Holga 135BC - 1st Impressions
The 135BC arrived last week along with 5 rolls of 35mm film!
This mini 35mm holga is very light and I love the design, its a fair bit smaller than the original Holga medium format cams.. Loading with 35mm film was very easy and all functions are clear and simple to use. There is a switch for “Bulb” or “Normal” shutter speed, flash hot shoe, focusing ring, sunny(f11)/cloudy(f8) aperture switch, tripod screw mount and cable release connection. I was very keen to load and start shooting, many photos in this test roll were shot inside the night I opened the box. I have a standard Holga Flash that works great with all the 120 Holgas and I was happy with the results under flash light on the 135BC, you can grab a Holga Flash from Amazon.com for real cheap: Holga Manual Shoe Mount Flash!
Composing shots made me think differently to using a Holga 120 as the format is not square in these new 35mm models. Considering I went for the black corners model - 135BC - I was expecting pronounced vignetting on almost all shots, I was very surprised to see almost a complete lack of this effect! I would like to test this further, its winter in Melbourne and hard to catch some sunlight so perhaps sunnier conditions could lead to more vignette. The freedom of having 24+ shots rather than 12 (standard 120 film) was cool. Im still a believer that 120 film is more suited to lomo photography and helps to produce dreamy deep and moody shots in a way unlike 35mm film.
Here are some shots from the 135BC (Agfa 200 ISO 35mm Color Negative Film):
Light Shade: Cloudy (f8) with Flash
Russel Street Melbourne: Cloudy (f8)
Graffiti Truck
Holgas, Kershaw folding camera from the 1950s and a Diana
Multiple Exposure
Overall this is a sweet little camera, and a nice addition to the Holga family.. The photos from this 1st roll are not as amazing as 120 photos from the other holga models, but the softness of a plastic lens and the slight vignette in these shots make it classic holga!
Holga 135 - 35mm Editions are now available worldwide on eBay too and other crazy stuff for your holga like a fisheye lens!
Search now for Holga 135 on eBay
Let everyone know what you think of the 135BC by leaving a comment below..
Hola! Thanks for leaving a comment on my post.
Firstly the vignette is present but not that pronounced with negative film, like in your first roll. I find the vignette to be much heavier when I use slide film.
Next, take a look at the mask inside your camera when you are next out of film. If it is a white mask with concentric cut out circles I think the vignette is slightly heavier, if it is a solid plastic piece then the vignette is less pronounced. Both are part of the BC (black corners) range of the Holga 135.
I prefer shooting with the Diana+ — I think I like square format a LOT but like you said with 35mm the number of photos you get to take is fantastic!
Check out the Holga 135BC group on flickr.com — join us!
Wowh! Really interesting. I’m waiting for my Holga 135BC
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!