The Holga

I became interested in the Holga when I saw pictures I liked on Flickr and discovered they were taken with this camera. My digital camera seemed limited for taking the kinds of pictures I now wanted to shoot. I remember what fun I'd had as a kid using a Brownie camera. The Holga seemed like a similar camera. Since the Holga is relatively inexpensive (under US$50) I have several of them.


The Holga camera is all plastic including the lens.




The cameras don't stand up straight. I did mention they don't cost much. Their sister the Woca (same camera but with a glass lens) joins them at the local laundromat. My kitchen table seemed an uninteresting place to photograph them so we went on an outing to the laundromat. Laundromats are one of my favorite places to take pictures.

The Holga was originally designed in Hong Kong and made in the late 60's as an inexpensive camera for Mainland China. In recent years the Holga has become popular with photographers who value it for the interesting photos they can take with it.

In addition to taking interesting photos I also discovered just how sturdy this camera is. While shoveling the sidewalk after a recent snowfall I set my camera down in my driveway so I wouldn't forget to take it indoors with me. The guy who plows our driveway pulled in. I watched in horror as he drove up the driveway. My Holga disappeared in the snow in front of his plow. But.....


the Holga survived.




And fell over!

The camera and film were fine!


I couldn't resist another snow picture.


To be continued....