@@letmebereal Don't worry about it, Mark. This is the internet, some people are just that way so they can feel a sense of power they don't have in real life.
I didnt know anyone else used that back window door for the back counter, ive been using it for a long time. Actually there is a cable release adapter for the holga, i use it, its a square plastic thing. I use the step ring on all my plastic cameras, holga 135, lomo konstructor, etc, its great for expanding the aperture capabilities of this camera using color and ND filters. I think everything u describe here ive been doing for a while, good to know someone else is doing it. I try not to use the hood, sometimes it blocks the field of view. I also use the green bubble thing, but depend really on my tripod more. The back door foam is one of the most useful things out of all, i think it helps the film a lot. I usually just stick tape on the back for what film im using and write description. I have a holga with the same leatherette too, coincidence. I think the only two things i dont use are the strap lugs and the eye piece. I also used to flak the insides of the cavity but dont see much difference. The one thing if u have light leaks is to place a tiny flat foam in the shutter box at the shutter button from the inside.
Thanks a lot, Stefan. I'm very curious to see the results as well. Especially about the lens hood effect on the vignetting. I've already burnt through that first roll of HP5 and once I finish another one I'll be developing them.
Thanks, my friend! Funny you mention the more non-digital grading. Long story on that that I figure you'll get a kick out of hearing. Short version is the last episode (the Maine shoot) fell victim to a corrupted card from the GoPro...so about 40% of the footage is from the cellphone recordings I made for Instagram. So I had to crop the vertical 16:9. I added the Super-8 sort of wash to the footage to help hide the noise and ended up liking it haha
@aiwazz977177 Now THAT will be interesting. I'll admit I have no idea what the width of that mount could be but I assume it would be similar to the 120Pan at 46mm. Feel free to let me know what works and I'll pin the comment here so other folks will know. Best of luck with it!
@@AdamWelch Thanks! I took some calipers to the plastic ring and the inner diameter is nearly bang on 47mm. Figure if its a little loose I can throw some CA glue at it.
That's awesome. Very interesting it's so close to the front diameter of the 120Pan lens. You'd think it might be a bit different but hey, simple enough. Famous last words.... Ha. What sort of filter were you thinking about mounting? The reason I ask is that anything larger than my small 49mm screw in filters like my square ND filters and such, I'll probably be permanently gluing that stepup ring to the front just as a precaution against the added weight.
@@AdamWelch Here's hoping it's simple! I was thinking of grabbing a couple 49mm screw in filters to use just for this camera. As it is, I don't have many filters laying around, so I'm not really trying to accommodate anything. Regardless, gluing it sounds like a good idea. Seems like it would make the whole thing a bit more solid and permanent.
@@rhohoho Very nice. Like I said let me know once you settle on a setup and I'll pin it here because I'm sure that's something people would like to know. I feel the same way about the glue as well. Once I screw in the square adapter then the filter holder then a square filter the weight will be a bit nose heavy.
Very nice video, love the final result, I look forward to a follow up on it to see if the pressure on the film with the foam was the right thickness for you.
Thanks, a lot for that, John! I think it's somewhere in this comment section but the foam I added likely needed to be about half the thickness, either that or an open-cell type with less friction. The film actually pulled the foam off the rear door of the camera and I've not added it back as of yet. I actually have an idea for a type of pressure plate but I've yet to actually build it. One thing I'll mention in case you are doing this yourself is that I THINK the hood I added MIGHT be throwing a bit of vignetting to one side. I still need to do another test roll to find out exactly what's causing the problem. I'll definitely be doing an update episode at some point outlining what I've learned or would change but overall I've been extremely satisfied with the mods I've made.
Hahahaha exactly. I've actually learned in the meantime that apparently you CAN pick and choose the locations for the mid-roll ads. I'm going to look into the options a bit deeper on the next upload. And glad to hear you liked it, man!
I appreciate the kinds words. And yes, I feel as if I made the shutter modification appear to be much more involved than it actually should have been. Don't let it deter you, though. I would also mention that there are a host of other ways of getting long exposures with any Holga that has bulb mode. There is the "chopstick" method...which is really just placing the end of a chopstick in between the shutter release to hold it open. Anything like that would work but definitely might introduce a bit more camera shake. Best of luck if you decide to try it!
