I've been looking for lomo camera that is not too expensive for a while now, and now I'm thinking about buying a Holga camera (for €45,-). I want to use it for my trips to London and Budapest this summer. I do have some questions, though...

1. Are you able to make these lovely coloured pictures when you're not a professional photographer? So, is it hard to do?

2. What's the difference between a 35 or 120mm and a 'pinhole'?

3. How much does it cost to develop the films? I've heard that you can develop some films for lomo camera's in any photoshop for normal costs??

I've been looking for the answers all over the internet but I can't seem to find them in normal language that a photography-noob can understand.
So a little bit of help would be really usefull, thank you sooo much in advance!!

p.s; Please bare in mind that I'm not a professional photographer and not in the process of becoming one, so please don't tell me these camera's are shitty and that I'm better of buying one for €500,-

120mm film is a medium format film. it is larger than 35mm which is considered a small format film. if you looked at 120mm next to 35mm you will see that 35mm has those perforations along the sides which 120mm does not.

obviously you can't go to the drug store and pick up 120mm film so you'll have to get it off the internet.

i don't have a 120mm camera yet but i get all my film developed at a professional camera shop who sends my b&w and other weird nonsense out to a lab. but that's just this camera shop. and it's not cheap either but the drug store always fucks things up. i just took some 126 film in and i'm scared to think how much it's gonna set me back when i pick it back up. i guess it depends on where you go?

all i know about pinholes is they don't have a lens. hopefully bigmuff will come in here and enlighten us.

__________________

1. Yep totally, no professional skills are necessary.

2. As Glampetals said 35 and 120 are two different sizes of film. 120 film is bigger so you get photographs with wonderful detail. The Holga takes 120 but it can be converted to 35mm. Pinhole is a whole different kettle of fish and I'm not very clued up on it.

3. This will vary depending where you go, you'll have to find a place that does develop 120 film first, ask around. It's maybe a couple of pounds more than 35mm, so not mind blowingly expensive.

Envoking the knowledge aquired from resident KR photography expert bigmuff, if you want a medium format camera you might want to look at Lubitels or Seagulls on ebay. They can be bought for around the same price as your Holga but are a better quality camera all round.

However, if you're using it on holiday you might be better off with the hand held Holga, as the Lubitel/Seagull are tricky twin lens waist level viewfinder bastards.

You might already have a 35mm SLR but if not I'd really reccomend buying one off ebay, you can get one for around £20-30 that will give you great quality photos, different from the Holga, and frankly you will look really cool with it
I can highly reccomend the Olympus OM series.

Again, if you're not sure about setting apertures and stuff the Holga might be a better option for now.

Thank you for your kind responses .

So a 120 mm film is a bit more difficult/expensive to develop, but how about a 35 mm?

EDIT: What if I post some pictures of what photos I want to make with my camera and you tell me what camera to buy? :P


I know this is a fisheye (and I'm not looking for a fisheye camera), but I really like the colours in this one


The light in this one, with the darker edges.

Well any photo shop does 35mm film. I don't know where you stay but if it's a city I'm sure there will be a photo shop that does 120 as well. If you're in the middle of nowhere you can send off film to be developed but I'm not sure who you would send it to.

First of all, as anyone who knows me could've predicted pretty easily, I'm going to say - don't bother with a Holga. For 45 EUR you could pick up a pretty decent film SLR with a fast 50mm lens, or better still, a Lubitel or Seagull TLR.

My reasons for saying this are as follows:

1. The lovely colours you see on all the lomo websites are nothing to do with the cameras. It's the result of a film developing process called Cross-Processing, commonly known as Xpro. It's where you take pictures on silde film, but develop it as if it was print film.

2. The Holga is severely limited in the conditions you can use it in. It's only got two/three shutter speeds (1/100, 1/125, Bulb) and two aperture settings (f/8, f/11). This basically means it's only any good for shooting outdoors under pretty decent light. If you want to shoot indoors, you'll need a flash or a tripod.

3. Build quality. It's a plastic camera, and built to "toy" standards, so I wouldn't rely on it for a long trip if you have nothing else available.

4. The Lens design is by its very nature, a bit rubbish. Some people love it, but personally I see it as being a bit stupid. A lot of people think the corner vignettes and light flares make their photos look arty. I disagree.

5. 120 film is relatively difficult and expensive to get processed, compared to 35mm. Going to the extra hassle and cost just for a plasticcy camera with blurry pictures with weird flare all over them never really appealed to me to be honest.

My main suggestion would be to buy a cheap 35mm SLR like an Olympus OM10, Praktica, Zenit, Pentax etc. Usually for cheaper than a Holga, you get a solid, reliable camera with a pretty good quality fast lens that can be used in a wide range of conditions. If you're not willing to put up with the hassle of an SLR camera, I'd recommend one of the smaller 35mm rangefinder cameras like the Canonet or Olympus 35RC. I have a wee olympus Trip 35 which comes nearly everywhere with me, because it's just so easy to use and has a beautifully sharp lens on the front of it.

