This week, the class ventured into the strange and exciting world of the
Holga camera. These rudimentary plastic cameras have the most simple construction and controls. They have a plastic lens, providing a mysterious and (sometimes) unpredictable focus and vignette. They have a simple shutter, and a molded plastic body that sometimes leaks.
Anyway, students checked out cameras last night and loaded their first rolls of medium format film. It's fun for me, as an instructor, to see all those excited faces. It's kind of like my students are realizing there still more to discover about photography. Yes, there's lot's more!
I've used a Holga, but I love all old plastic cameras. First, they are so simple and easy to use. But there's also something mysterious. You rarely know what you are going to get (sometimes nothing, sometimes something amazing). Even the focusing screens look mysterious and moody.
My first medium format camera was this model, an Imperial Reflex. It was only $5 at a pawn shop.
But, when I took it home, I realized it didn't fit 120 film This camera was designed for the older size of film, 620. However, the film is the exact same size! It's just the spool that's different because it used to be made of metal instead of plastic. The plastic being a little thicker didn't quite fit.
First, I tried sanding the ends of the film to make it fit. But that was LOTS of work!
So, I got out the tools. I shaved a little bit out of the inside of the camera so that the film could fit.
It fits!
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Twin twin lens reflexes!
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I later got a second of the same camera model, but never adapted it for 120 film. You can see the second one still doesn't fit 120 film. On the left, my trusty original, with modified inside wall.
Even though I could fit the film in, I couldn't reshape the camera at the take-up spool position, so I had to re-use the original metal spool for every roll. This was fine when I was around the house and near my darkroom (I could reuse it after I processed each roll). But, when I was out in the field I had an issue.
When traveling, I didn't have any spare metal reels for a take-up spool. Fortunately, Italy and much of Europe comes equipped with shuttered windows that can nearly black out a room. So … with shutters drawn in dead of night, I carefully unrolled and each days film and rerolled it onto a spare plastic spool, thus freeing the lone metal spool for the next day's roll. Yes, that's only one roll of film per day! It's hard for me to imagine that today, when I typically would use 10-20 rolls per day in similar situations.
Anyhow… Here's some pictures from that old plastic camera, so long ago.