I'm honestly intrigued. I think this is fascinating. I'm not brave enough to even attempt to mod a plastic camera. But admire those who have the courage and knowledge to experiment. I kind of want to attempt to repair a Holga. Have you done Holga repairs before/do you have a business that does this, or would offer tips? There is a Holga I want that is for parts, but I'm not exactly confident I could fix it. But tempted to, but wouldn't know where to begin.
I'd be more than happy to offer and help or advice I can. Oddly enough, I might be re-opening a sort of camera repair side business in the coming months now that I'm in a more stationary spot and can set up a real workshop. All that being said, Holgas are quite straight forward and there's not just too much that can go wrong which can't be either fixed or replaced. Depending on what your camera (or future camera is doing) I might be able to offer some ideas on what's going on.
@@AdamWelch thank you so much for responding. I decided to buy the for parts Holga. It’s coming from Australia, so it’ll take a while to get to me. But the issues with the camera is missing the flash connector piece that pops in on the flash Holga models- the narrow rectangular piece that pops in & has the 2 springs on it, is what I need. So I’ll unfortunately have to buy a cheap CFN Holga model just to get the part. The second issue is the shutter button has somehow popped out. So maybe the seller pulled apart the Holga at some point & couldn’t figure out how to get it back attached. I really hope these are easy to fixed, or it’ll be a bummer. I still think there’s hope. How can I be put in contact with you? (For advice/help) appreciate you!
@@BoxOfShockolates As for the shutter button, that's so strange. Like you said, it's possible that perhaps the owner disassembled the camera and the button just fell out. Which is quite easy since it literally just rests inside the housing of the shutter mechanism/lens attachment housing. So, unless it's physically broken, you should be able to just put it back in the camera and be good to go. You cdian see a bit of this during the part of my video on the Super Holga during the portion where I am working on the shutter button extension. I've never worked on a flash Holga but hopefully you can just switch out the entire portion from the other CFN and be ready to go with that as well. You can get in touch with me through my contact form at my website www.aphotographist.com That will go to my email.
@@AdamWelch hello again! It actually arrived today, so I’m going to mess around with it and see what I can achieve on my own first before pestering you. I’ll try not to need you. I’m excited to have it. It’s a limited edition purple with the glass lens. Thank you for being so responsive and friendly. It’s the southerner in you.
@@BoxOfShockolates Well I'm once again alarmingly behind on comments! And you're most welcome, anything I can help with let me know, but I'd have to say if anything it's the camera freak in me more so than any southern hospitality. 😅
Hey Bill, I certainly don't mean this as an evasion but it truly will depend on your idea of what's hard and what is easy. MANY people have done swaps for different lenses by replacing the original 90mm Holga lens with various 90mm Angulons along with helicoids or push/pull mechanisms for focusing. These are generally known as "Holganons" within the degenerate circles of my fellow Holga users. Usually these conversions keep the original cone of the 120Pan and since they maintain (roughly) the same focal distance it is one of the more straightforward conversions. These conversions range from "quick and dirty" to some extremely refined outfits. There are also others who begin work with a Holga 120 Pin Hole and fashion their own cones to fit varying focal length lenses. There's a comment thread somewhere here beneath this very video between a gentleman and I discussing this subject. We ever both came to the conclusion of a total retrofit using the bellows and lens/shutters from an Ikon or Bessa might be feasible as a sort of "mega conversion." Needless to say...and I mention it as sort of a personal caveat...should you start with this sort of thing it tends to spiral out of control. If you search "Holganon conversion" or similar phrases in Google you should find quite a few resources on the subject. I would post a few links but I feel like I would actually be limiting your search by doing so.
Adam, if you ever have an issue with yarn seals you could look at Buna n nitrile o-ring cord. It is sold by the foot, it comes in different diameters, and hardnesses and it will seal a bit against rain too.
@@AdamWelch You're welcome. I use the stuff quite a bit. There are adhesives that can be used to join the ends to form a complete o-ring if you want to get really fancy. I'm waiting to see the pics you get from this camera. I'm about to buy and modify my own soon.
