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#571. The Monday Post (20 March 2017)
By Paul Perton | Monday Post
Big news! The Holga is being re-introduced.
There. That’s as much news value as I can possibly wring from that. If blurry film images are your thing, I’m sure you’ll be delighted.
Meh.
Slow week this week. We’re in the UK catching up with the family we didn’t see over Xmas. So, a shortie this week. I’m sure normal(?) service will resume next week.
Out of the blue, I sold my Fuji X100T last week. The buyer deposited the money into my bank so quickly that I thought I’d set the price too low, but it was already too late for that; it was gone. Hmmm.
Good move or not, I wondered? Were the planets in alignment and was it time to see if I could find an X100F to replace it?
I could. I did and it works like a charm – as expected.
I won’t bore you with specs, unboxing or the short(ish) set up. I’ve owned one before and for me there were just two items that had become critical: the 24mp sensor – as I crop many of my images into a square and some additional pixels would be most welcome. The second is Fuji’s Acros creamy black and white emulation.
This is what an initial run and lots of muscle memory have got me so far.
Oh yes. Nearly forgot; I’m over the moon with it.
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Hi Paul,
Really good B&W work you’ve posted here.
Regards
Sean
We used to have professors from the art department of our local university as jurors for our gallery’s annual photo expo. They loved anything shot with a crappy Holga. There was much displeasure expressed by the entrants and entries started to fall off. So, we got new jurors. Now we try to always have at least one professional photographer who makes his living from photography and one art professor. Haven’t had a complaint in the last two years since we started doing this, and this year we had a new record of 110 entries.
Hmm – well thankfully I’ve managed to get through almost an entire lifetime, without ever knowing such an object exists. So being completely ignorant, I looked it up. After reading several pages of comments like these, I remain unconvinced. I prefer the results from your new Fuji, Paul
1 – The Holga is a medium format 120 film camera, made in Hong Kong, known for its low-fidelity aesthetic. The Holga’s low-cost construction and simple meniscus lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions. The camera’s limitations have brought it a cult following among some photographers, and Holga photos have won awards and competitions in art and news photography.
2 – some photographers began using the Holga for its surrealistic, impressionistic scenes for landscape, still life, portrait, and especially street photography. These owners prized the Holga for its lack of precision, light leaks, and inexpensive qualities, which forced the photographer to concentrate on innovation and creative vision in place of increasingly expensive camera technology.
3 – Simply put, a Holga leaks light from all over. The film counter window, the metal clamps that hold the back, the camera edges, and even the inside of the camera is a shiny black finish causing unwanted light to bounce back all over the place. If you like light leaks, you are in for a treat.