So my business partner and I were on our way to the north end of town to evaluate a vendor for our business.  We were in a discussion, ironically, about purchasing film and camera stores.  Camera stores, as in real camera stores, are rare here in the area, especially on our end of the town.  I told him that The Camera Doctor was a really great place. Next thing you know, the store is right across from us as we sat at a red light.  We had to pay a visit!

I just couldn’t help myself.  The Holga is so much fun and after looking at a few photos that had been taken with this model, I snatched one up, along with a few rolls of film.  Can’t wait to see the results.

To begin, I have thoroughly enjoyed using Cokin filters with my Canon A1.  I have found that they produce a unique and raw result that I have been unable to authentically duplicate within the walls of Photoshop.  That being said, I thought an interesting exercise would be to use filters with the Holga.

Here is the catch: the filters I have for the Canon are plain colored filters.  The filters I have for the Holga are soft surround filters and there is a big difference.  I feel that a major mistake of mine was to use the soft surround filters with color film.  I was so excited when I ordered the Holga that I grabbed these when in reality, I truly wanted the plain color filters.  Not really a big deal.  After all, it is still a toy camera. 

According to Freestyle Photographic Supplies, the soft surround filters offer the following effect:

With a clear center, each of these four filters have a specially designed pattern designed to enhance the Holga’s natural focus vignetting. Drawing the eye toward the center of an image, these filters are excellent for a unique documentary, portrait and fine art style images. Set includes 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue, and 1 neutral density filter in soft surround.

My images appeared to have an enhanced Gaussian blur around the edges, almost similar to a cheesy Glamour Shots type effect, though not that extreme.  Granted, with the Holga’s light leaks, the soft filters can tie in some interesting effects.  However, with the color film, they produce an awkward image in my opinion.  For example, with the yellow filter, it produces a yellow ring around the image allowing the true color to come through the center of the image.  In some cases, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but in others, I felt that it dramatically altered the colors that I would have had otherwise.  As I said, the light leaks can alter the color pattern of the image, however, those are unplanned and have a certain appeal that only comes with being random.  When not thought out, the color soft filters feel too forced.

Some of my results from using the Holga soft surround filters can he found here:

Duck
This was shot with the yellow filter, which really enhanced the blur, especially since the focal point was already such a strong value of yellow.  You cannot really tell how the filter worked with the exception of the blur applied to what appears the entire image.

Wagon
As I mentioned earlier, the effects of the soft filter here did not help the image.  To me, it looks as if there was a giant stain or discoloration.  I would rather have had the light leaks on the film rather than the effects of the soft filters.

Dress
I believe I used the neutral density filter for this image.  You can see the muted tones around the image and the true color coming through the center.

BBQ Bug
I was not too disappointed with this image, actually.  Using the yellow filter, I felt that it kicked up the greens around the Volkswagen (Yea, they are cooking BBQ out of the back of that thing) and left the focal point alone in the center of the image.

Birdhouse
There were some obvious light leaks with this image, so the true effect of the filters might not have come through as they would have normally.  Still, I love the final effect.

I am certainly not saying that the filters are bad or that I regret my purchase.  Having seen film developed after using these I will certainly be more aware of the final shot before simply slapping them on.  Still, I believe that it is a good exercise to try any accessories without too much reserve so that you can truly understand what they add (or take away) from the image you had in your mind.

Many of my other Holga shots can be viewed via my Flickr account.

I looked at the Epson 4490 and the Canon 8800F and ended up purchasing the Canon 8800F.  I found it on Newegg.com for relatively cheap (About $185 shipped).  It scans 35mm, slides, and 120 film, which was a plus for me and my new Holga.  Since the lab decided to take a giant dump on my last 2 Holga rolls, I only had the first 3 rolls to experiment with.  Thankfully I had a ton of 35mm to experiment with as well.

The scanner is surprisingly quick on basic scans, much more so than my all-in-one Epson CX5800F, but in a way, I was expecting that.  The Canon came with three trays to hold the various film.  After installing the 4,000,867 versions of software that came on the install CD, I was off and running.  I tried scanning using the tray and without.  There is a small setting that needs to be changed in Advanced Mode that allows the scan without the tray.  I prefer that because it leaves the border in, something I actually like.  For example: 

My machine is not sluggish by any means, though it is not brand new either.  Regardless, the software (when scanning at very high resolutions) seemed to run into issues when scanning multiple large images at once and/or using other programs at the same time.  When I am running just the scanning software I run into zero problems and the speed is still acceptable.

I look forward to getting more film and exploring more into the realm of photography than I have before.  This little Holga and 35mm sure have sparked a new interest.

All in all, I am happy with the purchase.

So take a close look at the 2 rolls of film here.  Let’s have a little pop quiz, folks.  After you take a good look at the negatives, can you tell me what is missing?

If you said the pictures I took were missing from the negatives you win!  The fim, Ilford Delta 400 b&w was dropped off at the lab.  Rather than look into the film labels or call me, they assumed it was 120 C-41, which it was not.  This was a crash course for me as well today, but pay close attention.  There is a difference between 120 and 120 C-41 and that difference also dictates the chemicals and process used to develop the negatives.  What the lab did was assume it was C-41 and when they did so, they applied some chemicals which basically gave me two shiny rolls of plastic that you see here.  Nice, huh?  Thankfully my roll of 35mm was given to me at no charge (I still need to setup the Canon in order to see what exactly is on that roll).

So here is a lesson people, for those of you out there who are anything like me and just getting their feet wet with medium format photography, be sure to ask specific questions of your lab.  Asking “do you develop 120 film” is clearly not enough.

For those of you who shoot 120 film, where do you buy your film from?