@@johnfurr8779 At the risk of sounding like a used car salesman, there's is an episode using the Holga after the mods (with picture samples) here ruclips.net/video/WmNpjj2DwtI/видео.htmlsi=zdxIE7grMwtvMcly You'll probably notice some "lopsided" vignette left frame in a few of those. I'm fairly certain it was caused by extending the rubber hood and it being collapsed a bit on the right side. I actually sort of like it. All that to say I've got two more rolls ready to develop that should hopefully have that issue resolved. I'll do another episode showing the couple of small problems I ran into after the mod but overall everything has been working great. So I hope if you try what I've done here it'll go smoothly for you as well.
@@johnfurr8779 Oh and should you try modding yours before the other update episode comes out the only real problem was the foam film tensioners. You'll probably want to make them about half as thick as I show in the video. Either that or use an open cell foam as opposed to the type I used. There was far too much friction and the pads ended up detaching and rolled into the spool.
@@AdamWelch great I'll give that a view. I'm going a step further and will add a 90mm super angulon because I'm old school having begun photography in 1973, ergo I am not enamored with the holga look. Start with pristine and you can always create any other look you wish with filters, or post processing in PS I say.. but to those who like the look, knock yourselves out
I currently only use the #21 orange filter I show in the episode and my 100mm square ND filters. Most filters will resolve much finer than the Holga lens itself but always use the filters that make you the most comfortable.
Greetings! I'm lost regarding the reliability of the bubble, in your opinion is it functional or is it necessary to get an external bubble like you did? I thank you in advance
Extremely good question. I feel it's an issue of variance between each individual Holga camera and some of the built-in levels will be more accurate than others. The only way to check for sure is to use another leveling device (such as a torpedo level) to compare. Place the level on top of the camera and see if it closely matches the built-in bubble level. In practical terms, I don't think it's truly imperative to add additional levels like I have done here. Really, the main reason I added them was to protect the cold shoes, and having the built in levels was somewhat of a bonus. I seldom reference them when shooting, especially handheld.
Ok thank you very much, I have another question, since I have a small nut compatible with flexible shutters I was thinking of inserting it inside the front body, with the help of a precision drill. As far as you know, is this feasible and is there room for a hole or not? thank you so much, great vidio@@AdamWelch
@@Bellofigosium Hmmm just to make sure I understand correctly, you're asking if it would be possible drill a hole in the area of the current shutter lever on the Holga and add a threaded nut that can accept a cable shutter release right? If so, I think it SHOULD work. Depending on the size of the nut there will probably be room. Just be sure that the plunger of the cable release is long enough to pass through the nut and actuate the shutter mechanism of the Holga. This was an issue I ran into with this build.
I haven't as of yet developed anything from the same since the build. I'm going to put another roll through while I test the vignetting at different hood extensions. I'll give you a heads up of the results if there's an issue with scratching from the extra pressure.
I am a fan of the vignetting from these cameras, looking forward to the follow up video. Im new to your channel and your photography happy to have found you.@@AdamWelch
![Holga 120N Rundown & History - Celebrating 40 Years of the Plastic Fantastic [Instant Review]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-aMtpCzW5nY/mqdefault.jpg)
![Holga 120N Rundown & History - Celebrating 40 Years of the Plastic Fantastic [Instant Review]](/img/tr.png)
hard to believe but you did it. you actually made a crappy product even more crappy
You're*
🤣
How is it more crsppy?
@@letmebereal Don't worry about it, Mark. This is the internet, some people are just that way so they can feel a sense of power they don't have in real life.
@@AdamWelchhappy travels.
I didnt know anyone else used that back window door for the back counter, ive been using it for a long time. Actually there is a cable release adapter for the holga, i use it, its a square plastic thing. I use the step ring on all my plastic cameras, holga 135, lomo konstructor, etc, its great for expanding the aperture capabilities of this camera using color and ND filters. I think everything u describe here ive been doing for a while, good to know someone else is doing it. I try not to use the hood, sometimes it blocks the field of view. I also use the green bubble thing, but depend really on my tripod more. The back door foam is one of the most useful things out of all, i think it helps the film a lot. I usually just stick tape on the back for what film im using and write description. I have a holga with the same leatherette too, coincidence. I think the only two things i dont use are the strap lugs and the eye piece. I also used to flak the insides of the cavity but dont see much difference. The one thing if u have light leaks is to place a tiny flat foam in the shutter box at the shutter button from the inside.
