Holga 120wpc – A Super Review by Roberts Birze
The Holga 120 WPC may seem a little odd or ridiculous but it actually takes pretty stunning shots as Rob will show (and tell)
The first thing to understand about the Holga 120wpc is that it is wide. Really, really, really wide. So wide in fact that the plastic of the body around the pinhole opening may show up in your images creating a hard vignette.
Some people assume that the protruding plastic flange which acts as the lens cap holder is the thing that gets in the way, but from my experience it’s not. Hack away at the plastic around the pinhole opening with a sharp craft knife to open it up. Check this picture.
The protruding plastic flange may not have any more use than to serve as a sort of hood to shield the pinhole from sideways light and to hold the lens cap, but it also can be used to hold a filter in place. I have shaved away a bit of the inside of the flange and now a 49mm filter fits with a little bit of force. It doesn’t result in noticeable additional vignetting, but stacking two filters will. It would probably be a lot easier to glue a stepping ring to the front of the camera rather than forcing the filter on the flange.
The extreme wideness means that you need to get in closer than you might think to your subject. Experiment and get close and then closer than you think you should be. As with all pinhole cameras, the depth of field is massive, so everything in front of it will be in focus.
Exposure will be something that you will be able to start guessing after a while in given situations.
In Australia in bright sun, I found that 1/2 sec is around about OK for ISO100 film. It might sound obvious, but meter off the scene using a light meter or camera with a light meter in it and go from there. To work out the reciprocal shutter speed, simply work out the difference between the f stop you metered with and f135 (or so). For example using f16 will require a 6 stop adjustment (count f22, f32, f45, f64, f90, f128 close enough to 6 stops). Just remember to meter off at f16, take a note of the shutter speed and calculate +6 stops. Alternatively, print off a table from www.mrpinhole.com
To get good cloud streaks, flatten out the sea, make waterfalls smooth and make people and moving vehicles disappear, you may want to slow down the exposure time by using a neutral density filter. I use an ND08 (3 stops) and ND1.8 (6 stops), but find I use the ND1.8 more often to get into the 1minute + exposure times. For anything more than 1/2 sec, remember to compensate for reciprocity failure if required.
A general rule of thumb is to keep the camera totally level using the spirit level in the camera. However, sometimes the scene may call for something else like having the horizon in the top or bottom third of the frame. Sure, the images are so huge from this camera that cropping is no problem, but it can be done in camera as well with the help of a tripod with angle markings. Set up the camera so it’s level and then simply angle the tripod head up or down 20 degrees. This should theoretically get your horizon somewhere around the top or bottom third. If it doesn’t, then crop or try again.
Check out more from Rob
And don’t forget his Holga 120WPC Set
