Holga 135BC Reviews
Posted by Bengt Köhler Sandberg 2014-12-02 Made in China by LOMOGRAPHY. Specs: Lens: Plastic 47mm f/8 Closest Focus: 1m (3.3ft) Aperture: f/8 to f/11 Shutter: 1/100s + B (Bulb) Light meter: None Battery: None Flash: Yes, hot shoe Weight: 175g Takes 135 film Operating
Viewfinder: Very simple and small but still works quite good and are bright. Image quality Build quality This is a so called toy camera so you probably don't buy this for its build quality. But it is all plastic and also very cheap plastic at that. So it really feels like a toy. Usability A very simple camera and settings for exposure control are very limited. To get a good exposure usually requires that you use a film ISO that fits well with the light conditions. ISO 100 film work usually well in bright sunlight and ISO 400 for a cloudy day etc. All this is quite common with cameras like this and it has its charm. Plus the limitations can also be a good way to make you think more before shooting. Filters can also be very usefull. Example is to use a ISO 400 film all the time. No filter in bright sun will overexpose the frame about 2-3 stops. So in these conditions you can use a ND or for b&w film orange or red filter which removes 2-3 stops depending on the filter. You can now use the same roll even if the weather turns gray and you cover more light conditions. However one problem is that this camera don't have any filter thread. Not a huge problem because you can quite easily modify the cameras so it can. Here is a little youtube how I did this on my copy: http://youtu.be/lL3c_DXLNF4 Another common way is to use 49-52mm step up filter which don't require any filing etc. Conclusion I had a lot of fun using this camera and I like it very much. It's optical lens is made of plastic so image quality are much as expected. Horrible from a technical point of view but very nice when it comes to image feel. There are two versions of this cameras, the Holga 135 and the Holga 135BC which is the one I have tested here. BC stands for Black Corners and this adds quite heavy vignetting in the images which the non BC ver don't have. This camera is also more or less a shrunken version of the original Holga which use medium format 120 film. The original have a amazing image feel and is one of my favorite toy camera. Comparing a standard small film camera to a medium format is not a very even comparison from the get go. But the 135BC is quite close at recreating the magic of the original. For those that are into lomography will probably like this cameras very much. But it is far from a camera for everyone. Some love it, some hate it, some don't see the point while others laughs and ask what a hell is that. Thumbs up: Image feel Lightweight Comes close at recriating the magic of its bigger original Thumbs down: Non considering what type of cameras that this is. But a small one would be the lack of a filter thread. Want to help
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