Look forward to seeing some shots. Nice video.
Thanks a lot, Stefan. I'm very curious to see the results as well. Especially about the lens hood effect on the vignetting. I've already burnt through that first roll of HP5 and once I finish another one I'll be developing them.
Awesome video man! Love the editing style and audio
Thanks, my friend! Funny you mention the more non-digital grading. Long story on that that I figure you'll get a kick out of hearing. Short version is the last episode (the Maine shoot) fell victim to a corrupted card from the GoPro...so about 40% of the footage is from the cellphone recordings I made for Instagram. So I had to crop the vertical 16:9. I added the Super-8 sort of wash to the footage to help hide the noise and ended up liking it haha
@@AdamWelch I love it dude!! Awesome approach to a little set back
Great video!
Nice, and thank you! I'm going to try this ring adapter trick on my 120WPC.
@aiwazz977177 Now THAT will be interesting. I'll admit I have no idea what the width of that mount could be but I assume it would be similar to the 120Pan at 46mm. Feel free to let me know what works and I'll pin the comment here so other folks will know. Best of luck with it!
@@AdamWelch Thanks!
I took some calipers to the plastic ring and the inner diameter is nearly bang on 47mm. Figure if its a little loose I can throw some CA glue at it.
That's awesome. Very interesting it's so close to the front diameter of the 120Pan lens. You'd think it might be a bit different but hey, simple enough. Famous last words.... Ha. What sort of filter were you thinking about mounting? The reason I ask is that anything larger than my small 49mm screw in filters like my square ND filters and such, I'll probably be permanently gluing that stepup ring to the front just as a precaution against the added weight.
@@AdamWelch Here's hoping it's simple!
I was thinking of grabbing a couple 49mm screw in filters to use just for this camera. As it is, I don't have many filters laying around, so I'm not really trying to accommodate anything.
Regardless, gluing it sounds like a good idea. Seems like it would make the whole thing a bit more solid and permanent.
@@rhohoho Very nice. Like I said let me know once you settle on a setup and I'll pin it here because I'm sure that's something people would like to know. I feel the same way about the glue as well. Once I screw in the square adapter then the filter holder then a square filter the weight will be a bit nose heavy.
Very nice video, love the final result, I look forward to a follow up on it to see if the pressure on the film with the foam was the right thickness for you.
Thanks, a lot for that, John! I think it's somewhere in this comment section but the foam I added likely needed to be about half the thickness, either that or an open-cell type with less friction. The film actually pulled the foam off the rear door of the camera and I've not added it back as of yet. I actually have an idea for a type of pressure plate but I've yet to actually build it.
One thing I'll mention in case you are doing this yourself is that I THINK the hood I added MIGHT be throwing a bit of vignetting to one side. I still need to do another test roll to find out exactly what's causing the problem. I'll definitely be doing an update episode at some point outlining what I've learned or would change but overall I've been extremely satisfied with the mods I've made.
Great video! thanks for the tips
Thanks a lot, Andres! Glad you enjoyed it.
Love it Adam. Even watched the ads. Don’t worry about it. Gives a guy time to get a beer or whatever. :)
Hahahaha exactly. I've actually learned in the meantime that apparently you CAN pick and choose the locations for the mid-roll ads. I'm going to look into the options a bit deeper on the next upload. And glad to hear you liked it, man!
Great adaptions maybe 15mm x 18mm would be a better fit for the eye piece:) thank you for sharing
Not sure what you mean, Steve. Can you explain more about the eye piece remark?
Hi Adam at 26.03 you said and the screen reads the measurement was 180mm x 150mm thats roughly 6"x 7" . @@AdamWelch
Oof. Never realized the mistake. Thanks a lot for pointing that out.
No Worries Adam hope you didn't mind me mentioning it:)..@@AdamWelch
@@stevenwhite921 Oh not at all. I appreciate the heads up because I was so confused haha One of those funny mental slips.
Hi, what is the thickness of the black string?
