Holga 135BC 35mm Bent Corners Film Camera

Product Information

It didn’t take long for the rapidly-growing middle-class to be able to start buying the newly imported 35mm cameras instead, which meant both 120 format and Holga were left out in the cold. The Holga 135BC has two focus settings – one for portrait (P) and one for landscape (L). Rotate the focus ring on the lens barrel to select the desired focus setting. Set Shutter Speed Wan’s “107 No Man Islands” exhibition, made up of a 30-metre scroll of Holga images, at City Hall in February. Picture: Simon Wan Chi-chung 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.

And, of course, it had to be reasonably cheap to buy and operate. I’m not a millionaire-in-waiting, after all. 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.As explained earlier, there’s definitely a Holga look that these cameras give your photographs. The softness, the vignettes, and the unpredictable light leaks. For most people who shoot a Holga, that’s the whole point. Okay shotwise the answer was clear. Whilst the Roniflex had better exposure range the lens was weaker and softer for outdoor shots. Unsurprisingly it had less vignetting than the 135BC . Holga 135BC Test Shot mid distance with AVP200 The Diana Mini is a small, delicate camera which is temperamental, yet with patience and practice can produce dreamy images with soft contrasts, lovely lighting and colours with an almost magical, vintage quality.

I was going gangbusters on my old storefront project, and I was planning on continuing with it in my native Buenos Aires, where the same phenomenon of old, distinctive, non-chain commerce being razed to the ground and replaced by stores and buildings that look like any place in the world is also taking place. But here I ran into a problem: in Buenos Aires oldest and narrowest streets (likeliest to have the oldest stores in the land), the Holga 135BC put me too close to the storefronts themselves, and I had to literally stand on the street (putting my life at certain risk!) to get the shot. I realized this project might require two or three different cameras to complete, allowing for the different distances permissible for shooting depending on the place. And this is how I came to incorporate the Superheadz Slim & Wide camera into my project, but that will be the subject of a next article.

Holga 135BC Specifications

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. The second thing also comes from shooting 120 film rather than the 35mm I’m used to, and that was the feeling of depth you can get in the images.

Introduced around 2005, the Holga 135 and 135 BC are smaller versions of the original Holga 120. They keep the spirit of the original but bring it to the smaller 35mm film format. Meanwhile, the 120CFN has a colour flash, while the most alphabet-heavy Holga of them all – the 120GCFN – has a glass lens and a colour flash. Imagine that. It’s a fully manual camera that requires the user to set the exposure and focus themselves. This allows for a greater level of creative control over the images and encourages experimentation with different settings. Lightweight and portable

Look through the viewfinder to frame your shot and press the shutter button to take the photo. Wind the film to the next frame using the film advance knob after each shot. Remove Film 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. My very first, hands-on ‘Lomography’ experience was with a SuperSampler. It was at a Lomography India organized monsoon photo walk in Bombay, and it took me all of 15 minutes to get through the 36 frames I had at my disposal (yeah, I’m kinda slow like that). No viewfinder, no sweat! It was one of the most liberating photography experiences I had had until then. I took the Holga 135BC with me on a road trip to Portland, Oregon, in early 2016. I decided to use it for old storefronts and signs, which were plentiful in Portland, but I also shot with it on the road itself.

Without this unique plastic lens the Holga would undoubtedly lose her mojo. Simple as it may be this little plastic gem is responsible for radiating the Holga’s signature, otherworldly essence.This camera has 2 aperture modes- sunny and cloudy. This translates to an aperture of either f/8 or f/11. I’ve found this to be quite limiting, especially in cities like Bangalore, where I stay, that have overcast skies 3 days out of 5. I find myself having to use higher speed films which severly restricts what I can do with the camera If you want to play with a basic plastic box that will give you imperfect photographs, and you think you’ll like those photographs, go for it.