it gave me, I’ve not wanted to go and buy myself one since I sent it on. It’s been a while since I did a camera review on here, as it’s not often I get a new one to play with. I suppose that while not having gear acquisition syndrome is good for my bank balance, it’s not ideal for my content production.The focal length is approximately 47mm. To focus, rotate the barrel of the lens to the icon displayed that best corresponds to the shooting situation. The focal length ranges from 3 feet to infinity. And, since Holga is a completely manual camera, film advance is all up to the photographer. After the first shot, advance the film one full frame to the next image or shoot limitless times on the same frame to create a multiple exposure. By advancing only partially, you can create panoramic or overlapping images. When I was writing my eBook on the Holga cameras, I made the assumption that I would be covering as many Holga models as I could get my hands on—medium format Holgas, that is. I would not even deign to take a look at 35mm Holgas, which I considered an afterthought and beside the point.

Holga is for those who want to create truly unique images - for those who appreciate light leaks, enjoy slight soft focus and welcome retro vignetting. Due to its simple and inexpensive design, Holga is categorized as a toy camera. The very features that personify the Holga would be considered defects in any other camera. Holga's lo-fi attributes create distinctive images not created with any other conventional camera. These are the reasons the Holga camera has gained a huge following.

While these films must take much of the credit, the Holga didn’t let them down when it came to contrast with the Shanghai GP3 and colours with the Lomography.