Toy Story: The Holga 120CFN
My previous blog post focused on the most expensive camera in my collection, the Rolleiflex 3.5F. Today I’m looking at the least expensive camera I own, the Holga 120 CFN. Even if you haven’t shot with a Holga, chances are you’ve heard of it. These all-plastic toy cameras are extremely popular and even have a whole week dedicated to them each year, Holga Week. The Holga first appeared in 1982 in Hong Kong and was designed by Lee Ting-mo. In 2015 the factory producing the Holga closed down, but Lee Ting-mo had kept the tooling for the Holga 120 and in 2017 production of the camera began again. The original idea behind this plastic camera was to produce an affordable 120 film camera for working class families. However, the rapidly increasing popularity of 35mm film and availability of new foreign cameras all but eliminated the market for the Holga. Thus the manufacturer turned their attention to new markets outside of China. Within a few years, the Holga had become popular for exactly the reasons that it’s known as a pretty terrible camera.
My Holga 120 CFN
The Holga aesthetic of light leaks, blur, and vignetting is something that people either love or they hate. Whichever camp you fall into, there is no denying that these cameras are unique in their own way. Some Holga images have even won awards, such as the famous black and white photo of Al Gore taken by David Burnett during the 2000 presidential campaign. There are numerous models of the Holga 120 including some with flash, colour flash, twin lens and even a glass lens. You can find a list of the various models here.
The majority of Holga’s have a simple 60mm f/8 plastic lens and just two aperture choices, f/8 and f/11. These are denoted by a sun symbol or cloud symbol that you can switch between, although apparently this only makes a difference in post-2009 models. In cameras made pre-2009, the switching between the sun and cloud is said make no difference and that aperture is about f/13. Shutter speed is approximately 1/100th and there is a bulb mode which can be activated via a switch underneath the lens. Choose B for bulb mode or N for normal. Focusing is zone focus from approximately one metre to infinity. To focus just twist the ring to the symbol that you want, either one person (1 metre), three people (2 metres), group (6 metres) or mountain (10 metres to infinity. The shutter is fired using the button on the the right hand side next to the lens.
Focus options and Sunny or Cloudy Switch
As mentioned, almost the entire camera is plastic, with the exception of the metal clips that both hold the back door on, and function as strap lugs. It is not recommended to use these clips for a camera strap unless you want the entire back to fall off and your film to get ruined. They move up and down easily, just aren’t that sturdy and it’s wise to tape them up when using the camera. That brings me onto one of the other quirks of these cameras, the light leaks from the back door. If this is something you want to avoid then it is recommended to tape around the back door, or if light leaks are your thing, then you can leave it be. On flash models you can insert an AA battery behind the film mask on each side of the lens. The Holga comes with a 6x6 mask which will give you 12 exposures on a roll of 120 or a 6x4.5cm mask which gives 16 exposures. The red film counter window on the back door has a switch you allows you to select either 16 or 12 depending on which mask you are using.
Back of the Holga 120 CFN - 12 & 16 switch for film counter.
Battery location and film mask
On my colour flash model, there is a small switch on the back which activates the flash once you have the batteries installed. You then turn a knob on the top of the camera to select the colour of flash that you would like. The options are white, red, blue or yellow. The small viewfinder is set to the left of the camera which means that you need to account for some parallax error, as what you are seeing in the viewfinder is not necessarily how your image will turn out. Winding the film is via the plastic knob on the top right of the camera. You must remember to wind on after each frame, unless you want to intentionally double expose a frame.
I was inspired to pick up a Holga having seen some of the beautiful work that has been produced by Holga users during Holga week. I love the dreamy lo-fi quality of the images and thought that it would be a perfect theme park camera to capture some fun Disney images. The camera is ridiculously light which also makes it perfect for travel as you can throw it into a backpack and not even know it’s there. I only paid 25 euro for my Holga and recently tried it out properly on a trip to Disneyland Paris. To prep my Holga for the trip I stuck a little note to the bottom to remind me of the distances associated with the symbols, loaded up my film and the taped up the back door to avoid as many light leaks as possible.
My distance reminder
I put just two rolls of Kodak Gold 200 through the camera but having received the results this week, I wish I had shot more. I absolutely love the images that the Holga produced and I am impressed by how sharp some of them are. The centre of the lens does tend to be quite sharp and you can see the typical Holga vignetting at the edges. It looks like I had a small bit of light leak on the bottom corners of a few images but nothing too intrusive. Given that it was my first time properly using the Holga, I feel I did reasonably well in selecting the correct focus in most instances. The parallax error is visible in two images where i’ve caught people to the left of the frame. The best images were those taken in the bright daylight, the camera does start to struggle as it gets darker in the evening due to the limited aperture and shutter options. But in bright sunlight the Holga has produced some lovely results. I think the images have a very nostalgic feel to them and I can understand why people are drawn to this aesthetic.
Ultimately I brought the Holga with me for some fun, no frills photography but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the images. Of course the quality is never going to compete with a Rolleiflex, but it’s not meant to. This is definitely a camera that is simply about creativity and seeing what you can produce with a basic simple camera. It is unserious photography allowing you to let loose and enjoy the process. I’m also not inclined to bring something like the Rolleiflex to a theme park, but I’ll happily throw the Holga in a bag and get some fun medium format shots without constantly worrying about damaging the camera. I love the images so much that I’m looking forward to shooting with this little camera again and my eBay history may reveal a search for a glass lens version! This quirky little camera has stolen my heart and given how inexpensive they are, I highly recommend giving it a go.