The shutter release contraption is too tough for me. However grat video and thanks a lot for the other mods
I appreciate the kinds words. And yes, I feel as if I made the shutter modification appear to be much more involved than it actually should have been. Don't let it deter you, though. I would also mention that there are a host of other ways of getting long exposures with any Holga that has bulb mode. There is the "chopstick" method...which is really just placing the end of a chopstick in between the shutter release to hold it open. Anything like that would work but definitely might introduce a bit more camera shake. Best of luck if you decide to try it!
@@AdamWelch thank you so much, I will try that.
I'm honestly intrigued. I think this is fascinating. I'm not brave enough to even attempt to mod a plastic camera. But admire those who have the courage and knowledge to experiment. I kind of want to attempt to repair a Holga. Have you done Holga repairs before/do you have a business that does this, or would offer tips? There is a Holga I want that is for parts, but I'm not exactly confident I could fix it. But tempted to, but wouldn't know where to begin.
I'd be more than happy to offer and help or advice I can. Oddly enough, I might be re-opening a sort of camera repair side business in the coming months now that I'm in a more stationary spot and can set up a real workshop. All that being said, Holgas are quite straight forward and there's not just too much that can go wrong which can't be either fixed or replaced.
Depending on what your camera (or future camera is doing) I might be able to offer some ideas on what's going on.
@@AdamWelch thank you so much for responding. I decided to buy the for parts Holga. It’s coming from Australia, so it’ll take a while to get to me. But the issues with the camera is missing the flash connector piece that pops in on the flash Holga models- the narrow rectangular piece that pops in & has the 2 springs on it, is what I need. So I’ll unfortunately have to buy a cheap CFN Holga model just to get the part. The second issue is the shutter button has somehow popped out. So maybe the seller pulled apart the Holga at some point & couldn’t figure out how to get it back attached. I really hope these are easy to fixed, or it’ll be a bummer. I still think there’s hope. How can I be put in contact with you? (For advice/help) appreciate you!
@@BoxOfShockolates As for the shutter button, that's so strange. Like you said, it's possible that perhaps the owner disassembled the camera and the button just fell out. Which is quite easy since it literally just rests inside the housing of the shutter mechanism/lens attachment housing. So, unless it's physically broken, you should be able to just put it back in the camera and be good to go. You cdian see a bit of this during the part of my video on the Super Holga during the portion where I am working on the shutter button extension.
I've never worked on a flash Holga but hopefully you can just switch out the entire portion from the other CFN and be ready to go with that as well.
You can get in touch with me through my contact form at my website www.aphotographist.com That will go to my email.
@@AdamWelch hello again! It actually arrived today, so I’m going to mess around with it and see what I can achieve on my own first before pestering you. I’ll try not to need you. I’m excited to have it. It’s a limited edition purple with the glass lens. Thank you for being so responsive and friendly. It’s the southerner in you.
@@BoxOfShockolates Well I'm once again alarmingly behind on comments! And you're most welcome, anything I can help with let me know, but I'd have to say if anything it's the camera freak in me more so than any southern hospitality. 😅
awesome
Great video. I'm about a third of the way in. How hard would it be to replace the lens cone or place a different lens on the existing cone? Thanks.
Hey Bill, I certainly don't mean this as an evasion but it truly will depend on your idea of what's hard and what is easy. MANY people have done swaps for different lenses by replacing the original 90mm Holga lens with various 90mm Angulons along with helicoids or push/pull mechanisms for focusing. These are generally known as "Holganons" within the degenerate circles of my fellow Holga users. Usually these conversions keep the original cone of the 120Pan and since they maintain (roughly) the same focal distance it is one of the more straightforward conversions. These conversions range from "quick and dirty" to some extremely refined outfits. There are also others who begin work with a Holga 120 Pin Hole and fashion their own cones to fit varying focal length lenses.
There's a comment thread somewhere here beneath this very video between a gentleman and I discussing this subject. We ever both came to the conclusion of a total retrofit using the bellows and lens/shutters from an Ikon or Bessa might be feasible as a sort of "mega conversion." Needless to say...and I mention it as sort of a personal caveat...should you start with this sort of thing it tends to spiral out of control.