The main difference between 35mm and 120 film is the size of the negative. 35mm negatives are 36 x 24mm rectangles (I'm sure you'll have seen these negative strips), where 120 negatives are much bigger 60 x 60mm squares. The joy of 120 is that you get pretty much four times as much detail in a shot, and can effectively print up to double the size of a 35mm shot.

120 is the better performing film, but 35mm wins in terms of practical advantages. You can buy 35mm film in any supermarket, chemist, corner shop, tourist stall, and get it processed pretty much anywhere within an hour too. It's easier to load, easier to deal with, and much less likely for things to go wrong with. If you're inexperienced, I'd say definitely get a 35mm camera.

As for pinhole, it has nothing to do with film format etc. Pinhole basically means instead of having a lens, the camera just has a little tiny hole where the light comes through. To do pinhole photography, you really need a tripod and a whole lot of time. Even to take a picture in bright daylight, you would need to put your camera on a tripod for maybe a couple of minutes depending on the film speed you were using. Pinhole's fun, but definitely not something for a beginner, and especially not if you want holiday "snapshots".

The more I think about this, the more I would say get an Olympus Trip 35. It's a 35mm cam so you can process it easily. It has a really nice 40mm f/2.8 lens and a simple focusing system. It's got a selenium light meter, which means it sets the right exposure for you and doesn't need batteries. It's pretty well built, out of metal rather than plastic. And best of all, I'm willing to bet it'd be a hell of a lot cheaper than a Holga!

Have a look here:

olympus trip 35, Fotografie - analoog, Consumentenelektronica op eBay. Producten tegen lage prijzen op eBay.nl

Thank you so much bigmuff! I'm glad you told me about the colour-thing, I would be really disapointed if I had expect that from the Holga camera.

I already found a lot of Canonets and Olympus Trip 35's on Dutch Ebay-like websites for a few bucks, so thank you for the tips!!

Also, would you mind posting some pictures you made with your Olympus...?

EDIT: These look great (taken with a Trip 35)! : Google Afbeeldingen resultaat voor http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v707/dlo247/11670032.jpg

Jo, about the colour thing, if you haven't shot much film you might not realise what great results you can get from picking really nice film- for example the infamous Kodak Portra VC and even standard FujiSuperia has turned out nicely for me. And of course you can do the xpro thing.
Before I started messing around with cameras I'd seen the lomo photos and really believed you had to get those cameras for those effects, just total ignorance on my part.

Hellish: I'll ask for those filmrolls in my local camerashop, thanks

A little update on the camera purchase: I was talking about the Olympus with my mum, when she showed me her old camera. It's from the early 80's, a Yashica MF-1, 38mm. I've never heard of it, but do you think I could use something like that in stead of the Olympus? (just for messing around)
Maybe this sounds really stupid, but I'm just a noob

Yeah, I'd totally have a play with that Yashica and see how the pictures turn out! I'd even try some cross-processing too, before you go.

To try cross-processing, buy a roll of slide film (fuji velvia, sensia or reala). Shoot it, then when you go to your local lab, ask them specifically to C-41 process it. Ideally, put a label over the film cannister with "C-41" in massive black lettering so they don't forget! C-41 is the name for the normal process for regular colour film. Processing slide film like regular film leads to all the crazy colours.

As for my stuff...

Flickr: Search is all my stuff taken with the Trip 35 I think

35mm - a set on Flickr is everything I've taken with either a Trip 35 or Olympus OM10.

So I've been to the camerashop and the guy in the shop was familiar with crossprocessing. A Fuji Velvia costs €9.95 in the shop, but I found this one online for only €6.90. Fuji: Fuji Velvia 100F Professional 36 | Fotokonijnenberg

Is that one allright?

I'm sorry to be asking sooo much in this topic, but I'm a real no-know when it comes to photography... So thanks for the info and patience

Yeah, that velvia stuff should do the business. "Purist" photographers prefer Velvia 50, but if it's just for cross-processing, that should be fine :-)

to add to big muff's fine response...jsut any shitty cheap instamatic camera will do...really. it also is less likely to have light leaks. if you really want that shitty lens quality lo-tech look, just use an old hanimex or any of those plastic cameras.

i do love 120 film though but i can process that myself at home.

i love holga, it makes everything look like it has a purpose or something like that

It gives talentless photographers the false impression they're talented because they have some stupid light splurges on their photos that they didn't get with their little shiny compact cameras.

... Just my opinion of course

I've bought 3 films of Fuji Sensia this morning. I wanted Velvia films, but they were out of stock. And since my mom went me with me her car to a superbig camerashop out of town I just went for Sensia, 100 ISO (I had no idea what I had to buy so I just went for the cheapest...). I'm going out to take pictures this afternoon.
The package says that this film is for daylight only, but what happens if I use it in the dark? Just plain black pictures or perhaps some freaky effects?

Film speed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bacically all you need to know for now is low ISO is for when there's a lot of light and the less light there is the higher ISO you need. So 1600 would be for when it's very dim indeed.

I tend to just use 200 or 400 and they work in most daytime outdoor conditons. You'll be fine with the 100 if it's sunny.

p.s. remember to set the meter