If you search "Holganon conversion" or similar phrases in Google you should find quite a few resources on the subject. I would post a few links but I feel like I would actually be limiting your search by doing so.
Btw Bill, I never got a notification for your membership. Thank you sincerely for being here and for your support!
Adam, if you ever have an issue with yarn seals you could look at Buna n nitrile o-ring cord. It is sold by the foot, it comes in different diameters, and hardnesses and it will seal a bit against rain too.
Hmmmm I had never heard of that. Very interesting indeed. Thanks a lot for the suggestion!
@@AdamWelch You're welcome. I use the stuff quite a bit. There are adhesives that can be used to join the ends to form a complete o-ring if you want to get really fancy. I'm waiting to see the pics you get from this camera. I'm about to buy and modify my own soon.
@@johnfurr8779 At the risk of sounding like a used car salesman, there's is an episode using the Holga after the mods (with picture samples) here ruclips.net/video/WmNpjj2DwtI/видео.htmlsi=zdxIE7grMwtvMcly
You'll probably notice some "lopsided" vignette left frame in a few of those. I'm fairly certain it was caused by extending the rubber hood and it being collapsed a bit on the right side. I actually sort of like it. All that to say I've got two more rolls ready to develop that should hopefully have that issue resolved. I'll do another episode showing the couple of small problems I ran into after the mod but overall everything has been working great. So I hope if you try what I've done here it'll go smoothly for you as well.
@@johnfurr8779 Oh and should you try modding yours before the other update episode comes out the only real problem was the foam film tensioners. You'll probably want to make them about half as thick as I show in the video. Either that or use an open cell foam as opposed to the type I used. There was far too much friction and the pads ended up detaching and rolled into the spool.
@@AdamWelch great I'll give that a view. I'm going a step further and will add a 90mm super angulon because I'm old school having begun photography in 1973, ergo I am not enamored with the holga look. Start with pristine and you can always create any other look you wish with filters, or post processing in PS I say.. but to those who like the look, knock yourselves out
What color filters do use on the beautiful Holga?
Cheapo's or expensive.
Cheers, life on the road is cool.
I currently only use the #21 orange filter I show in the episode and my 100mm square ND filters. Most filters will resolve much finer than the Holga lens itself but always use the filters that make you the most comfortable.
Greetings! I'm lost regarding the reliability of the bubble, in your opinion is it functional or is it necessary to get an external bubble like you did? I thank you in advance
Extremely good question. I feel it's an issue of variance between each individual Holga camera and some of the built-in levels will be more accurate than others. The only way to check for sure is to use another leveling device (such as a torpedo level) to compare. Place the level on top of the camera and see if it closely matches the built-in bubble level.
In practical terms, I don't think it's truly imperative to add additional levels like I have done here. Really, the main reason I added them was to protect the cold shoes, and having the built in levels was somewhat of a bonus. I seldom reference them when shooting, especially handheld.
Ok thank you very much, I have another question, since I have a small nut compatible with flexible shutters I was thinking of inserting it inside the front body, with the help of a precision drill.
As far as you know, is this feasible and is there room for a hole or not? thank you so much, great vidio@@AdamWelch
@@Bellofigosium Hmmm just to make sure I understand correctly, you're asking if it would be possible drill a hole in the area of the current shutter lever on the Holga and add a threaded nut that can accept a cable shutter release right?
If so, I think it SHOULD work. Depending on the size of the nut there will probably be room. Just be sure that the plunger of the cable release is long enough to pass through the nut and actuate the shutter mechanism of the Holga. This was an issue I ran into with this build.
Nice, thank you so much
my only concern about the foam on the door, have you noticed any horizontal scratches on your film?
I haven't as of yet developed anything from the same since the build. I'm going to put another roll through while I test the vignetting at different hood extensions. I'll give you a heads up of the results if there's an issue with scratching from the extra pressure.
I am a fan of the vignetting from these cameras, looking forward to the follow up video. Im new to your channel and your photography happy to have found you.@@AdamWelch
Did you use a metal or plastic step up ring?
Aluminum. The actual one uses is listed in the description.
@@AdamWelchthanks
😊
Holgalistic
Holgian.
Too Holgianate.
Holgatric?